Work

Are you part of the crowd? The role of sex and environmental characteristics for crowdfunding awareness

Year: 2020

Type: article

Abstract: Crowdfunding has become an alternative source of financing for entrepreneurial new ventures and social projects. While identifying and “tapping the right crowd” of backers has been shown to be crucial for the success of crowdfunding campaigns, we still lack a basic understanding of why individuals become backers in the first place and why so many others do not. Building on information processing theory, we advance crowdfunding awareness as an important precedent to actual engagement as a backer. We hypothesize and—using a sample of 1,042 individuals in Flanders (Belgium)—show that individuals’ crowdfunding awareness depends on whether they are male or female, as well as on the (perceived) socioeconomic environment they are in. Furthermore, our findings suggest that women tend to derive their crowdfunding awareness to a larger extent from these environmental characteristics than men. These results have important implications for theory and practice.

Source: Journal of Small Business Management

DOI: 10.1080/00472778.2020.1831808

Authors: Egle Vaznyte, Petra Andries, Sophie Manigart

Institutions: Eindhoven University of Technology, Ghent University, Vlerick Business School

Language: English

Topic: FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance

Subfield: Management Information Systems

Field: Business, Management and Accounting

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,500