Predicting online donation intention in donation-based crowdfunding apps: a multi-stage SEM-ANN-NCA model integrating anthropomorphism, satisfaction, trust, and privacy concerns

Abstract

ABSTRACT Crowdfunding is an information-technology-assisted model of amassing moderately small contributions/donations to solicit funds from a large pool of donors online. While the nonprofit marketing literature is mostly focussed on donation intentions, empirical evidence on online donation intention (ODI) in the context of donation-based crowdfunding mobile apps remains insufficient. This research predicts the key factors influencing the ODI in donation-based crowdfunding apps. The authors collected 759 responses and applied integrated SEM-ANN-NCA (structural equation modelling-artificial neural network-necessary condition analysis) approach to analyze the data. While predicting ODI, online anthropomorphism was established as the strongest antecedent of ODI followed by online satisfaction, online trust, online privacy concern, and income. From the practical and managerial perspectives, one of the key implications is that donation-based-crowdfunding-app developers should acknowledge the relative importance and necessary condition of factors derived from the suggested model to uncover positive ODI of donors. Such understanding seems long overdue, and therefore, our study is a first step toward conceiving a new model for predicting ODI in the crowdfunding app for potential donors. This study offers significant managerial implications for marketers who wish to provide an ideal experience to donors seeking crowdfunding apps by emphasizing the role of specific predictors. The findings of this study offer insightful predictions for charities to promote ODI and further guide marketing practitioners, including crowdfunding-app developers who desire to promote charitable giving on donation-based crowdfunding apps.