Does more crowd participation bring more value to crowdfunding projects? The perspective of crowd capital

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on investigating the impact of crowd participation on degree of project success, which is defined as the total amount of funds a project can obtain after it reaches its initial funding goal threshold. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the theory of crowd capital, this study develops six hypotheses about the impact of crowd capability of a fundraiser (i.e. project updates, goal setting, reward levels and social media usage) and crowd participation (i.e. namely, funds pledge and on-site communication) on degree of project success. The hypotheses are tested using data sets of successful projects collected from two popular crowdfunding websites. Findings This study finds that funds pledge has an inverse U-shaped relationship with degree of project success. Project updates, reward levels and on-site communication positively influence degree of project success, while funding goal negatively affects degree of project success. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to prior literature by investigating the degree of project success determinants using the perspectives of both fundraisers and crowds, which provides a more comprehensive understanding of what makes a crowdfunded project a success. Practical implications The empirical results of this study provide fundraisers with guidelines about how to access more funds after achieving the initial funding goals. Originality/value This work is one of the first to investigate the degree of project success and its determinants from the perspectives of both fundraisers and crowds.