Are you part of the crowd? The role of sex and environmental characteristics for crowdfunding awareness

Crowdfunding has become an alternative source of financing for entrepreneurial new ventures and social projects. While identifying and tapping the right crowd of backers has been shown to be crucial for the success of crowdfunding campaigns, we still lack a basic understanding of why individuals become backers in the first place and why so many others do not. Building on information processing theory, we advance crowdfunding awareness as an important precedent to actual engagement as a backer. We hypothesize and-using a sample of 1,042 individuals in Flanders (Belgium)-show that individuals' crowdfunding awareness depends on whether they are male or female, as well as on the (perceived) socioeconomic environment they are in. Furthermore, our findings suggest that women tend to derive their crowdfunding awareness to a larger extent from these environmental characteristics than men. These results have important implications for theory and practice.

Automated summary

Crowdfunding has emerged as an alternative financing option for startups and social projects. However, the reasons behind individuals becoming backers and others not participating are not fully understood. Drawing on information processing theory, this study investigates the role of crowdfunding awareness as a precursor to becoming a backer. Our findings, based on a sample of 1,042 individuals from Flanders, Belgium, indicate that crowdfunding awareness is influenced by gender and the perceived socioeconomic environment. Moreover, women are more likely than men to derive crowdfunding awareness from environmental characteristics. These findings carry important implications for both theory and practice.