Journal of Consumer Marketing

Does the crowdfunding platform matter? Risks of negative attitudes in two-sided markets
Camille Lacan, Pierre Desmet,
Article information:
To cite this document:
Camille Lacan, Pierre Desmet, "Does the crowdfunding platform matter? Risks of negative attitudes in two-sided markets",
Journal of Consumer Marketing, https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-03-2017-2126
Permanent link to this document:
https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-03-2017-2126
Downloaded on: 08 August 2017, At: 03:12 (PT)
References: this document contains references to 0 other documents.
To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com
The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 1 times since 2017*
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

Access to this document was granted through an Emerald subscription provided by emerald-srm:425905 []
For Authors
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service
information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please
visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.com
Emerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of
more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online
products and additional customer resources and services.
Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication
Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation.

*Related content and download information correct at time of download.

 Does the Crowdfunding Platform Matter?
Risks of Negative Attitudes in Two-Sided Markets

Abstract

Purpose—Crowdfunding has become a prominent means to raise donations online from a

large number of contributors, such that open calls for contributions inherently involve
another actor, namely, the Internet platform which is creating a two-sided market. This
article examines the effect of this intermediary on contributors’ willingness to participate in
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

crowdfunding projects.
Design/methodology/approach—In an online survey the relative effect of contributors’
attitudes toward the crowdfunding platform on two key behaviours is measured: willingness
to share word-of-mouth and willingness to participate in a project.
Findings—In the theoretical framework of a two-sided market, the empirical study reveals
that attitude toward a crowdfunding platform moderates contributors’ willingness to
participate. This effect can be explained by several risk factors that affect the platform’s
perceived usefulness and ease of use. These factors have a negative influence on attitude
toward the platform, which in turn reduce support for the project. The effects are stronger for
willingness to participate than for word-of-mouth intentions.
Research limitations/implications—Declarative measures and a focus on utilitarian
dimensions of contributor participation limit the external validity of the findings.
Practical implications—Using the results of this study, Internet platforms can improve
attitudes among potential contributors. Project creators can also use the findings to adapt
their communication campaigns and reduce inhibitions that keep contributors from using the
platform.
Originality/value—This study advances marketing and crowdfunding literature by
highlighting the potential dark side of a platform that functions as an intermediary in a two-
sided market.

Keywords: Two-sided market, Platform, Crowdfunding, Word-of-mouth, Sharing economy.

Article Type: Research paper

1
 1. Introduction
In an online crowdfunding initiative, a project creator appeals to a large number of
potential contributors for financial support, using specific Internet platforms that publicise
the request and specify the compensation available for different contribution levels
(Belleflamme, et al., 2014). This mechanism offers creators new possibilities for developing
innovative products and services (Vander Schee, 2009). Although still considered nascent,
crowdfunding grows exponentially. In 2010, the worldwide market was $880 million while
it generated an estimated $34.2 billion in 2015 (see the Massolution Report 2016, available
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

at www.crowdsourcing.org), and all indications suggest that it continues to grow

significantly in the coming years (e.g., the World Bank expects the market to be worth $96
billion by 2025).
To raise funds, project creators rely on an Internet platform to present their project and
attracts contributors already visiting the platform. So the system constitutes a two-sided
market, in which the “platform enables interactions between end-users and [tries] to get the
two (or multiple) sides ‘on board’ by appropriately charging each side” (Rochet and Tirole,
2006, p.645). In a two-sided market, the platform functions as a central intermediary, in
addition to performing traditional communication roles. For project creators, aside from
communication and relationship with its members the platform also acts as a service
provider, such that it might contribute resources required to finalise the project or provide
support and advices for marketing mix decisions. Furthermore, it organises the contractual
relationships between the project creator and contributors and collects payments from the
contributors depending of the crowdfunding modes (such as giving, reward-based, lending,
or equity).
Beyond these services, a platform in a two-sided market functions as a place of social
connections that enables project creators to access a social capital of contributors. Social
capital refers to “the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available
through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social
unit” (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998, p.243). The platform makes it possible to develop social
connections by providing relationship with the platform’s community (i.e., social capital
provided by the platform). For a project creator having an internal social capital (i.e., social

2
 relations developed within the platform) is important because it forms the foundation of the
first contributors to participate in the project (Colombo et al., 2015). This function of social
connections acquisition is direct, because it is carried out using the platform: a project
creator can present, document and support its project on the platform and can interact with
the contributors and more generally with the platform users (Mollick, 2014). Acquiring
social connections through the platform is also indirect by word-of-mouth communications
(Ferguson, 2008). Individuals share information about a project or a project creator by word-
of-mouth communications and this communication can develop the project creator
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

awareness and expand the social connections around the project.

