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Purpose: In this study, the authors sought to investigate how the implicit social ties of both project owners and potential backers are associated with crowdfunding project success. Design/methodology/approach: Drawing on social ties theory and factors that affect crowdfunding success, in this research, the authors developed a model to study how project owners' and potential backers' implicit social ties are associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The proposed model was empirically tested with crowdfunding data collected from Kickstarter and social media data collected from Twitter. The authors performed the test using an ordinary least squares (OLS) regression model with fixed effects. Findings: The authors found that project owners' implicit social ties (specifically, their social media activities, degree centrality and betweenness centrality) are significantly and positively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. Meanwhile, potential project backers' implicit social ties (their social media activities and degree centrality) are negatively associated with crowdfunding projects' degrees of success. The authors also found that project size moderates the effects of project owners' social media activities on projects' degrees of success. Originality/value: This work contributes to the literature on crowdfunding by investigating how the implicit social ties of both potential backers and project owners on social media are associated with crowdfunding project success. This study extends the previous research on social ties' roles in explaining crowdfunding project success by including implicit social ties, while the literature explored only explicit social ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The overarching goal of the study was to formulate an integrated research model to empirically demonstrate the complex interplay between heuristics, project characteristics, information system usage quality, empathy, and mindfulness in predicting users'/donors' donation behaviour and well-being in the context of donation-based crowdfunding (DBC) mobile apps. Design/methodology/approach: The data were collected from 786 respondents and analysed using the multi-stage SEM-ANN-NCA (Structural equation modelling-artificial neural network-necessary condition analysis) method. Findings: Increased perceived aesthetics, narrative structure, self-referencing, project popularity, project content quality, and initiator reputation would foster empathy. Empathy and mindfulness lead to donation behaviour, and, ultimately emotional well-being. Originality/value: This study offers a clear framework by ranking the key contextual predictors and assessing the model's necessity logic to facilitate crowdfunders' donation behaviour and well-being on DBC platforms. This research provides practical insights for bank marketers and further aids financial service providers in formulating an optimal DBC mobile app strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of culture as a motivator for young generations to travel and their willingness of using crowdfunding to sustain culture. Design/methodology/approach: Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design and through a quantile regression analysis for count data, a sample of 1,721 Italian young people is examined. Findings: The analysis reveals that culture is a significant factor for a trip's motivation among young generations and crowdfunding represents a key alternative instrument for financing culture. Originality/value: The research fills the gap in extant literature by clarifying the role of culture in the choice of a touristic destination by young generations. This is a significant achievement since understanding the motivations is crucial to attract tourists at a specific destination and it represents a relevant insight for policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Online fundraising has become a rapidly growing alternative business financing method for esports. Despite this, a lack of attention has been given to its fans' motivations for participating in crowdfunding (CF) projects or behavioral intentions for spectatorship. To address this, the present study (1) categorizes esport CF investors' motivations based on the big five personality traits and (2) compares whether motivations and behavioral intentions for esports spectatorships vary depending on each group. Design/methodology/approach: We applied K-means clustering analysis to classify investors. ANOVA was used to verify whether there were differences in CF motivations and behavioral intentions. Findings: The study identified six distinct investor segments. Overall, esports CF investors showed high agreeableness and conscientiousness with low neuroticism. Fanatic fans were the most motivated and had the highest spectatorship intentions, driven by strong openness. In contrast, recognition seekers and charity donors exhibited the lowest viewing intentions. Entertainment seekers were highly motivated by excitement and aesthetics, linking CF participation to a strong desire to watch events. Despite higher neuroticism, reward hunters also showed significant viewing intentions, driven by drama and aesthetics. These findings highlight the diverse motivations and their influence on esports spectatorship. Originality/value: This study investigates the motivations and behavioral intentions of CF investors and spectatorship, which has substantive theoretical and managerial implications for the business of esports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyses the factors that make fashion-product crowdfunding campaigns successful. The authors argue that crowdfunding is an innovative and functional way of bringing new fashion items to the market. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question whether product innovation, lifecycle and sustainability have a positive effect on the success of fashion crowdfunding campaigns. The findings highlight that the success of the fashion crowdfunding campaigns depends on creators' adherence to the values of the platform which they use to raise capital. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 300 fashion crowdfunding projects running between the 17th of October and the 15th of December 2017 were collected from Kickstarter – the world's largest crowdfunding platform based on reward-based all-or-nothing model. Two-step binomial logistic regression was used to analyse the data. Findings: The model predicted a significant increase in the odds of success for the fashion items crowdfunded during the first-time production, and innovative and environmentally sustainable products with a higher price range of rewards. In line with previous literature, regression analyses predicted a significant effect of the control variables of goal amount (negative) and the number of rewards (positive). Contrary to previous studies, neither the presence of a video nor the campaign length predicted success. Originality/value: The novel findings of this study contribute to the literature by providing an analysis of success factors of fashion items on crowdfunding platforms. The results show that innovative, environmentally sustainable and higher-priced products produced by early-stage ventures are better welcomed by the audiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This article aims to investigate the status of and the trends in the intertwining of crowdfunding and innovation literature by identifying, evaluating and synthesizing the findings from previous research. This paper provides a bibliometric meta-analysis of the already substantial and growing literature on innovation and crowdfunding research. Design/methodology/approach: Using a bibliometric approach, this research scrutinizes all articles that include terms related to "crowdfunding" and "innovation" (in their title, abstract or keywords) in Elsevier's Scopus database. VosViewer and Bibliometrix package in R have been used to analyse 150 articles. Findings: The results suggest that there are three main research clusters in the innovation and crowdfunding literature. The first cluster highlights the role of crowdfunding in fostering radical and incremental innovation. The second cluster focuses on the concept of openness and its effect on innovation in crowdfunding campaigns, while the third cluster explains the role of platforms' innovation in crowdfunding success. Originality/value: Taking a holistic perspective, this contribution advances new knowledge on the intertwining of crowdfunding and innovation research fields. It implies that crowdfunding is facilitating the flow of knowledge between different stakeholders, including project initiators and crowd investors, among others, as they all benefit from open innovation platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]