Devil in the detail (or not)? A study of crowdsourcing performance of entrepreneurial project

Crowdsourcing is a quickly growing phenomenon that renovates the knowledge of entrepreneurial financing. While existing research has explained some interesting patterns of crowdsourcing, theories about crowdsourcing merit... [ view full abstract ]

Crowdsourcing is a quickly growing phenomenon that renovates the knowledge of entrepreneurial financing. While existing research has explained some interesting patterns of crowdsourcing, theories about crowdsourcing merit further extension. In this paper, I draw on the literature of entrepreneurial financing, the emerging research of crowdsourcing, and theories of knowledge and innovation to argue that entrepreneurial projects could raise greater funding when they deploy a concise and concept-oriented knowledge delivering strategy in interacting with investors because excessively technical details about new ventures’ innovation impede the knowledge flow from entrepreneurs to investors. Using a combination of simulation experiments and empirical data from a leading crowdsourcing community, I find evidence consistent with my hypotheses. This study contributes to several streams of literature and has important implication for theory and practice.