The Impact of Project Characteristics on Online Crowdfunding Effectiveness and Its Potential Mechanisms

The information featured on a crowdfunding page is an important source of information for potential project backers about the project and can have a significant impact on backer funding behavior. Crowdfunding information can be divided into two categories: content elements and structural elements, according to their nature and characteristics. Relatively, the former is mainly information that has been artificially edited by the creator, such as project descriptions, project images, progress updates, etc. The latter is objective factual information about the project, such as project category, creator characteristics, target amount, etc. Both types of characteristics show a significant impact on different categories of crowdfunding projects in general, and their persuasive impact on project audiences or funders can be explained by signaling theory, the elaboration likelihood model, and Aristotelian persuasion theory. In addition to the need to further combine multiple research methods, future research should further strengthen the study of the influence of the integration of verbal and non-verbal information, the “double-edged sword” effect of creativity in crowdfunding categories, and the motivation and decision-making mechanisms of different types of investors or audiences in choosing different types of crowdfunding projects.