Crowdfunding Success Research Articles

Analysis of Online Crowdfunding Among Patients Pursuing Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in the United States.

Use of online crowdfunding to mitigate health-related cost burden is common in the US, but its usage among candidates for metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) is unknown. We aimed to identify GoFundMe campaigns fundraising for MBS and characterize sources of financial strain. We also aimed to determine factors associated with successful crowdfunding. We searched GoFundMe for campaigns fundraising for MBS. Data items were extracted by two investigators with disagreements resolved by a third. We assessed associations between these data items and category of money raised using ordered logistic regression. We identified 539 campaigns, of which 33.6% were raising funds for sleeve gastrectomy, 24.1% for Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, and 2.0% for biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch. Most campaigns were created by the patient (73.1%) who had health insurance (53.4%) and at least one obesity-associated disease (56.8%). Over half (53.6%) sought funds for a direct medical expense and 35.1% sought funds for a non-medical expense, which included lost wages (15.6%), food (10.8%), transportation (10.2%), childcare (7.1%), and/or housing (5.8%). The median requested was $8000 (IQR 10,440) and the median raised was $860 (IQR 3173). The majority (63.1%) of campaigns earned less than 25% of their requested amount. Campaigns that shared mental health-related disease (aOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.32-0.95) and non-surgical attempts to lose weight (aOR 0.59, 95% CI 0.37-0.94) had lower odds of raising a higher category of money compared to campaigns not disclosing these details. Patients pursuing MBS in the US use online crowdfunding to subsidize both medical and non-medical expenses, but the majority of campaigns are unsuccessful. Our study highlights unmet financial need among MBS candidates.

Audio Features and Crowdfunding Success: An Empirical Study Using Audio Mining

Crowdfunding videos have become a crucial tool for entrepreneurs seeking financial support, with audio design playing a critical role in attracting potential investors. However, research on how audio features influence crowdfunding success remains limited. This study uses audio analysis techniques to examine data from 4500 crowdfunding campaigns on the Kickstarter platform between 2013 and 2016, investigating the impact of audio features on crowdfunding success rates. Grounded in the signaling theory, we posited four hypotheses suggesting that speech rate, loudness, pitch, and emotional arousal would each exhibit an inverted U-shaped relationship with crowdfunding success rates. Through data analysis, we found that moderate levels of speech rate, loudness, pitch, and emotional arousal significantly enhanced crowdfunding success, whereas extremes in these vocal characteristics had a detrimental effect. Our findings not only extend the application of audio analysis in the crowdfunding domain, but also provide empirical evidence for the influence of audio features on crowdfunding success. This research offers practical guidance for project initiators in developing promotional strategies and for platforms in optimizing user experience.

Impact of Image Content on Medical Crowdfunding Success: A Machine Learning Approach.

As crowdfunding sites proliferate, visual content often serves as the initial bridge connecting a project to its potential backers, underscoring the importance of image selection in effectively engaging an audience. This paper aims to explore the relationship between images and crowdfunding success in cancer-related crowdfunding projects. We used the Alibaba Cloud platform to detect individual features in images. In addition, we used the Recognize Anything Model to label images and obtain content tags. Furthermore, the discourse atomic topic model was used to generate image topics. After obtaining the image features and image content topics, we built regression models to investigate the factors that influence the results of crowdfunding success. Images with a higher proportion of young people (β=0.0753; P<.001), a larger number of people (β=0.00822; P<.001), and a larger proportion of smiling faces (β=0.0446; P<.001) had a higher success rate. Image content related to good things and patient health also contributed to crowdfunding success (β=0.082, P<.001; and β=0.036, P<.001, respectively). In addition, the interaction between image topics and image characteristics had a significant effect on the final fundraising outcome. For example, when smiling faces are considered in conjunction with the image topics, using more smiling faces in the rest and play theme increased the amount of money raised (β=0.0152; P<.001). We also examined causality through a counterfactual analysis, which confirmed the influence of the variables on crowdfunding success, consistent with the results of our regression models. In the realm of web-based medical crowdfunding, the importance of uploaded images cannot be overstated. Image characteristics, including the number of people depicted and the presence of youth, significantly improve fundraising results. In addition, the thematic choice of images in cancer crowdfunding efforts has a profound impact. Images that evoke beauty and resonate with health issues are more likely to result in increased donations. However, it is critical to recognize that reinforcing character traits in images of different themes has different effects on the success of crowdfunding campaigns.