Despite the growing prominence of crowdfunding, improving campaign success rates is
a key challenge as fewer than half of all crowdfunding campaigns succeed (Hu et al., 2015).
Amount of social capital provided by the Internet platform is a key of success (Colombo et
al., 2015) and the characteristics of the social capital brought by the platform plays major
role. This capital can be broad and undifferentiated, as on generalist platforms (e.g.,
Kickstarter), or reflect of specific interests related to either the project content (e.g., music
projects, sports and culture) or interests for other characteristics of the project or the creator
(community, geographic proximity). As a crowdfunding project is presented on only one
platform its success requires not only a positive attitude toward the project itself but also a
positive attitude from potential contributors toward the Internet platform used. Previous
research have already addressed success factors related to the description of the project on
the platform (e.g., presence and quality of a video, length), the number and type of updates
performed by the project creator (Mollick, 2014), or the value of the rewards (Hu et al.,
2015). Yet a gap persists regarding the likely influence of the Internet platform in these two-
sided markets, as platform characteristics may strongly affect crowdfunding project success
likelihood.
To fill this gap, this article investigates the impact of attitudes toward the crowdfunding
platform on both participation and word-of-mouth intentions for contributors. It thereby
makes two main contributions. First, it provides a better understanding of the effect of an
Internet platform in a two-sided market on contributors’ actual participation in the campaign.
By showing that the crowdfunding platform can influence the success of a campaign, this

3
 article challenges the notion that crowdfunding success mostly depends on project
characteristics (e.g., Mollick, 2014) or on project creator characteristics (e.g., Colombo et al.,
2015). Second, this study measures the relative importance of factors that might reduce
contributors’ attitudes toward using the platform and the effects on the two key behaviours
that project creators seek to trigger, contribution to the project and intention to send word-of-
mouth on the crowdfunding project.
The next section presents the conceptual framework and research hypotheses. Following
a detailed outline of the methodology, this article provides the study results. Finally, this
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

article concludes with a discussion, including the contributions of this study, the limitations
and several avenues for further research.
2. Conceptual Framework and Research Hypotheses
2.1. Crowdfunding as a Two-Sided Market
The principle of crowdfunding is to solicit the financial resources of the “crowd”
through a campaign on the internet. Crowdfunding requires an internet platform which acts
as a two-sided market. In the economic sciences, two-sided market theory explains actor’s
behaviour in market in which several networks (providers and customers) are connected
through a platform (Rochet and Tirole, 2006). Two-sided market might be encountered in
the advertising industry (e.g., a television channel is a platform for viewers and advertisers),
in the digital economy (e.g., a retail website links suppliers and consumers), or in the sharing
economy, as in a crowdfunding scenario. A crowdfunding platform can thus be
conceptualised as a two-sided market because it connects two populations: the first
population is the population of project creators. These are the companies that present a
project and that solicit funds from the crowd (Tomczak and Brem, 2013). Contributors, the
second population of the platform, are investors who give money to projects in exchange for
a reward that is based on the given amount (Tomczak and Brem, 2013). The platform allows
the project creators to use the Internet web site to collect funds. In exchange, a platform
charges a commission on the amounts of money collected if and when the campaign is
successful. In addition to these services, the attractiveness of Internet-based crowdfunding
platforms for project creators is the value associated with the social capital offered by the
contributors community associated with the platform users (Colombo et al., 2015).

4
 Research on two-sided markets has concluded that the utility of a platform depends
firstly on the number of users on each side (Albuquerque et al., 2012). From a contributor
point of view, the more projects a platform has, the more useful the platform will be to
identify crowdfunding projects adapted to the selection criteria used. From a project creator
point of view, the more users the platform has, the more useful the project creators will find
the platform to present their project. Such externalities lead to an oligopolistic market
(Rochet and Tirole, 2006), where some platforms concentrate a large part of the market and
it can indeed be observed for the crowdfunding sector (e.g., Kickstarter, Indiegogo or
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

Lending Club capturing a large part of the activity). But as each side of the market also
enters into direct interactions with the platform, the platform must as well influence the
utility for each population (creators and contributors). In line with the technology acceptance
model (TAM, Davis, 1989) and the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1985), this study
argues that in a two-sided market, the platform affects contributors’ participation in the
campaign.
Project creators use a platform (instead of directly solicit contributors) for soliciting
financial resources from the crowd (Tomczak and Brem, 2013), to present online their
project and to develop the project awareness. Thanks to the Internet platform, a project
creator can thus centralise all amount collected in one place rather than contacting each
contributor individually. The platform provides the opportunity for all contributors to
participate in the project through its website. As a result, managing the crowdfunding
campaign is easier, faster and more efficient thanks to this intermediary. In addition, the
Internet platform provides additional services and advices for technical and marketing
decisions. One of the deterrents raised by some project creators for not using crowdfunding
is the lack of skills and competencies (Gleasure, 2015). For example fundraising by
crowdfunding requires technical skills in order to develop a web site where contributors
could participate (Hu et al., 2015). To achieve its goal, a project creator must design an
attractive crowdfunding campaign with effective communication messages that can
influence the contributors decisions, send in-process messages to maintain the commitments
of contributors (Xu et al., 2014) and design a reward scale that can meet the motivations of
contributors (Hu et al., 2015). The scale must offer valuable rewards related to the amount

5
 pledged by the contributor. Promotional campaign have also developed in order to stimulate
the decision to participate (e.g., price reductions within the rewards range, exclusive rewards
for early adopters as rewards with limited editions). As project creators do not always have
these technical and marketing skills, the use of the platform makes it possible to acquire
them (Gleasure, 2015).

