The great start of the day is morning? the roles of diurnal variations and interaction modes for investment decisions in lending-based crowdfunding

Crowdfunding has empowered individual investors to make investment decisions anytime and anywhere. However, research exploring the time of day effect and the ensuing time–IT relationship in the crowdfunding context still lags. This study proposes a novel theoretical framework of diurnal variations in investment decisions. We collect and analyse data from a large lending-based crowdfunding platform in China. We find robust evidence that investors invest most in the morning, moderately in the afternoon, and least in the evening; they invest fastest in the afternoon, moderately in the morning, and slowest in the evening. Furthermore, the diurnal variations in terms of investment amounts and speed become more prominent in mobile-based interactions than in desktop-based interactions. Our findings contribute to the crowdfunding literature and provide managerial implications for crowdfunding platforms.