The Role of Entrepreneur’s Face Disclosure on Crowdfunding Success

The evaluation of crowdfunding campaigns varies from person to person; some investors are more interested in the project’s creativity, and others are more concerned with the profiles of entrepreneurs. The study investigated how entrepreneurs’ face disclosure influenced the success of crowdfunding. Secondary data were collected from multiple crowdfunding platforms for projects in Africa. That is, cross-country data from 54 African countries, to overcome data limitations from a single country. An econometrics analysis revealed that the facial disclosure of entrepreneurs increases the probability of crowdfunding success by 3%. Images, videos, and backers had a positive influence on the success of crowdfunding. On the contrary, the duration of the crowdfunding campaign was negatively associated with its success. To reduce the knowledge asymmetry between creators and backers, those prepared to start a crowdfunding project must provide as much information as possible to show their abilities. This study contributes to understanding the role of disclosing an entrepreneur’s profile on economic exchanges to the success of online crowdfunding.

Culture, international stakeholders, and crowdfunding

AbstractResearch SummaryInternational crowdfunding platforms present a unique opportunity for foreign entrepreneurs to attract stakeholders, typically from either the entrepreneur's home‐country or the platform's host‐country. We argue that success in mobilizing these stakeholders is culturally dependent. Specifically, cultural distance from the platform's host country can impede the mobilizing of home‐country stakeholders. Conversely, while attracting host‐country stakeholders may appear advantageous, these benefits are uncertain and limited for culturally‐proximal entrepreneurs. This is because their offerings are seen as less distinct compared to host‐country local offerings while introducing additional information asymmetries. Given these dynamics, we theorize that culturally‐distant entrepreneurs have better fundraising prospects when attracting host‐country backers, while culturally‐proximal entrepreneurs are more successful when mobilizing home‐country backers. Our analysis of 55,266 foreign projects on Kickstarter supports these arguments.Managerial SummaryThis study examines how cultural differences affect the success of entrepreneurs using non‐local crowdfunding platforms. We find that entrepreneurs from countries that are culturally distant from the platform's host‐country are more successful when they focus on attracting backers from the platform's host‐country. In contrast, entrepreneurs from culturally similar countries do better when they mobilize supporters from their home country. For practitioners, this means that understanding cultural distance is key to successful crowdfunding. Entrepreneurs should tailor their outreach strategy based on their cultural distance from the platform's host country. Those from culturally‐distant regions should prioritize backers from the platform's country, while those from culturally similar regions should focus on home‐country supporters to maximize their fundraising success.

The Influence of Fixed and Flexible Funding Mechanisms on Reward-Based Crowdfunding Success

This study examined whether fixed or flexible funding mechanisms influence crowdfunding success. Under the fixed funding mechanism, the pledges contributed to the crowdfunding campaign projects are returned to the backers if the project fails, whereas, under the flexible funding mechanism, the project creator can keep all the raised pledges, irrespective of whether the project succeeds or fails. Secondary data consisted of reward-based crowdfunding projects retrieved from The Crowd Data Centre. Logistic regression was employed to respond to research objectives. The results reveal that the fixed funding mechanism increases the probability of success more than flexible funding. Entrepreneur experience, spelling errors, and project description negatively affect crowdfunding success, and backers positively affect crowdfunding success. The findings guide entrepreneurs seeking financing to design and choose an appropriate funding mechanism that effectively reduces the failure rate. Although many entrepreneurs seek funding in the crowdfunding market, relatively little research has been conducted on the influence of flexible or fixed funding mechanisms on crowdfunding success in Africa. This study provides entrepreneurs with appropriate financing strategies that enhance crowdfunding success. The empirical literature indicates that the flexible funding mechanism creates distrust among backers due to unrealistic target amounts.

