Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success
Crowdfunding has emerged in recent years as an important alternative means for technology entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products and business ideas. While the success rate of crowdfunding projects is somewhat low, scholarly understanding of what distinguishes projects that reach their fundr...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Carleton University
2022-03-01
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Series: | Technology Innovation Management Review |
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Online Access: | https://timreview.ca/timreview.ca/article/1472 |
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author | M. Westerlund Ishdeep Singh Mervi Rajahonka S. Leminen |
author_facet | M. Westerlund Ishdeep Singh Mervi Rajahonka S. Leminen |
author_sort | M. Westerlund |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Crowdfunding has emerged in recent years as an important alternative means for technology entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products and business ideas. While the success rate of crowdfunding projects is somewhat low, scholarly understanding of what distinguishes projects that reach their fundraising goals from those that fail remains incomplete. Further, studies on crowdfunding success often examine a number of variables that make predicting success a challenge for entrepreneurs wiling to use crowdfunding. This study uses topic modelling on a data set of over 21,000 technology projects from Kickstarter to investigate if short-text project summaries can reveal predictors of fundraising success on crowdfunding platforms. The results indicate that compared to those that fail in fundraising, project summaries of successfully funded technology projects put forward more trendy topics, use wording that reflects novelty, and focus on solving a social problem. Our results contribute to theory and practice by suggesting the importance of summarizing project content for crowdfunding success. |
first_indexed | 2024-12-18T06:13:50Z |
format | Article |
id | doaj.art-6cea87d50c844c6fb67ef2f08da35afd |
institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1927-0321 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-12-18T06:13:50Z |
publishDate | 2022-03-01 |
publisher | Carleton University |
record_format | Article |
series | Technology Innovation Management Review |
spelling | doaj.art-6cea87d50c844c6fb67ef2f08da35afd2022-12-21T21:18:19ZengCarleton UniversityTechnology Innovation Management Review1927-03212022-03-011111-123344http://doi.org/10.22215/timreview/1472Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding SuccessM. Westerlund0Ishdeep Singh1Mervi Rajahonka2S. Leminen3 Carleton University Carleton University South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences University of South-Eastern Norway Crowdfunding has emerged in recent years as an important alternative means for technology entrepreneurs to raise funds for their products and business ideas. While the success rate of crowdfunding projects is somewhat low, scholarly understanding of what distinguishes projects that reach their fundraising goals from those that fail remains incomplete. Further, studies on crowdfunding success often examine a number of variables that make predicting success a challenge for entrepreneurs wiling to use crowdfunding. This study uses topic modelling on a data set of over 21,000 technology projects from Kickstarter to investigate if short-text project summaries can reveal predictors of fundraising success on crowdfunding platforms. The results indicate that compared to those that fail in fundraising, project summaries of successfully funded technology projects put forward more trendy topics, use wording that reflects novelty, and focus on solving a social problem. Our results contribute to theory and practice by suggesting the importance of summarizing project content for crowdfunding success.https://timreview.ca/timreview.ca/article/1472backerscrowdfundingfailurefundingfundraisingkickstarterpredictionprojectsuccesstopic modelling |
spellingShingle | M. Westerlund Ishdeep Singh Mervi Rajahonka S. Leminen Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success Technology Innovation Management Review backers crowdfunding failure funding fundraising kickstarter prediction project success topic modelling |
title | Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success |
title_full | Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success |
title_fullStr | Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success |
title_full_unstemmed | Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success |
title_short | Technology Project Summaries as a Predictor of Crowdfunding Success |
title_sort | technology project summaries as a predictor of crowdfunding success |
topic | backers crowdfunding failure funding fundraising kickstarter prediction project success topic modelling |
url | https://timreview.ca/timreview.ca/article/1472 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT mwesterlund technologyprojectsummariesasapredictorofcrowdfundingsuccess AT ishdeepsingh technologyprojectsummariesasapredictorofcrowdfundingsuccess AT mervirajahonka technologyprojectsummariesasapredictorofcrowdfundingsuccess AT sleminen technologyprojectsummariesasapredictorofcrowdfundingsuccess |