Crowdfunding technology projects: investigating the moderating effect of product type on campaign success

ABSTRACTThis study examines the moderation role of product types (i.e. hedonic vs. utilitarian products) in the effect of emotional vs. informational appeals on decisions to support crowdfunding campaigns. Using an online survey of 1,892 participants who crowdsourced the evaluation of 249 Kickstarter crowdfunding messages, the study revealed messages perceived as more informational (vs. emotional) led to a more positive attitude toward a crowdfunding product, greater intentions to share a crowdfunding campaign with others, and greater funding intentions. Moreover, when a product was perceived as containing higher (vs. lower) utilitarian values, messages perceived to be more informational (vs. emotional) predicted more positive campaign outcomes.KEYWORDS: Crowdfundingproduct typefunctional theory of attitudeconsumer-investor Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Evidence indicated that presenting crowdfunding campaign texts alone may be as effective as, if not superior to, presenting both texts and visual images to encourage funding. For example, a meta-analysis demonstrated that adding visual images to verbal texts had no significant effect on persuasion compared to texts along (Seo Citation2020). Moreover, in the crowdfunding context, Yang et al. (Citation2020) found that including more images and videos in a text-based campaign message weakened the positive effect of written text on funding performance because multiple modalities increased people's cognitive load and impeded understanding campaign information.Additional informationNotes on contributorsYing ChengYing Cheng (Ph.D., Michigan State University) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management at the California State University, San Bernardino. Her research areas focus on persuasion and message features in the contexts of health, advertising, and crowdfunding. Additionally, she also studies the interplay between technologies and health, including how technologies can impact and promote people's health behaviours and well-being. Her work has been published in journals such as Journal of Health Psychology, Health Communication, Journal of Health Communication, and International Journal of Advertising.Yongseok JangYongseok Jang (Ph.D., University of Florida) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Management at the California State University, San Bernardino. His research mostly focuses on technology strategy for early stage startups. His work has been published in journals such as Journal of Small Business, Journal of Business Research and Asian Journal of Technolgy and Innovation.