2.2 Attitude Toward the Platform in a Two-Sided Market

The theory of reasoned action (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975) is one of the most valid
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

theories for studying the link between actors’ attitudes and behaviours. This theory has been
used in many contexts and a significant amount of research continues to improve the
theoretical foundation (e.g., Perugini and Bagozzi, 2001). Attitudes are commonly defined as
an evaluative dimension, “a person’s attitude represents his evaluation of the entity in
question” (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977, p. 889) whereas the behaviours refers to the action
dimension and are directly observable from an objective point of view. The theory of
reasoned action postulates that supportive behaviours mainly results from three sources:
actors’ attitudes toward this behaviour, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control
(Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The link between attitudes and behaviours has been confirmed
by numerous studies on very heterogeneous behaviours. For example, empirical research has
examined attitudes toward a product and sales, preferences for a politician or a candidate and
voting behaviours in political sciences, attitudes toward academic activities and spending
times to prepare its courses, attitudes toward environmental protection and recycling
behaviours (For a review of empirical works, see for example Ajzen and Fishbein, 1977).
Recent theories of marketing and social psychology continue to use the model of reasoned
action and multiple studies have made some improvements to adapt the model to specific
behaviours. For example, Perugini and Bagozzi (2001) suggest in the goal-directed
behaviours that beyond attitudes, intentions can also be explained by an affective dimension,
including the desires and the anticipated emotions experienced with achieving the goal.
When the behaviour is associated with a risk of failure, the individual can anticipate both
positive and negative emotions that determine the intention to achieve the behaviour
(Perugini and Bagozzi, 2001). Other models suggest incorporating additional variables as

6
 consumer satisfaction and quality of service to expand the theory of reasoned action (Han
and Kim, 2010). As a result, the theory of reasoned action and later models that have
deepened and expanded this theory show that attitudes can be used as a good indicator of
behavioural intentions.

The conceptual model and the research hypotheses are presented in Figure 1.

< < < < < < INSERT FIGURE 1 ABOUT HERE > > > > > >
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

2.3. Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use of the platform

The technology acceptance model (TAM) suggests that the attitude toward a technology is
influenced by two main factors, perceived usefulness and ease of use (Davis, 1989). These
two perceived dimensions affect how Internet users evaluate a technology such as a
crowdfunding platform. Perceived usefulness is defined as “the degree to which a person
believes that using a particular system would enhance his or her performance” (Davis, 1989,
p.320). In a crowdfunding context, the perceived usefulness refers to the beliefs that using
the Internet platform can help contributors to support projects (instead of directly support the
project creator). For users, an efficient technology is one of the main drivers to explain their
attitudes and perceived usefulness has a direct influence on participation intention (Davis,
1989). Conclusions from several studies are consistent with this view that perceived
usefulness can explain the adoption of technology (e.g., Munoz‐Leiva et al., 2012). This
leads to the following hypothesis:

H1. Perceived usefulness is positively related to the attitude towards the platform (H1a) and
the intentions to participate in the platform (H1b).

The second factor is the perceived ease of use defined as “the degree to which a person
believes that using a particular system would free of effort” (Davis, 1989, p.320). Indeed
perceived usefulness is not sufficient to explain attitude toward a technology because of the
cost and efforts induced by the platform use and that individuals try to minimise their efforts.

7
 Research shows that the amount of effort developed to use a technology has a negative
influence on the preferences of individuals for a specific solution (e.g., Perugini and
Bagozzi, 2001). Thus, all things being equal, individuals evaluate more positively
technologies that are easy to use and require little effort. In a crowdfunding context, the
platform must be easy to use in order to attract contributors, suggesting the following
hypotheses:

H2. The perceived ease of use is positively related to the attitude towards the platform.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

2.4. Social Sensitivity and Perceived Transaction Risk

An Internet platform offers to contributors some benefits that can impact the perceived
usefulness. First a website is an online social network that consists of users’ communities
(Aaker and Akutsu, 2009). Crowdfunding platforms are digital platforms where all the
interactions between the actors are visible on the website (Tomczak and Brem, 2013). For a
contributor this accessibility produces both a positive and negative effect. First a platform
can have a negative effect on perceived usefulness because of the online dimension: the
website makes the participation to a crowdfunding project visible on the Internet with the
name of all the contributors (Colombo et al., 2015). If the campaign is a failure, an Internet
user can still see the contributors list long after the end of the campaign. The fear of being
publicly associated with a failure for a contributor or an investor is one a deterrent to
participate on a platform (Gleasure, 2015). However a platform can also have an increase
perceived usefulness because its use is similar to using an online social network (Gerber and
Hui, 2013). Contributors maintain public profiles, which specify their participation in
projects, so the Internet platform should appear more useful for people with a high social
sensitivity. Social sensitivity refers to the degree to the importance given by an individual to
its social group. Because people perceive as more useful, tools (e.g., a website) which enable
them to be exposed to their social group (Goffman, 1959), the following hypothesis is made:

H3. The social sensitivity is positively related to the perceived usefulness of the platform.