How signal portfolios affect success in equity-based crowdfunding: Evidence from the Chinese hotel industry

While most crowdfunding studies predominantly explore the success factors of reward-based crowdfunding, this research studies the efficacy of composite signal portfolios. Specifically, we investigate how bundles of substantive signals—comprising product- and firm-relevant information—and rhetorical signals—grounded in language-based information—affect the performance of equity-based hotel crowdfunding. By analyzing objective data from 512 equity crowdfunding projects within the Chinese hotel industry, our findings indicate that the combination of product- and firm-related substantive signals, such as price and team size, enhances both the amount and percentage of equity-based crowdfunding. Furthermore, our results unveil that the combination of product-related substantive (price) and rhetorical (emotional appeal) signals significantly contributes to equity-based crowdfunding success. These findings not only contribute to the existing literature on hotel crowdfunding but also offer strategic implications for equity-based crowdfunding managers in the hotel industry.

The role of platform stakes in equity crowdfunding success

This study examines the influence of platform characteristics — ownership stakes and underwriting fees — on the outcomes of equity crowdfunding campaigns and their ability to attract subsequent funding. Analyzing data from 2016 to 2022 across all U.S. equity crowdfunding platforms, our findings reveal that while platform ownership stakes positively correlate with immediate campaign success and follow-on funding, underwriting fees negatively impact success. However, these correlations weaken or reverse when analyzing the varying stakes taken within an individual platform like Wefunder and StartEngine. The findings highlight the importance of using multiple platforms in analyzing the impact of platform stakes on success.

Bibliometric Analysis of Islamic Crowdfunding: A Literature Review of Its Journey

Background The potential of Islamic crowdfunding to encourage the development of Islamic fintech globally, even in countries with non-Muslim majority populations, needs to be examined in a literature study on this issue. More extensive research is needed regarding the factors that most reliably predict the success of Islamic crowdfunding, such as compliance with Islamic crowdfunding laws, sustainability, and the potential of Islamic finance. This article describes a comprehensive and systematic Literature Review (SLR) regarding papers published in the field of Islamic crowdfunding. This research aims to contribute to a better understanding of Islamic crowdfunding, provide useful information for practitioners, and stimulate further research in the field to increase the success of Islamic crowdfunding. Methods We conducted a review of selected papers to identify gaps and significant issues in Islamic crowdfunding, providing guidance for future researchers. This article review was based on 704 articles retrieved using the keyword “Islamic crowdfunding” from the Scopus database between 2013 and 2022. To minimize bias, we formulated 5 research questions to guide our analysis: RQ1: How do publication and citation rates vary annually? RQ2: How can we determine the most influential studies based on citation counts for each keyword? RQ3: What are the most common subject areas addressed in Islamic crowdfunding literature from 2013 to 2022? RQ4: What are the most frequently used keywords in Scopus documents? RQ5: How are Islamic values discussed in articles related to Islamic crowdfunding? Results The findings of this research demonstrate that Islamic crowdfunding, characterized by interdisciplinary scholarship, has emerged as an increasingly significant alternative for aiding society and the economy. It contributes to poverty alleviation and the development of specific sectors through channels such as crowdfunding for small and medium enterprises and social projects tailored to meet the diverse needs of Muslims. However, the challenge facing the future development of Sharia crowdfunding is that, despite its benefit of increasing community participation in projects aligned with religious values, it also carries the potential risk of investment losses and non-compliance with Sharia principles. Ways to address the current scarcity of Sharia fintech are also needed, ensuring its broader acceptance across all societal levels, and enhancing Muslims’ understanding of compliance with Islamic religious rules, particularly Fiqh law. Conclusion Urgently needed are specific fiqh regulatory guidelines to ensure that Sharia-compliant crowdfunding adheres to Islamic principles. Government support, particularly through legislation in countries where the majority of the population is Muslim, is crucial to enhance public participation and trust in Sharia crowdfunding.

