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The determinants of supporting crowdfunding sites: Understanding internal and external factors from public relations’ perspectives

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Eunyoung Kim
Eunyoung Kim
Eunyoung Kim
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Sung Eun Park
Sung Eun Park
Sung Eun Park
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This study examines the internal and external factors affecting behavioral intention of online donation and word-of-mouth via crowdfunding sites. The conflicting findings from the literature provided rationales and several key variables for this study. To investigate the key variables, the authors conducted an online survey. The result confirmed that social identification, involvement, credibility of platforms, and attitudes toward online donation positively predict intention to donate online. In addition, social identification, involvement, and crowdfunding site features had predictive power on the intention of word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications for public relations and communication practitioners are provided in the discussion.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing (2023) 20:269–287
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12208-022-00340-8
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The determinants ofsupporting crowdfunding sites:
Understanding internal andexternal factors frompublic
relations’ perspectives
EunyoungKim1 · SungEunPark2
Received: 4 February 2022 / Accepted: 7 May 2022 / Published online: 16 May 2022
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2022
Abstract
This study examines the internal and external factors affecting behavioral intention
of online donation and word-of-mouth via crowdfunding sites. The conflicting find-
ings from the literature provided rationales and several key variables for this study.
To investigate the key variables, the authors conducted an online survey. The result
confirmed that social identification, involvement, credibility of platforms, and atti-
tudes toward online donation positively predict intention to donate online. In addi-
tion, social identification, involvement, and crowdfunding site features had predic-
tive power on the intention of word-of-mouth. Theoretical and practical implications
for public relations and communication practitioners are provided in the discussion.
Keywords Crowdfunding sites· Online donations· Behavioral intentions· Social
identification· Involvement· Credibility
1 Introduction
The steady growth of fundraising and charities has shown that people often go above
and beyond to help others who may not have any personal relations or have lived in
the same geographic region. Although a traditional donation route is still present,
a growing number of online donations in recent years has been particularly notice-
able (Liu et al., 2017). Out of many available platforms, crowdfunding websites
such as GoFundMe have been pioneers of promoting donations on online platforms
* Eunyoung Kim
ekim2@aum.edu
Sung Eun Park
sungeunpark@webster.edu
1 Department ofCommunication andTheatre, Auburn University atMontgomery, 7041 Senators
Drive, Montgomery, AL36117, USA
2 Communications andJournalism Department, School ofCommunication, Webster University,
470 E. Lockwood Ave., St.Louis, MO63119-3194, USA
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Crowdfunding takes up many forms based on the return promised. Donation crowdfunding promises nothing in return and is based on pure philanthropic/charitable motives Kim & Park, 2022;Wang et al., 2019;Zhang et al., 2020). Donation crowdfunding is the most widespread and popular form of crowdfunding, with the underlying cause of extending support to projects through charities. ...
... Researchers in the area of crowdfunding have largely focussed on the antecedents of incentive-based crowdfunding, such as reward, interest, and equity (Ahlers et al., 2015;. However, few studies have studied factors affecting a funder's intention to donate in donation crowdfunding (Chen et al., , 2021Kim & Park, 2022;Liu et al., 2017Liu et al., , 2018Wang et al., 2019;Zhang et al., 2020) but still, the area is largely underexplored and requires intervention. Moreover, factors that drive backers in donation crowdfunding differ significantly from that of incentive-based crowdfunding because there are no tangible rewards at all. ...
... Trust in donation crowdfunding is an intangible concept that the funders could only perceive through the campaign elements. The funder's trust could be defined as (1) the perceived project integrity in the eyes of the funders (Kim & Park, 2022;Huang et al., 2021), (2) the fundraiser's credibility perceived by the funders (Bukhari et al., 2019;Kim et al., 2017), and (3) the crowdfunding platform (website) reputation (Kim & Park, 2022;Zhang et al., 2020). ...
Reconnoitering antecedents of donation intention in donation crowdfunding campaigns: a mediating role of crowdfunding readiness
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Donation crowdfunding is a type of crowdfunding wherein the funders donate funds in order to support a particular project through the internet (crowdfunding website/platform) acting as the medium. It is based on pure philanthropic motives with no expectations of any reward or return. In this study, we intend to explore the antecedents that drive a funder’s intention to contribute in donation crowdfunding campaigns in India by investigating the impact of identified factors on a funder’s intention to donate. For the study, a survey was conducted on funders using a 5-point Likert Scale through a structured questionnaire. The identified constructs determining the funder’s intention to donate were perceived project integrity, fundraiser’s credibility, funder’s social influence, crowdfunding readiness, funder’s self-efficacy, crowdfunding platform reputation, and funder’s empathy. The findings of the study reveal that all the identified constructs significantly affect the funder’s intention to donate in donation crowdfunding campaigns. Moreover, crowdfunding readiness partially mediates the relationship between the identified factors (except for the funder’s social influence) and intention to donate.
