Making-The-Product-Happen: A Driver of Crowdfunding Participation

Zvilichovsky, David, Shai Danziger, and Yael Steinhart. "Making-the-Product-Happen: A driver of crowdfunding participation." Journal of Interactive Marketing 41 (2018): 81-93.

41 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2017 Last revised: 5 Sep 2019

See all articles by David Zvilichovsky

David Zvilichovsky

Coller School of Management Tel Aviv University

Shai Danziger

Coller School of Management, Tel-Aviv University

Yael Steinhart

Independent

Date Written: October 1, 2017

Abstract

Crowdfunding campaigns, where entrepreneurs seek consumer funding to develop new products, foster dynamics that go beyond traditional seller-buyer transactions. This research studies how consumers increase their participation when they believe their contribution is pivotal to product creation. Utilizing controlled experiments we find that making-the-product-happen motivates participation above and beyond the desire to help the entrepreneurs. Moreover, we show how this motivation, which increases when an all-or-nothing campaign is drawing to a close and its financing target is within reach, is driven by future product availability. Furthermore, we identify conditions where making-it-happen dominates herding and an increase in the backing actions of others decreases one’s willingness to back. Lastly, consistent with the notion that individual backers can determine campaign success, an analysis of over 200,000 Kickstarter projects shows that 33% of all successful campaigns hinge on the marginal support of no more than three average backers.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, Motivation, Goal Attainment, Herding

Suggested Citation

Zvilichovsky, David and Danziger, Shai and Steinhart, Yael, Making-The-Product-Happen: A Driver of Crowdfunding Participation (October 1, 2017). Zvilichovsky, David, Shai Danziger, and Yael Steinhart. "Making-the-Product-Happen: A driver of crowdfunding participation." Journal of Interactive Marketing 41 (2018): 81-93., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3080233 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3080233

David Zvilichovsky (Contact Author)

Coller School of Management Tel Aviv University ( email )

Tel Aviv University
Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv, 69978
Israel

Shai Danziger

Coller School of Management, Tel-Aviv University ( email )

Tel Aviv
Israel

HOME PAGE: http://https://en-coller.tau.ac.il/profile/shaid

Yael Steinhart

Independent ( email )

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