On the Status Quo, Problems and Countermeasures of Crowdfunding Publishing in China

Abstract Under the background of the Internet, many new publishing methods have been developed, and crowdfunding publishing is one of them. Crowdfunding publishing breaks the one-way static publishing environment of traditional publishing, and at the same time extends the traditional publishing industry chain, injecting new vitality into China’s publishing industry. By analyzing the larger crowdfunding platforms and crowdfunding publishing cases in China, this paper focuses on the development status and problems of crowdfunding publishing in China and tries to provide effective suggestions on the problems. Crowdfunding publishing has been developing in China for ten years, has attracted widespread attention in the industry from the very beginning. Moreover, it has developed rapidly in the context of crowdfunding economy, forming a relatively mature crowdfunding platform and model, with an increasing number of successful crowdfunding publishing projects demonstrating a certain degree of influence. However, China’s crowdfunding publishing is still in the early stage of development due to the imperfect laws and regulations of crowdfunding publishing, the profit model has not yet been successfully explored, and individual self-marketing is greater than quality content production. Only by strengthening the operation and construction of comprehensive crowdfunding platforms, striving to build vertical specialized crowdfunding platforms, and focusing on the publications themselves and content innovation, can China’s crowdfunding publishing break through and grow?

Success or failure of online crowdfunding: exploring the impact of project characteristics and market competition

Success or failure of online crowdfunding: exploring the impact of project characteristics and market competition

Supply Chain Narratives and the Success of Crowdfunding

Supply Chain Narratives and the Success of Crowdfunding

Green Orientation &amp; Crowdfunding Success of Green Projects: Role of Project Characteristics

Green Orientation &amp; Crowdfunding Success of Green Projects: Role of Project Characteristics

Understanding Crowdfunding Success and Subsequent Campaigns

Understanding Crowdfunding Success and Subsequent Campaigns

Predicting Equity Crowdfunding Success

Equity crowdfunding has grown exponentially in the United States since the passage of the JOBS Act in 2013, yet it continues to be a research area that is relatively unexplored in the United States due to the limited availability of data. U.S equity crowdfunding campaigns are notoriously unsuccessful, and this paper develops a predictive model for equity crowdfunding success to determine whether the positivity of the language used, and the length of the campaign description influences an investor’s decision to invest. A model is developed on a balanced training set and applied to a test set, and the overall results are evaluated using a confusion matrix to determine the accuracy, precision, and recall of the model. Our overall results indicate that both the tone of sentiment and the length of the campaign description are predictive of an equity crowdfunding campaign’s success. Specifically, the potential investors appear to be attracted to positive campaign descriptions that are written with concise language.

Are we on the same wavelength? Interdimensional signal set and crowdfunding success

AbstractResearch SummaryUsing data from 1899 Kickstarter campaigns (2009–2019), we examine the impact of simultaneous emission of interdimensional signals of human capital and social causes on crowdfunding campaign success. We argue and demonstrate that backers respond positively to human capital signals, as reflected by prior work and entrepreneurial experiences, as they communicate the competencies of the entrepreneurs. Conversely, signaling a high level of commitment to social causes communicates competing demands, thereby reducing entrepreneurs' ability to secure funding. Moreover, when emitted jointly, interaction of these two signals negatively affects campaign success. Our theory and findings provide nuanced insights regarding simultaneously emitted interdimensional signals in crowdfunding context with a structured incentive system, thereby increasing our understanding about the ambiguous nature of bundling human capital with high social cause signals.Managerial SummaryWhen evaluating new ventures in the public sphere, potential backers simultaneously process the complex information emitted by founders (i.e., signals). These signals communicate the unobservable qualities of the founders. In this article, we investigate the independent and joint effects of two signals on crowdfunding campaign outcomes: founder's human capital and their commitment to social causes. We show that while human capital increases campaign success, a high commitment to social cause decreases this likelihood. We further demonstrate that when these two signals are emitted simultaneously, balancing issues between the signals reduce the chances of attaining campaign success in crowdfunding. These findings emphasize the importance for crowdfunding founders and campaign designers to communicate coherent and well aligned signals to ensure campaign success.

