Backers: Personal branding or material benefit?

Abstract

Crowdfunding, as a special segment of the sharing economy, is a relatively young phenomenon. The researchers' attention is particularly drawn to the examination of factors that motivate backers to offer funds through a certain digital platform to those who need them, in order to finance a certain project. The aim of this paper is to analyze and test the differences between two broadly defined groups of motives: the motive for creating personal branding and the motive for gaining material benefits, both at the level of the entire sample, as well as at the level of narrower categories defined for different socio-economic groups of respondents. In order to achieve that goal, a survey was conducted. The results of the conducted analysis indicate that, at the level of the entire cause, as well as at the level of a larger number of narrower categories, there is a statistically significant difference in the motives for participation in group financing, in the sense that (potential) backers are dominantly motivated by achieving a certain form of material benefit compared to building personal branding.