Signalling entrepreneurs’ credibility and project quality for crowdfunding success: cases from the Kickstarter and Indiegogo environments

Shuangfa Huang, David Grant Pickernell, Martina Battisti, Thang Nguyen

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    Abstract

    In recent years, entrepreneurs have increasingly turned to crowdfunding, a new form of entrepreneurial finance, to fund projects. While research has shown that signals originating from the entrepreneur and project can affect the outcome of crowdfunding, how different signals work together under different signalling environments remains underexplored. Drawing on signalling theory, we examine how signals of entrepreneurs’ credibility (success, failure, backer, and industry experience) and project quality (preparedness and third party endorsements) produce crowdfunding success in different signalling environments. We collected a unique dataset with matched projects listed on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, but with different funding models, to represent two distinct signalling environments. Results based on qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) identify two distinct signalling patterns that show entrepreneur’s credibility and project quality signals can complement each other to produce crowdfunding success. In an environment with less uncertainty, entrepreneur’s credibility in terms of crowdfunding experience can also compensate absent project quality to produce crowdfunding success. In an environment with higher uncertainty, entrepreneur’s credibility and project quality need to be both present to establish the necessary legitimacy for crowdfunding to be successful. Further, by integrating positive (i.e., success) as well as negative (i.e., failure) signals, we demonstrate how signal incongruence can enhance crowdfunding success.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1801–1821
    Number of pages21
    JournalSmall Business Economics
    Volume58
    Early online date1 Apr 2021
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Apr 2022

    Keywords

    • crowdfunding
    • signalling theory
    • qualitative comparative analysis (QCA)
    • Kickstarter
    • Indiegogo
    • entrepreneurial finance

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