8
 The platform characteristics have also a direct influence on perceived ease of use. An
Internet platform is used if it is easy to use to contribute in the project. To do so, platforms
propose several payment methods including credit card payments online, which encourages
immediacy and impulsivity and thus increases amounts collected compared with other
payment instruments. However, credit card payments could also raise concerns of payment
risks among contributors (e.g., credit card fraud, fraudulent websites) and inhibit its use (Van
der Heijden, 2003). The hypothesis is formulated:
H4. The perceived risk of the financial transaction is negatively related to the ease of use
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

the platform.

2.5 Effect of Attitude Toward the Platform on Behaviours Intentions

To support a project on a platform, each contributor must use the Internet platform. The
attitude toward the crowdfunding platform is thus one of the most important predictors to
explain the participation of contributors. The crowdfunding platform allows contributors to
participate in a crowdfunding project (e.g., by agreeing to donate resources to a project
creator) or share word-of-mouth about it (e.g., by recommending the project to external
online social networks such as Facebook or Twitter) (Ferguson, 2008). Since the project
creator solicits contributor to carry out these two actions (by participating in the project and
sharing word-of-mouth communications) on the platform (e.g., Bi et al., 2017; Tomczak and
Brem, 2013), his/her attitude toward the platform should influence the intentions to perform
these behaviours. A negative attitude toward the platform thus might reduce intentions to
both participate and share word-of-mouth communications about the project. The following
assumptions are made:
H5: The attitude toward the platform is positively related to intentions to participate in
the platform.
H6: The attitude toward the platform is positively related to intentions to share word-of-
mouth communications.

9
 3. Empirical Study
3.1. Method
To test effect of attitudes towards the platform on the intentions to contribute and to
share word-of-mouth communications, the research design uses a scenario method. In line
with previous research (e.g., Pavlou, 2003), a scenario-based approach enables to reproduce
a real behaviour within a survey. This method increases the internal validity of the study by
avoiding the use of a real platform where users may have an existing attitude towards it. The
scenario consists of first presenting a crowdfunding platform and then measuring the
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

psychometric variables. Respondents read a description of a crowdfunding platform and a

list of crowdfunding projects. The focal project involves financing an ecologically designed
jeans line, which respects the environment. Ecological projects are a popular category in
rewards based crowdfunding (Mollick, 2014). In addition this project category is well suited
to word-of-mouth communications (Berger, 2014). People often share products on the online
social networks, especially products related to their preferences and their concerns
(Eisingerich et al., 2015). The data collection controlled for participants’ interest in green
and ecological products. Finally, they completed a survey to evaluate the different items on
Likert scales. The concepts measured are those presented in the theoretical framework
(attitude toward the crowdfunding platform, perceived usefulness, perceive ease of use,
social sensitivity, perceived transaction risk), the dependent variables (willingness to
participate and to share word-of-mouth), the control variables (interest in the project
category) and finally the demographic variables.
3.2. Sample
Crowdfunding is still underdeveloped in many countries. Within the French platforms, only
2.7 million users have supported a project (2015 crowdfunding barometer by “Finance
participative” available at financeparticipative.org) which is low in relation to the total
population (less than 3%). It is thus not possible to recruit active crowdfunding contributors
and the respondents are not recruited on the previous experience in crowdfunding .
Participants were invited by email to participate anonymously in an online survey without
financial compensation for their participation. The sample is made of 218 French Internet
users (46% women; average age of 59 years). The three most represented professions are the

10
 executives and high intellectual professions (19.3%), employees (17.4%) and students or
people without activities (16.1%).
3.3 Measures
All the items were adapted from prior literature and measured with 7-point Likert scales.
For attitude toward the platform, the measure reflected the scale developed by Chen (1999;
sample item, “I have a positive feeling toward this platform”). Perceived usefulness relied on
Davis’s (1989) assessment of the utility of the platform for interacting with the project and
its creator (e.g., “Using the platform enables me to support the project”). The perceived ease
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

