Motivations for participation in green crowdfunding: Evidence from the UK

Abstract

This study investigates the sociopsychological mechanisms influencing the inclination to provide financial support for environmentally-oriented crowdfunding initiatives. It considers participation in these campaigns as a form of pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) and applies two theoretical frameworks, namely the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) and the value-belief-norm theory (VBN), to to assess their effectiveness in explaining the intention to support such projects. The results demonstrate that both TPB and VBN theories can elucidate the intention to support green crowdfunding projects. However, TPB displays a stronger explanatory capacity compared to VBN, highlighting its suitability in explaining higher-cost PEB activities, like contributing to green campaigns, as suggested in this study. Nevertheless, it is important to note that, as anticipated by the VBN theory, values, norms and beliefs also contribute to the intention to support such projects.