An Empirical Study on the Determinants of Success of Crowdfunding Projects

Abstract

Crowdfunding is a way to finance a project in a short time, but it is not easy to develop a successful project. In this study, the authors investigated success determinants of crowdfunding projects by focusing on different categories and the interaction effect of staff pick and video. The authors used econometric analysis for investigating projects of the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. They found that the funding goal has a negative influence on the probability of success of the crowdfunding project, but the pledged money has a positive influence on all data and by category. The effect of video for staff pick projects is greater than for non-staff pick projects, in art and comic projects. However, the effect of video for staff pick projects is less than for non-staff pick projects, in craft, fashion, food, games, music, photography, and publishing models. These findings are of high interest for practitioners and researchers in the field and extend the knowledge on crowdfunding platforms in several categories and on interaction effects.