Raising funds for social entrepreneurship: A crowdfunding field experiment

Raising funds for social entrepreneurship: A crowdfunding field experiment ABSTRACT Most social crowdfunding efforts fail. To address this issue, we conducted a field experiment involving an actual social crowdfunding... [ view full abstract ]

Raising funds for social entrepreneurship: A crowdfunding field experiment




ABSTRACT

Most social crowdfunding efforts fail. To address this issue, we conducted a field experiment involving an actual social crowdfunding campaign. This generated normally unavailable, but valuable, data including details about the relationship between entrepreneurs and contributors. We found that social closeness and interaction frequency increased the probability of donating. We also had the unique opportunity to manipulate messages to test the effects of biases, finding that entrepreneurs should mention high donation amounts in solicitation messages because it increases the amount pledged without decreasing the probability of pledging. Surprisingly, mentioning authority (e.g., a Ph.D.) did not influence the probability of giving.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship; crowdfunding; field experiment

social entrepreneurship; crowdfunding; field experiment [ view full abstract ]

social entrepreneurship; crowdfunding; field experiment