Web-based Crowd-funding: Financing Models, Influencing Factors and Behaviour Patterns
Wang Wei1, Guo Lihuan1,2, Wang Hongwei3(), Kevin Zhu4, He Ling1
1College of Business Administration, Huaqiao University, Quanzhou 362021, China 2College of ChenShouren Business and Information, Quanzhou Normal University, Quanzhou 362699, China 3School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China 4Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego 92093-0553, USA
[Objective] The web-based crowdfunding has become a new channel for fund-raising, which got more and more attention from governments and investors. However, limited research has been conducted on crowdfunding. This paper reviews the latest studies on crowdfunding, and discusses its trends. [Coverage] We retrieved 157 Chinese and English papers from Web of Science and CNKI using the keywords of “Crowdfunding”, “Crowdfinancing”, “Crowdinvesting” or “P2P Lending”. [Methods] By literature metrology and data analysis methods, we introduce the definitions and classifications of crowdfunding. Then we study the factors which influence the successful campaigns from the following aspects: platform of crowdfunding, description of the projects, social relationship of the founders, geographical factors, as well as the quality signals of the projects. [Results] Results of the crowdfunding campaigns were influenced by many factors, especially the non-quality ones. There was significant difference between the investors and peoples seeking funding, which determined the prospect of each campaign. [Limitations] More research is needed to investigate the crowdfunding models [Conclusions] There are still much to be explored in crowdfunding models, such as from the psychology, behavioral science and finance perspectives.
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