Technology Acceptance In Crowdfunding Among Retailers

Abstract

Crowdfunding is currently Malaysia's fastest growing source of alternative finance for companies. It is an enticing opportunity for entrepreneurs with innovative ideas who would not otherwise have found capital to leverage the power of the audience to bring goods and projects from the ground. Crowdfunding has traditionally been the go-to funding solution for individuals, startups and entrepreneurs. But more recently, retailers and larger companies have been using crowdfunding as an investment route, market research tool or promotional technique. The obvious attraction of crowdfunding for retailers is that it sidesteps the need to convince a bank or investor you can make their investment worthwhile. But the rewards of the crowdfunding model are not just financial. A crowdfunding campaign can raise awareness of a brand or product, deliver valuable information about demand for a product or service, and create an already established customer base once a campaign is complete. Hence, this research focused on determining the factors that could influence the prospective retailers' intention to collect fund from crowdfunding platform. The research selected the UTAUT model to determine the prospective retailer's intention toward collecting fund to the crowdfunding project. There were four independent variables, namely performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and reliability. The intention of the prospective retailer was selected as the dependent variable. With respect to the literature review, four hypotheses were developed in this study. To test the developed hypothesis in this study, descriptive research was adopted by applying a self-administered questionnaire distributed to respondents. For this study, convenience sampling was selected, whereby 379 respondents responded and answered the questions. All the independent variables have shown that they were positively significant to the intention of the prospective retailer. Hence, the intention of prospective retailer is influenced by performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and reliability. This research successfully contributed to the knowledge in this field by applying the UTAUT factor in the context of crowdfunding for expanding retail business. Regarding practitioners in this field, this research could act as a guideline or reference to enhance the retailer's intention to collect fund in a crowdfunding project. Lastly, for policymakers, it is hoped that this research could be used as a standard and reference for future crowdfunding initiatives by the government.