of use measure reflects the effort required to make financial contributions on the platform
(e.g., “Using this platform to make a transaction is easy”), measured on a scale from
Wolfinbarger and Gilly (2003).
For the dependent variables, the measure for the intention to participate came from
Rodgers (2003; e.g., “I would participate in this project”) and that for intention to share
word-of-mouth relied on a scale by Maxham and Netemeyer (2002; e.g., “I would
recommend this project to my friends”).
The control variable—namely, interest in the project category was measured with a
single-item scale (1 = Not important; 7 = Very important). Social sensitivity, or the
importance the respondent grants to her or his social group, comes from a scale by Aaker
and Lee (2001; e.g., “What others think of me is important”). Finally, measure of the
perceived risk associated with the financial transaction uses the scale by Montoya-Weiss et
al. (2003; e.g., “Payment by credit card online is safe”). The demographic variables
collected are the respondents’ age, income, educational level, and occupation.
Normality tests indicate that all variables follow a normal distribution. The highest value
for the skewness coefficient is 1.28 (perceived transaction risk) and the highest value for
kurtosis is 0.82 (participation intentions). Exploratory factor analysis indicates that
Cronbach’ alphas levels are satisfactory. All variables are above the cut-off of 0.7. The
lowest value is for the perceived usefulness (0.82). All factors loadings are above 0.6.
Confirmatory factor analyse confirms the consistency and quality of the measures,
which meet standard thresholds for reliability, convergent validity, discriminant validity
(Fornell and Larcker, 1981; Hu and Bentler, 1995). Specifically, on the reliability, the

11
 minimum value for the Joreskog’s rho is 0.83 (perceived usefulness), on the convergent
validity all indicators are above 0.5 and for the discriminant validity no construct has a
square root of its variance extracted greater than inter-construct correlations. Finally, the
invariance test shows that the measure achieves an adequate fit between the men and women
(Steenkamp and Baumgartner, 1998). Measures of each construct are thus satisfactory. Table
1 presents the details of the convergent and discriminant validity tests for each concept.
< < < < < < INSERT TABLE 1 ABOUT HERE > > > > > >
The mean values on the Likert scales were as follows: attitude toward the platform 5.24
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

/ 7, perceived usefulness 4.58 / 7, and difficulty of use 5.48 / 7. Correlations between the key
variables of the theoretical framework are high. Correlation coefficient between attitude
toward the platform and intentions to participate is statistically significant and positive (r =
.68), as also between attitude toward the platform and intentions to share word-of-mouth (r =
.58). The correlation between the attitude toward the platform is therefore higher with the
intention to participate than with the intention to share word-of-mouth communications.
Table 2 presents all descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) along with Pearson
correlations.

< < < < < < INSERT TABLE 2 ABOUT HERE > > > > > >
4. Results
To tests hypotheses a structural equation model (SEM) to test the relationships between
the unobservable latent constructs measured in the survey and the two dependent variables
(Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The fit of the model to the data is satisfactory (χ² = 43.13; χ²/df
= 2.69; normed fit index (NFI) = .94; confirmatory fit index (CFI) = .96; Tucker-Lewis
index (TLI) = .93; goodness-of-fit index (GFI) = .96; root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA) = .06). The structural model thus supports that, in line with the
theoretical framework, the perceived ease of use and the perceived usefulness of a
crowdfunding platform are influenced by two external factors and that in turn, the these
variables influence contributors’ attitudes toward using the platform and the intention to
send word-of-mouth.

12
 The results confirm the central role of attitude toward the platform and its two
determinants: the perceived usefulness of the crowdfunding platform increases both attitudes
toward that platform, in line with Hypothesis 1a, and intentions to participate, in accordance
with Hypothesis 1b. When the website is more difficult to use (low perceived ease of use), it
significantly decreases attitude toward the crowdfunding platform, in support of Hypothesis
2.
In further support of the TAM theoretical framework, the results confirm that attitudes
has indeed a clear influence on declared expected behaviour: A positive attitude toward the
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

crowdfunding platform significantly increases respondents’ intentions to participate in a

project, in support of Hypothesis 5, as well as their intentions to share word-of-mouth, in
support of Hypothesis 6. Results show that intention to participate is positively related to
word-of-mouth intention (β = .49, p<.05). R-squared for the dependent variables are 0.53
(attitude towards the platform), 0.51 (participate intention) and 0.63 (word-of-mouth
intention).
The influences of external factors are mixed though. For example, the, social sensitivity
does not influence the perceived usefulness of the platform, so Hypothesis 3 must be rejected
and does not influence participation intentions or word-of-mouth intentions. But social
sensitivity is directly related to attitude towards the platform (β= .21, p < .05). Regarding
perceived ease of use of the Internet platform, the risk associated with the transaction has
indeed a negative effect on this variable supporting Hypothesis 4. Table 2 summarises these
results by presenting the estimated coefficients, their standard errors and the p value tests.

< < < < < < INSERT TABLE 3 ABOUT HERE > > > > > >

5. Discussion, Limitations, and Directions for Research

In a two-sided market, can the crowdfunding platform itself reduces contributors’
participation and diminish the chances of project success? This research aims to contribute to
answer this question by assessing the factors that influence potential participants’ attitudes
toward the platform and then testing their effects on the two key behaviours, willingness to
participate and share word-of-mouth communications on a crowdfunding project.

