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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on investigating the impact of crowd participation on degree of project success, which is defined as the total amount of funds a project can obtain after it reaches its initial funding goal threshold. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the theory of crowd capital, this study develops six hypotheses about the impact of crowd capability of a fundraiser (i.e. project updates, goal setting, reward levels and social media usage) and crowd participation (i.e. namely, funds pledge and on-site communication) on degree of project success. The hypotheses are tested using data sets of successful projects collected from two popular crowdfunding websites. Findings This study finds that funds pledge has an inverse U-shaped relationship with degree of project success. Project updates, reward levels and on-site communication positively influence degree of project success, while funding goal negatively affects degree of project success. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to prior literature by investigating the degree of project success determinants using the perspectives of both fundraisers and crowds, which provides a more comprehensive understanding of what makes a crowdfunded project a success. Practical implications The empirical results of this study provide fundraisers with guidelines about how to access more funds after achieving the initial funding goals. Originality/value This work is one of the first to investigate the degree of project success and its determinants from the perspectives of both fundraisers and crowds.

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Purpose Although microblogs have become an important information source, the credibility of their postings is still a critical concern due to the open and unregulated nature. To understand the antecedents of microblog information credibility, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dual-role of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity and bias roles) and the effect of gender differences. Design/methodology/approach This study collected data via an online field survey of active microblog users, and a total of 204 valid responses was received. Findings This study demonstrates the dual-role of source credibility and vividness, the additivity role of microblog platform credibility, and the bias role of social endorsement. Furthermore, this study also found out gender difference that the additivity role of cognitive heuristics was stronger for men while bias role was stronger for women. Research limitations/implications This research enriches the microblog literature by examining the cognitive heuristic determinants as key predictors of microblog information credibility, and contributes to the information credibility literature by identifying and analyzing the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics and corresponding gender differences. Practical implications This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and also serves as a reminder to microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility. Social implications This study can help organizations better manage their reputation, especially during the reputation crises, and serves as a reminder to the microblog platform operators of the importance of their microblog platform credibility. Originality/value This study investigates the dual-role effect of cognitive heuristics (i.e. the additivity role and bias role) and corresponding gender differences that are less touched on before, and thus provides a more nuanced understanding of the more complex effects of cognitive heuristics.

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