Potential funders' motivations in reward-based crowdfunding. The influence of project attachment and business viability

Abstract

Although reward-based crowdfunding projects have experienced high growth in recent years, it is necessary to emphasize that not all the campaigns have success. Under these circumstances, this paper studies the influence of two potential funders’ motivations (i.e., project attachment and business viability) on their behavioral intentions (i.e., the intention to fund a crowdfunding project, and the intention to spread positive physical and electronic word-of-mouth about it). It also explores how the effect of these motivations is moderated by two campaign characteristics: the percentage of target capital pledged and the time remaining until the funding deadline. With this aim, this paper simulates a crowdfunding project and collects 311 survey responses about it. Subsequently, a PLS-SEM approach is applied to test the model proposed. Findings demonstrate that potential funders’ intentions are mainly influenced by their attachment to the project. For its part, the business viability, as perceived by potential funders, plays a secondary role mainly influencing their word-ofmouth intentions. Finally, the campaign characteristics moderate the effect of attachment and viability on electronic word-of-mouth intentions.