13
 Several contributions emerge from these results.
First, this study supports and extends information technology research (Davis, 1989;
Davis et al., 1989) by affirming the validity of the TAM theoretical framework for
crowdfunding platforms. Attitudes toward a website, including online crowdfunding
platforms, are less favourable when the platforms appear less useful and difficult to use. This
result involves that in a two-sided market (Rochet and Tirole, 2006), especially when both
sides of the market exchange directly on a website, the assessment of the platform through
which intermediation is carried out is critical. Furthermore the research shows that
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

dimensions of the interaction other than communication play an important role. Indeed the
perceived risk of the financial transaction has a strongly influence on perceived ease of use.
Therefore, the platform’s payment system must be acknowledged as a critical factor, with
the greatest potential negative effect on contributors’ attitudes toward the Internet platform.
For Internet platforms that rely on financial support from contributors as the foundation of
their crowdfunding operations, this finding is highly relevant. The results also highlighted
the relationship between two under researched factors and attitude toward the crowdfunding
platform: social sensitivity and perceived transactions risks. Interestingly social sensitivity
does not have direct influence on the perceived usefulness of the platform. This result can be
explained by the fact that crowdfunding platforms are not perceived as a place of social
interactions such as an online social network. According to the theory of impression
management (Goffman, 1959), people try to influence the perception of their image in all the
actions they carry out (e.g., in a donor behaviour, people want to be perceived as an altruistic
person a suggested by Aaker and Akutsu, 2009, in sharing word-of-mouth communications,
people try to shape the impressions that others have of them (Berger, 2014). People adapt
their behaviours and achieve their “performances” depending on the situation and the
audience to which they are exposed (Goffman, 1959). As a result, people with high social
sensitivity may depend more on external social networks to develop their E-reputation rather
than using the Internet platforms which have a smaller and more specialized audience
(Colombo et al., 2015; Hui et al., 2014).
Second, this study shows that in a two-sided market a platform not only connect two
populations (Rochet and Tirole, 2006) and facilitates connections between them (Tomczak

14
 and Brem, 2013) but also plays a role of interface and by its image and service moderates the
effect of the project characteristics on contributors’ participation. Specifically, a project
presented on a platform which has a rather negative evaluation will receive less support from
the contributors. Furthermore aside from this communication and services crowdfunding
platforms contribute by providing an initial internal social capital, which may provide the
first funds offered to support the projects (Colombo et al., 2015). This study extends these
results from two-sided market theory by showing that the crowdfunding platform can be an
obstacle to fundraising if users develop negative attitudes toward it. This effect applies to
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

both intentions to participate in the project and intentions to share word-of-mouth about it.
These are the two key behaviours that a creator seeks to trigger (Tomczak and Brem, 2013).
Participation directly increases the chances of success of a campaign. The more contributors,
the more likely the project is to reach its goal before the deadline. And the faster the
contributors participate in the campaign, the more imitation effects they will generate
(Colombo et al., 2015). Word-of-mouth communications contribute indirectly by increasing
project awareness (e.g., Ferguson, 2008; Bi et al., 2017). A comparative analysis shows that
the consequences of a negative attitude toward the platform are also stronger for
participating than for sharing word-of-mouth, so a favourable attitude constitutes a critical
pre-requisite that project creators must establish if they hope to increase their success rate.
At a managerial level, the conclusions of this research suggest several ways that Internet
platforms can improve the attitudes of potential contributors. In particular, they should
enhance the ease of use and security associated with their payment systems, as well as
perceptions of their usefulness among their potential contributors. The platforms must show
that beyond a simple intermediary, they offer a space of social visibility that enables
contributors to manage their identity and to get feedback from others users. The social
network dimensions of an Internet platform should thus be highlighted, to reveal that the
platform facilitates exchanges among the members of a community. For project creators,
these results also recommend the adaptation of campaigns, to lower inhibitions that might
keep contributors from using the platform. In addition, project creators might use potential
contributors’ attitudes toward different platforms as a selection criterion, then present their
projects only on those platforms that already invoke favourable attitudes. While

15
 crowdfunding is still nascent (see Mollick, 2014), this strategy could increase the number of
contributors and lead to increased participation and resource donations.
Several limitations of this study suggest some areas for further research. The tests of the
model rely on declarative measures, so to increase external validity, further studies might
affirm the effect of the platform on participation, using a behavioural perspective in a real
environment. The theoretical model also accounts mainly for the utilitarian dimension and its
influence on participation in the Internet platform (Davis, 1989). Affective dimensions, such
as perceived enjoyment and desires, also might be integrated (Van der Heijden, 2003;
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

Perugini and Bagozzi, 2001). Beyond the likely moderating effects of demographic
variables, other individual variables might be incorporated too, including a user’s experience
with the sharing economy. Finally, the relative contribution of attitudes toward the Internet
platform, compared with the effects of the nature of the project or its communication,
suggests further research.

