Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical background
3. Method
4. Findings
5. Discussion
6. Limitations and further research
7. Conclusion
References
Abstract
Crowdfunding has emerged as an effective method to raise fund for new venture creation and success. Nonetheless, our knowledge is limited about motivations for the selection into and financial support of crowdfunding, specifically for donors in charity crowdfunding who do not gain monetary rewards for their contributions. The main purpose of this study is to explore the motivations of individuals who donate money for funding the projects in charity crowdfunding platforms. We analyzed qualitative data derived from the real experiences of 13 donors who were involved in funding charity crowdfunding projects. The findings revealed a combination of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations directed funding behaviour of donors. More specifically, this study suggested a set of intrinsic individual motivations including shared problems, values, thoughts and beliefs, helping a minority, technical knowledge and capacity of the project to learn from and helping to realize ideas and create value that led donations to charity crowdfunding. Furthermore, this research explored contribution to fulfilling collective efforts, perceived effectiveness and few risks of crowdfunding as the intrinsic social motivations for donations to charity crowdfunding projects. Finally, this study contributed solving social problems, improving people’s awareness and knowledge about the problems, and creating mobility and action in the people and society to solve the problems as the social extrinsic motivations that regulated donors to financially support charity crowdfunding. The findings are discussed in light of their implications for the development of crowdfunding theory, practice, and research.
Introduction
Attracting financial resources has been one of the critical challenges for new venture creation and success (Belleflamme et al., 2014; Butticè et al., 2018; Kraus et al., 2016; Mollick, 2014). Specifically, entrepreneurs who intend to establish their new venture encounter various obstacles in obtaining the considerable financial resources required for developing new products and technological innovations (Arena et al., 2018; Cholakova and Clarysse, 2015; Clauss et al., 2018; Zhang and Chen, 2018a; Zhang and Chen, 2018b) due to the lack of reputation and income and their fear of failure (Arena et al., 2018; Cholakova and Clarysse, 2015). Crowdfunding has recently been suggested as an effective mechanism for supporting entrepreneurs to overcome these challenges (see for example: Belleflamme et al., 2014; Chirputkar et al., 2015; Choy and Schlagwein, 2016; Colombo et al., 2015; Harrison, 2013; Lehner et al., 2015; Mariani et al., 2017). By providing the financial resources for entrepreneurs, crowdfunding contributes to job creation and the development of innovation and economy of countries all over the world (Valančienė and Jegelevičiūtė, ۲۰۱۳). However, there is a lack of knowledge and understanding on the motives that entrepreneurs should consider to stimulate the crowd to fund their new business (Bruton et al., 2015; Du et al., 2018; Steigenberger, 2017; Zhang and Chen, 2018a). Specifically in Asian countries, crowdfunding is increasingly being used as a key financial source for entrepreneurs who lack the credits and experiences required for obtaining the fund from other techniques of finance to launch and grow their business (Du et al., 2018; Li et al., 2017; Zhao et al., 2017).