In crowdfunding we trust? Investigating crowdfunding success as a signal for enhancing trust in sustainable product features

Peter Wehnert, Christian V. Baccarella and Markus Beckmann

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2019, vol. 141, issue C, 128-137

Abstract: Crowdfunding has been discussed as a tool for acquiring resources, a way of communicating information to potential investors, and a means of testing the market potential of entrepreneurial projects. Yet, little is known about how successful crowdfunding influences consumers' perceptions about a product or its features. We assume that mentioning a successful crowdfunding campaign in a product advertisement can provide valuable quality signals. Such signals are particularly relevant for sustainability-oriented products because sustainability attributes are often not directly accessible to potential consumers. Based on a 2 (crowdfunding: yes vs. no) × 3 (product category: low complexity vs. medium complexity vs. high complexity) experimental study (n = 530), we find that signaling crowdfunding success has an influence on product perceptions and on the credibility of sustainability attributes. Furthermore, we show that the effects of this signal depend on different levels of product complexity.

Keywords: Crowdfunding success; Experimental study; Customer perception; Signaling; Product complexity; Sustainable product features (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (26)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162517308831
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:141:y:2019:i:c:p:128-137

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.06.036

Access Statistics for this article

Technological Forecasting and Social Change is currently edited by Fred Phillips

More articles in Technological Forecasting and Social Change from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().