References
Aaker, J. and Akutsu, S. (2009), “Why do people give? The role of identity in giving”,
Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 267–270.
Aaker, J.L. and Lee, A.Y. (2001), “‘I’ seek pleasures and ‘we’ avoid pains: The role of self-
regulatory goals in information processing and persuasion”, Journal of Consumer
Research, Vol. 28 No. 1, pp. 33–49.
Ajzen, I. (1985), From Intentions to Actions: A Theory of Planned Behavior, Springer,
Berlin, Heidelberg.
Ajzen, I. and Fishbein, M. (1977), “Attitude-behavior relations: A theoretical analysis and
review of empirical research”, Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 84 No. 5, pp. 888–918.
Albuquerque, P., Pavlidis, P., Chatow, U., Chen, K.-Y. and Jamal, Z. (2012), “Evaluating
promotional activities in an online two-sided market of user-generated content”,
Marketing Science, Vol. 31 No. 3, pp. 406–432.
Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T. and Schwienbacher, A. (2014), “Crowdfunding: Tapping the
right crowd”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 29 No. 5, pp. 585–609.
Berger, J. (2014), “Word-of-mouth and interpersonal communication: A review and
directions for future research”, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp.
586–607.
Bi, S., Liu, Z. and Usman, K. (2017), “The influence of online information on investing
decisions of reward-based crowdfunding”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 71
No. February 2017, pp. 10–18.
Chen, Q. (1999), “Attitude toward the site”, Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 39 No. 5,
pp. 27–37.

16
 Colombo, M.G., Franzoni, C. and Rossi-Lamastra, C. (2015), “Internal social capital and the
attraction of early contributions in crowdfunding”, Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice, Vol. 39 No. 1, pp. 75–100.
Davis, F.D. (1989), “Perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and user acceptance of
information technology”, MIS Quarterly, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 319–340.
Davis, F.D., Bagozzi, R.P. and Warshaw, P.R. (1989), “User acceptance of computer
technology: a comparison of two theoretical models”, Management Science, Vol. 35
No. 8, pp. 982–1003.
Ferguson, R. (2008), “Word-of-mouth and viral marketing: taking the temperature of the
hottest trends in marketing”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 25 No. 3, pp. 179–
182.
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

Fishbein, M. and Ajzen, I. (1975), Belief, Attitude, Intention and Behavior: An Introduction
to Theory and Research, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Mass.
Fornell, C. and Larcker, D.F. (1981), “Evaluating structural equation models with
unobservable variables and measurement error”, Journal of Marketing Research,
Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 39–50.
Eisingerich, A.B., Chun, H.H., Liu, Y., Jia, H. (Michael) and Bell, S.J. (2015), “Why
recommend a brand face-to-face but not on Facebook? How word-of-mouth on
online social sites differs from traditional word-of-mouth”, Journal of Consumer
Psychology, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 120–128.
Gerber, E.M. and Hui, J. (2013), “Crowdfunding: Motivations and deterrents for
participation”, ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Vol.
20 No. 6, Article 34, pp. 1–32.
Gleasure, R. (2015), “Resistance to crowdfunding among entrepreneurs: An impression
management perspective”, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol. 24 No.
4, pp. 219–233.
Goffman, E. (1959), The presentation of self in everyday life, 1 edition., Anchor, New York.
Han, H. and Kim, Y. (2010), “An investigation of green hotel customers’ decision
formation: Developing an extended model of the theory of planned behavior”,
International Journal of Hospitality Management, Vol. 29 No. 4, pp. 659–668.
Hu, L. and Bentler, P.M. (1995), “Evaluating model fit”, Structural Equation Modeling:
Concepts, Issues, and Applications, Sage Publications., Thousand Oaks, CA, US, pp.
76–99.
Hu, M., Li, X. and Shi, M. (2015), “Product and pricing decisions in crowdfunding”,
Marketing Science, Vol. 34 No. 3, pp. 331–345.
Hui, J.S., Greenberg, M.D. and Gerber, E.M. (2014), “Understanding the role of community
in crowdfunding work”, Proceedings of the 17th ACM, pp. 62–74.
Lee, Y.-K. and Chang, C.-T. (2007), “Who gives what to charity? Characteristics affecting
donation behavior”, Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, Vol.
35 No. 9, pp. 1173–1180.
Maxham III, J.G. and Netemeyer, R.G. (2002), “Modeling customer perceptions of
complaint handling over time: the effects of perceived justice on satisfaction and
intent”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 78 No. 4, pp. 239–252.
Mollick, E. (2014), “The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study”, Journal of
Business Venturing, Vol. 29 No. 1, pp. 1–16.

