Successful Crowdfunding: Focusing on Social Interaction and Goal Achievement Motivations

Purpose: As crowdfunding is a relatively recent phenomenon, determinants of successful crowdfunding with empirical data have been under-researched. Consequently, we examine the role of information- and behavior-based social interaction on the performance of crowdfunding projects, while investigating the motivational factor of goal achievement. Design/methodology/approach: From February to August 2016, we collected panel data on 154 crowdfunding projects, which completed fundraising successfully on Tumblbug, a reward-based crowdfunding platform in Korea. In this study, we examine the roles of information-based social interaction (e.g., sharing information on a crowdfunding project) and behavior-based social interaction (e.g., following other investors’ behavior) on successful crowdfunding. Additionally, we investigate whether the motivation of goal achievement moderates the relationship between social interaction and performance of crowdfunding projects or not. Findings: We find that the number of times a crowdfunding project is shared has a positive influence on its performance, as does the number of project backers. Furthermore, we confirm that goal achievement motivation moderates the effects of information- and behavior-based social interaction on the performance of crowdfunding projects.