Successful restaurant crowdfunding: the role of linguistic style

Abstract

Purpose Crowdfunding can be an effective fundraising vehicle to independent restaurants to overcome fundraising limitations due to its small-size and high risk. A few studies have identified contents of communication for successful crowdfunding, yet missing is on how to say. The purpose of this paper is to investigate linguistics styles that are effective in pitches in restaurant crowdfunding. Design/methodology/approach The study analyzed 500 restaurant crowdfunding projects listed on Kickstarter.com that is one of the most popular crowdfunding platforms with sizable restaurant projects. By text analysis, this study identifies four linguistic categories – concrete, precise, interactive and language with low psychological distancing – from the project descriptions. A binominal linear regression analysis identified effective language styles that increases success of restaurant crowdfunding. Findings Drawing on the language expectancy theory and uncertainty reduction theory, this study found that project descriptions that are concrete and delivering stories with fewer usage of first person pronouns are likely to succeed in restaurant fundraising. Interactive style was counter-effective while preciseness of language did not affect funding success significantly. Findings further reveal the roles of non-linguistic attributes shown in the project pitches. Research limitations/implications Despite the increasing practice of restaurant crowdfunding and good matches with small- and medium-sized restaurants’ needs, scant research has been conducted. Notably absent from the research is work on linguistic styles that are effective in restaurant crowdfunding. This study extends the prior literature by investigating how restaurant entrepreneurs should communicate with potential crowdfunders to make crowdfunding successful in the restaurant context. Simply knowing what are important does not provide holistic help to restaurant entrepreneurs; they also should know how to communicate well. Practical implications The findings of this study are important for restaurant entrepreneurs who need to present their projects and communicate effectively with potential investors online. Based on the study’s findings, crowdfunding platforms could enhance their project posting systems by developing algorithm that automatically measures language cues embedded in a project description and providing suggestions to improve persuasiveness of languages to maximize funding success for restaurant projects. Originality/value Scant research has been conducted in the restaurant crowdfunding; prior crowdfunding literature has focused on the projects other than restaurants such as technology, design and film. This study is the first that uncovers the role of the linguistic styles for the specific context of restaurant crowdfunding. This study sheds the light on the critical communication strategies used by small-sized restaurant entrepreneurs on crowdfunding platform.

Greening crowdfunding campaigns: an investigation of message framing and effective communication strategies for funding success

“…Positive framing increases agri-food campaign success, while negative framing is more effective for clean energy and climate preservation projects. These findings consolidate the stream of studies about the role of message framing in supporting the communication of green products (Amatulli et al , 2019; Borin et al , 2011; Grankvist et al , 2004; Karpinska-Krakowiak et al , 2020) and, specifically, the literature about the role of language in promoting new entrepreneurial projects (Kaminski and Hopp, 2020; Koh et al , 2020; Parhankangas and Renko, 2017; Zhou et al , 2015). Second, our study identifies other communication strategies, including the presence of quantitative results and a marked green emphasis in the project description, that affect the probability of success and thereby function as valuable tools for green companies seeking to attract supporters who are potentially predisposed to green marketing.…”

“…Despite the wide use of digital financial instruments by multiple organisations in this field, research that combines framing and the environmental literature is lacking (Jacobson et al, 2019), as is an application of framing theory to the entrepreneurial setting (Pan et al, 2020). Thus, our work expands upon both the crowdfunding literature about green campaign success determinants (Buttic e et al, 2019;Cumming et al, 2017;Kim and Hall, 2021;H€ orisch, 2018) and the literature about the importance of language in promoting new entrepreneurial projects and their funding activities (Kaminski and Hopp, 2020;Koh et al, 2020;Parhankangas and Renko, 2017).…”

“…For example, the presence of predictive phrases in project descriptions (Mitra and Gilbert, 2014) and the use of positive, precise and interactive language during the campaign (e.g. Kaminski and Hopp, 2020; Koh et al , 2020; Parhankangas and Renko, 2017) are characteristics that increase funding chances and the number of backers involved.…”

Is restaurant crowdfunding immune to the COVID-19 pandemic?

“…For example, the CF project pitches on Kickstarter are usually composed of textual description, visual images and/or videos prepared by the entrepreneurs. In the context of restaurant CF, Koh et al (2020) found that the linguistic styles of textual description have significant effects on CF success. They also found that follow-up communications (i.e.…”

Measuring Internet Slang Style in the Marketing Context: Scale Development and Validation

“…Operationalization of linguistic style usually relies on LIWC, a coding dictionary that categorizes nearly 6,400 words into 89 themes ( Pennebaker et al, 2015 ; Kovacs and Kleinbaum, 2020 ). Eighteen out of these 89 themes directly capture linguistic style, and can be used to predict intentions or personality traits (e.g., Lee et al, 2019 ; Koh et al, 2020 ).…”