Crowdfunding performance prediction using feature‐selection‐based machine learning models

AbstractBackgroundCrowdfunding is increasingly favoured by entrepreneurs for online financing. Predicting crowdfunding success can provide valuable guidance for stakeholders. It is a new attempt to evaluate the relative performance of different machine learning algorithms for crowdfunding prediction.ObjectivesThis study aims to identify the key factors of crowdfunding, and find the different performance and usage of machine learning algorithms for crowdfunding prediction.MethodWe crawled data from MoDian.com, a Chinese crowdfunding platform, and predicted the crowdfunding performance using four machine learning algorithms, which is a new exploration in this area. Most of the existing literature focuses on empirical analysis. This work solves the problem of predicting crowdfunding performance using a dataset with a minimal number of highly contributive features, which has higher accuracy compared to the regression analysis.ResultsThe experiment results show that feature‐selection‐based machine learning models are effective and beneficial in crowdfunding prediction.ConclusionFeature selection can significantly improve the prediction performance of the machine learning models. KNN achieved the best prediction results with five features: number of backers, target amount, number of project likes, number of project comments, and sponsor fans. The prediction accuracy was improved by 16%, the precision was improved by 13.23%, the recall was improved by 22.66%, the F‐score was improved by 18.48%, and the AUC was improved by 14.9%.

The power of machine learning methods to predict crowdfunding success: Accounting for complex relationships efficiently

The objective of this paper is to both demonstrate and explain the power of machine learning (ML) methods to predict crowdfunding success. The first step to achieve this objective is to compare the predictive performance of four ML methods (boosted trees, random forest, Shallow Neural Networks and Deep Neural Networks) to standard binary logit estimation using a dataset of more than 108,223 Kickstarter projects. The data used for the comparison is a set of categorical and continuous variables for each project that can be analyzed using all 5 modelling methods. The second step to achieve the objective is to show that the presence of complex relationships between the explanatory variables and outcome variable explains the power of ML methods. These relationships can be categorized as threshold-type (when a certain level of a explanatory variable is need for an effect to occur), Goldilocks-type (where a very specific level of an explanatory variable is needed for an effect to occur) and interactions (where the effect of one explanatory variable on the outcome variable is moderated by the levels of other explanatory variables). Our estimations show that these relationships are embedded in the context of crowdfunding. Because crowdfunding is a marketing activity, factors like attention, saturation, and synergy between levers are pervasive. It is because machine learning has the ability to account for these relationships (without knowing where they are in advance) that these methods are both better predictors and better managerial tools than standard binary logit models. We further show that even greater prediction power is unleashed by activating the text-analysis capabilities of ML methods. However, even when this is not possible, the value realized by employing ML approaches to predict crowdfunding success is substantial.

The Impact of Geography on the Success of Prosocial Crowdfunding

ABSTRACT Prosocial crowdfunding is gaining popularity as an alternative tool to traditional offline charity. While the success of crowdfunding projects aimed at pursuing commercial gains has been studied extensively, less research has addressed the factors that affect the success of prosocial crowdfunding campaigns. More specifically, there is even less research related to geographical factors. Building on charitable giving literature, we employ the lens of moral cosmopolitanism to hypothesize how geographical factors impact the success of prosocial crowdfunding campaigns. We conducted our investigation on a sample of 350 campaigns launched on StartSomeGood and found that contributors, despite a hype on cosmopolitan responsibility induced by digital platforms, prefer recipients in developed countries and, when donating to recipients in developing countries, show a preference for initiators from developed countries.

Betting on success: Unveiling the role of local gambling culture in equity crowdfunding

This study explores how local gambling culture, as measured by state-level religious composition, influences equity crowdfunding success. Our research uncovers a positive relationship between local gambling culture and equity crowdfunding success, driven by the state's innovation propensity. We also shed light on the positive effect of local gambling culture on firms’ document amendment behaviors, influenced by state regulation restrictions. Further analyses indicate that firms’ ownership structure moderates the positive relationships between local gambling culture and both equity crowdfunding success and document amendment behaviors. Our study centers on equity crowdfunding, demonstrating the important role of local gambling culture in determining entrepreneurial fundraising outcomes.