When Positivity Pays Off: Rhetorical Complementarity and Crowdfunding Performance

Abstract

This study examines how different linguistic styles of entrepreneurial pitches complement one another to enhance the persuasion of pitches, which in turn, affects crowdfunding performance. Combining rhetoric theory and signaling theory, I posit that rhetoric that evokes emotional appeals—optimistic languages in particular—increases crowdfunding performance when combined with rhetoric of reasoning and credibility. The model was tested in a sample of 20,709 Kickstarter campaigns in 2016. Results show that optimistic languages, when employed with the rhetoric elaborating on the rationality of the campaign, improve crowdfunding performance. Crowdfunding performance is also increased when optimistic languages are coupled with the rhetoric that strengthens entrepreneurs’ credibility. This study shows that the signaling effects of rhetoric lie in the complementarity of multiple linguistic styles.