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... The current study viewed credibility as a perceptual concept rather than an objective one (Flanagin & Metzger, 2007). In that sense, credibility likely has some trustworthiness components, which will be questioned to what extent people find the information or platform trustable or believable (Kim & Park, 2022). Specifically, Kim & Park (2022) and Liu et al. (2018) found that perceived credibility affects the intention to donate online through a crowdfunding project, as people assess the project's credibility before donation. ...
... In that sense, credibility likely has some trustworthiness components, which will be questioned to what extent people find the information or platform trustable or believable (Kim & Park, 2022). Specifically, Kim & Park (2022) and Liu et al. (2018) found that perceived credibility affects the intention to donate online through a crowdfunding project, as people assess the project's credibility before donation. In addition, previous success with crowdfunding impacts later success via crowdfunding (Lee & Chiravuri, 2019). ...
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... Previous research conducted by Majid & Mawaddah (2022) and Yuspita et al. (2019) reveal that ATB has a favorable and statistically significant relationship with behavioral intention (BI) to utilize Islamic fintech. The same is found by Kim & Park (2022), Kasri & Chaerunnisa (2020), and Aji, Albari, et al. (2020) who identify that ATB also increases user incentives to donate online or through crowdfunding platforms. ...
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... We perceive credibility as a perceptual concept rather than an objective one (Flanigan, 2017). In that sense, credibility relates to trustworthiness, thereby impacting how much people find the information 8 trustable or believable (Kim & Park, 2022). Crowdfunding is typically characterized by high uncertainty and ambiguity, wherein information asymmetry exists between initiators and donors (Josefy et al., 2017). ...
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Which novelties do donation‐ and reward‐based crowdfunding bring to philanthropy? Scholars interested in crowdfunding contributed to developing empirical explanations on which features impact online giving. However, the focus on theory building is limited. We developed a theoretical framework by categorizing the empirical findings reported in 198 studies, which resulted in four crowdfunding features impacting giving: (1) project creator, (2) social information, (3) rewards, and (4) project description. We explain why these features impact giving by integrating them with insights from several fields of social sciences, deriving ten giving mechanisms. We conclude that with impacting donations via crowdfunding, three giving themes exist: being affected by (1) the perceived project's quality, (2) social connections and/or (3) tangible rewards. The categorization of mechanisms for giving allows initiators to extract best practice examples for increasing the probability of successful crowdfunding projects considering the giving mechanisms.
View
... We perceive credibility as a perceptual concept rather than an objective one (Flanigan, 2017). In that sense, credibility relates to trustworthiness, thereby impacting how much people find the information 8 trustable or believable (Kim & Park, 2022). Crowdfunding is typically characterized by high uncertainty and ambiguity, wherein information asymmetry exists between initiators and donors (Josefy et al., 2017). ...
The contribution of crowdfunding for philanthropy: A review and theoretical framework of reward- and donation-based crowdfunding
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Which key mechanisms are central to giving via philanthropic crowdfunding? Philanthropic crowdfunding refers to donation-and reward-based crowdfunding, an academic field in which studies contributed limited to no effort to developing a theoretical explanation explaining why a mechanism would impact giving. As a result, we are left with a series of empirical accounts without a clear theoretical background or an explanation behind the suggested mechanisms. We developed a theoretical framework by first categorising the empirical findings reported in the 195 studies, which resulted in four crowdfunding features impacting giving, namely the (1) project creator, (2) social information, (3) rewards, and (4) project description. As a next step, we explain why these features impact giving (i.e. mediators), by integrating them with insights from several fields of social sciences and deriving specific giving mechanisms. We conclude that with impacting donations via crowdfunding, three general giving themes exist: being affected by (1) a project's quality, (2) social connection and/or (3) rewards. The categorisation of mechanisms for giving via crowdfunding adds to an emerging area of research. It allows initiators to extract best practice examples for increasing the probability of successful crowdfunding projects considering the mechanisms for giving.
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