When the crowd finances: the role of the project, of the project's bearer and the platform in the willingness to participate

Marie Beck (1) , Oliviane Brodin (2) , Jean-François Mallet (2)

1 LEM - Lille économie management - UMR 9221
2 RIME-Lab - Recherche Interdisciplinaire en Management et Économie Lab - ULR 7396

Crowdfunding is an innovative way to raise capital from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. The choice to finance a project, in this context, has not been very much studied from the point of view of a potential contributor. This research investigates the role of community and popularity of the project, credibility of the project bearer, and trust in the platform on the willingness to participate in a reward-based crowdfunding project. A quantitative study driven on the KissKissBankBank platform shows that willingness to participate, to finance, and word-of-mouth are linked to these features, and highlights the interactions between the characteristics of the platform, the project bearer and the project.

Mots clés: crowdfunding; credibility; community; popularity; social media

Domaines: Gestion et management

Marie Beck, Oliviane Brodin, Jean-François Mallet. When the crowd finances: the role of the project, of the project's bearer and the platform in the willingness to participate. 15ème Conférence Internationale des Tendances en Marketing, Jan 2016, Venise, Italy. ⟨hal-03350108⟩