The Role of Qualitative Success Factors in the Analysis of Crowdfunding Success: Evidence from Kickstarter

Abstract

In recent years, crowdfunding has become a valuable mean for initiators to raise funds for realizing projects and start-up ideas. These initiators are highly interested in the question of what factors contribute to successfully collecting a certain amount of funding in crowdfunding campaigns. For that reason, research has addressed this question by analyzing factors that influence funding success. However, research has concentrated on quantitative factors and has not yet tapped the full potential of qualitative factors when analyzing crowdfunding campaign success. The human decision making processes are not strictly based on objective figures but on qualitative aspects as well. Thus, we hold it to be substantial to take qualitative factors into consideration to gain deeper insights of crowdfunding success. Therefore, we propose a research model that combines quantitative as well as qualitative factors to show the relevance of incorporating qualitative aspects. Our evaluation gives evidence that the inclusion of qualitative factors unveils new details about funding success and allows to give more detailed advice to founders. While previous research on crowdfunding base primarily on the notion of founders' preparedness, our results allow to infer that also subjective perception of information, media, and founders has an important influence on funding success.

Keywords: Crowdfunding, Funding Success, Success Factors, Qualitative Success Factors, Preparedness, Passion, Subjective Perception