17
 Montoya-Weiss, M.M., Voss, G.B. and Grewal, D. (2003), “Determinants of online channel
use and overall satisfaction with a relational, multichannel service provider”, Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 448–458.
Muñoz‐Leiva, F., Hernández‐Méndez, J. and Sánchez‐Fernández, J. (2012),
“Generalising user behaviour in online travel sites through the Travel 2.0 website
acceptance model”, Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 6, pp. 879–902.
Nahapiet, J., and Ghoshal, S. (1998), “Social capital, intellectual capital, and the
organizational advantage”, Academy of management review, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 242–
266.
Pavlou, P. A. (2003), Consumer acceptance of electronic commerce: Integrating trust and
risk with the technology acceptance model, International journal of electronic
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

commerce, Vol. 7 No. 3, pp.101–134.

Perugini, M. and Bagozzi, R.P. (2001), “The role of desires and anticipated emotions in
goal-directed behaviours: Broadening and deepening the theory of planned
behaviour”, The British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 79–98.
Rochet, J.-C. and Tirole, J. (2006), “Two-sided markets: a progress report”, The RAND
Journal of Economics, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 645–667.
Rodgers, S. (2003), “The effects of sponsor relevance on consumer reactions to Internet
sponsorships”, Journal of Advertising, Vol. 32 No. 4, pp. 67–76.
Steenkamp, J.-B.E. and Baumgartner, H. (1998), “Assessing measurement invariance in
cross-national consumer research”, Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 25 No. 1, pp.
78–107.
Tomczak, A. and Brem, A. (2013), “A conceptualized investment model of crowdfunding”,
Venture Capital, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 335–359.
Van der Heijden, H. (2003), “Factors influencing the usage of websites: the case of a generic
portal in The Netherlands”, Information and Management, Vol. 40 No. 6, pp. 541–549.
Vander Schee, B.A. (2009), “Crowdsourcing: Why the power of the crowd Is driving the
future of business”, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 305–306.
Wolfinbarger, M. and Gilly, M.C. (2003), “eTailQ: dimensionalizing, measuring and
predicting etail quality”, Journal of Retailing, Vol. 79 No. 3, pp. 183–198.
Xu, A., Yang, X., Rao, H., Fu, W.-T., Huang, S.-W. and Bailey, B.P. (2014), “Show me the
money!: An analysis of project updates during crowdfunding campaigns”,
Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems,
ACM, pp. 591–600.

18
 Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

Figure 1: Research model and hypothesis

19
 Table 1: Cronbach’s Alpha, Reliability, Convergent and Discriminant Validity

Cronbach’s Joreskog’s Convergent ASV MSV

Alpha rho validity rho
1 Att./ Platform 0.937 0.938 0.833 0.164 0.420
2 Perceived usefulness 0.815 0.825 0.704 0.027 0.088
3 Difficulty of use 0.879 0.883 0.717 0.053 0.093
4 Participate 0.925 0.926 0.863 0.228 0.634
5 Word-of-mouth 0.915 0.915 0.783 0.192 0.634
6 Social sensitivity 0.872 0.876 0.779 0.017 0.053
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

7 Transaction risk 0.876 0.884 0.794 0.075 0.142

Notes: ASV = Average Shared Variance; MSV = Maximum Shared Variance;
Att. = Attitude.

20
 Table 2: Descriptive Statistics and Pearson correlation coefficients
M. S.D. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Att./ Platform 5.24 1.70 -
2. Perceived
4.58 1.75 .16* -
usefulness
3. Difficulty of
5.48 1.66 -.33** -.01 -
use
4. Participate 5.24 1.46 .68** .26** -.30** -
5. Word-of-
4.95 1.54 .58** .15* -.27** .84**
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

mouth
6. Social
3.95 1.59 .25** -.002 -.20** .09 -.07 -
sensitivity
7. Transaction
4.61 1.71 .28** .04 -.76** .27** .05 .04
risk
* p < 0.05 ; ** p < 0.01 ; *** p < 0.001.
Notes: M = Mean ; S.D. = Standard Deviation.; Att. = Attitude

21
 Table 3: Effects of attitudes toward the Internet crowdfunding platform in a two-sided
market

Research hypotheses Coefficient Standard Error p-Value

H1a Perceived
Att. platform 0.32 0.12 **
usefulness
H1b Perceived
Participate 0.37 0.08 ***
usefulness
H2 Difficulty of use
Att. platform -0.30 0.07 ***
H3 Social sensitivity
Perceived -0.01 0.04 n.s.
usefulness
Downloaded by UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE At 03:12 08 August 2017 (PT)

H4 Transaction risk
Ease of use 1.26 0.07 ***

H5 Negative att. /Ptf.
Participate -0.54 0.04 ***
H6 Negative att. /Ptf.
Word-of-mouth -0.23 0.11 ***
* p < 0.05 ; ** p < 0.01 ; *** p < 0.001. p-Value tests are carried out at the 95 % risk error.
Notes: n.s. = not significant ; Att. = Attitude ; Ptf. = Platform. ;

22