Unpacking the Antecedents of Crowdfunding Campaign’s Success: The Effects of Social Media and Innovation Orientation

Abstract

We applied a capabilities view as the theoretical underpinning to investigate the integrative role of orientation (IO) and the strategic use of social media (SSM) on a firm’s crowdfunding campaign success (CFS). We suggest that IO promotes a firm’s ability to succeed with crowdfunding campaigns, and that this relationship is mediated by the SSM. To check our contentions, we surveyed professionals from 322 firms that conducted crowdfunding campaigns. For IO and SSM, we used preexisting scales, while for CFS we created and validated our own seven‐item scale. We found that IO alone does not fully account for CFS, but rather its effect is based on a firm’s ability to SSM. Our findings contribute to the literature on strategic entrepreneurship, media strategy, and public policy.