Modulating your speech rate: The effect of speech rate on crowdfunding performance

• The effect of speech rate is existing in crowdfunding investment decisions. • Speech rate of entrepreneur has a mixed effect on crowdfunding performance. • Different dimensions of visual color characteristics moderate the effect of speech rate on crowdfunding performance. • The interaction of auditory and visual characteristic influences online persuasion. Marketers, managers, and researchers often believe that the speech rate in the information transmission is impactful on the service satisfaction and consumer purchasing decisions. However, there is little systematic investigation of investor risk decisions in entrepreneurial finance. In this research, the authors propose that the speech rate of entrepreneurs influences real-world funding outcomes and that speech rate interacts with visual color in the short pitch video of crowdfunding projects. Using audio-visual mining technology, our empirical analysis shows that in a non-laboratory setting, entrepreneurs’ speech rate negatively influences money performance, but positively influences information performance. However, these effects are enhanced for visual color with high lightness and chroma, but weakened for visual color with high hue. This paper provides a novel lens for understanding the persuasive effect of auditory and visual cues in financial decision-making. In addition, our results suggest that entrepreneurs can adjust their speech rate and the visual color in their pitch videos to improve crowdfunding performance.