Developing and Validating a Theory-Based Model of Crowdfunding Investment Intention—Perspectives from Social Exchange Theory and Customer Value Perspective

Abstract

In order to improve public financing sustainability in China, the Chinese government has announced several administrative policies on crowdfunding, concerning platform construction and operation, in recent years. However, the existing policy scope rarely mentions the importance of social psychology, which also plays a decisive role in determining the participation and success rates of crowdfunding. Therefore, this study uses the knowledge from social exchange theory (SET) and customer value perspective (CVP) to develop and validate a conceptual model of the key determinants of the public’s intention in investing in crowdfunded projects in China. Based on the primary survey data, the SEM (structural equation modeling) estimations suggest that: (1) communication, shared values, investors’ perceived benefits, and perceived risk have significant effects on crowdfunding investors’ trust in fundraisers of a particular crowdfunding project, which in turn act on their commitment and intentions to invest in the project; (2) trust strengthens funding intentions through fulfilling commitments, whereas its direct effect on funding intentions is insignificant; (3) commitment has a direct and significant positive effect on the enhancement of funding intentions. These findings propose a new perspective of improving public policies to support small and micro enterprises (SMEs) and individual innovative projects in China.

Research on the Effects of Information Description on Crowdfunding Success within a Sustainable Economy—The Perspective of Information Communication

“…(2) The positive impact of government support on crowdfunding success rates or funding amounts is significantly greater when the transparency level of the project is relatively low. [8] project success (the ratio of the actual collected funding divide target funding goal)…”

“…As an innovative sustainable financing model, crowdfunding plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of growing enterprises, which has become increasingly popular and has attracted increased academic interest in recent years [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Crowdfunding is a group behavior in which the public communicates through the Internet and pools funds to support activities initiated by other organizations and individuals.…”

Can Co-Creation and Crowdfunding Types Predict Funder Behavior? An Extended Model of Goal-Directed Behavior

“…For example, social presence, trust, attitude, and perceived behavioral control have significant effects of behavioral intention to donate time and money for crowdfunding [10]. Also, commitment, platform, leader, and market have positive impacts on behavioral intention for crowdfunding investment [22]. Hence, this study regards attitude and behavioral intention as critical variables in leisure and tourism-related crowdfunding.…”

“…Perceived ethics was found to be a strong behavioral intention for responsible tourism in the EMGB [14]. Intention to participate in crowdfunding is also a key dependent variable in predicting actual funder behavior [10,22]. For example, social presence, trust, attitude, and perceived behavioral control have significant effects of behavioral intention to donate time and money for crowdfunding [10].…”

“…Investment crowdfunding (i.e., equity and lending) appears to have quite unique features as compared to reward crowdfunding (i.e., product reward and non-product reward) in terms of distance diffusion [20], venture quality, uncertainty, and funding amount [1], social entrepreneurship [21], and social commerce [22]. Equity and lending crowdfunding as investment types contribute to the visitor economy, with venture quality and uncertainty level being found to be critical in tourism project investment [1].…”