Not Just An Ego Trip: Exploring Backers' Motivation for Funding in Incentive-Based Crowdfunding
Journal
The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS)
ISSN
0963-8687
ISSN-Digital
1873-1198
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2017-12
Author(s)
Research Team
Crowdsourcing, CCC, IWI6
Abstract
Incentive-based forms of crowdfunding – such as reward-, equity- and lending-based crowdfunding – are becoming increasingly popular. However, research that studies backers’ motivations for funding in these environments is still in an embryonic state, revealing an inconsistent and narrow picture. The few existing studies are largely guided by the idea that backers are mainly egoistically motivated and do not have prosocial motives. We developed a research model that describes backers’ motivation and conducted an empirical study to examine this model. Results indicate that backers indeed have several self-interest motivations for funding: prospect of a reward; expectation of recognition from others; to lobby a certain project in the hopes of its fruition; and to develop their image. However, some backers are also prosocially motivated in that they develop feelings of liking for a certain venture and/or project team. Furthermore, we found evidence that herding has a significant moderating effect on backers’ reward motivation. Strategic IS researchers as well as crowdfunding practitioners can draw on our findings to systematically design, implement, and evaluate potential incentive systems that respond to reward-, recognition-, lobbying-, image- and liking-motives and thereby attract the crowd more effectively to invest in ventures presented on incentive-based crowdfunding systems.
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to practical use / society
Publisher
Elsevier
Publisher place
Amsterdam [u.a.]
Volume
26
Number
4
Start page
246
End page
260
Division(s)
Eprints ID
250416
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Name
JML_643.pdf
Size
709.78 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
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