Project Implementation Success in Reward-Based Crowdfunding: An Empirical Study

Crowdfunding is an emerging financing channel for entrepreneurs to raise money for their innovative projects online. Crowdfunding project implementation has not gained enough attention in research. This article develops a research model to investigate (1) the relationships among crowdfunding implementation success criteriarewarding delivery timeliness, the extent to which the reward meets specifications and sponsors overall satisfaction, and (2) the moderating factors on the relationships, including project social responsibility, entrepreneur activeness, and community benefit. Data were collected via a survey of sponsors on Demohour, a well-known crowdfunding platform in China, to test the proposed model. The findings suggest that rewarding delivery timeliness and meeting specifications are of great importance to increase sponsor satisfaction. All three moderating factors have negative effects on the relationship between meeting specifications and sponsor satisfaction. The research makes theoretical contributions and has practical implications. Crowdfunding platforms and entrepreneurs should pay more attention to delivery timeliness and quality of reward and to sponsors' satisfaction, which are criteria for crowdfunding project implementation success. In addition, the role of project social responsibility, entrepreneur activeness, and community benefit should be considered for crowdfunding project implementation since they can moderate the relationship between the extent to which the product meets specifications and the sponsor's overall satisfaction.