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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Main Authors: M. Westerlund, Ishdeep Singh, Mervi Rajahonka, S. Leminen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Carleton University 2022-03-01
Series:Technology Innovation Management Review
Subjects:
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.
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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
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