A configurational model of reward-based crowdfunding project characteristics and operational approaches to delivery performance

摘要

Reward-based crowdfunding projects promise funders various kinds of rewards for contributing to their funding goals. After successful funding, the funders expect the project owners to deliver the promised rewards within the specified delivery time. Contrary to crowdfunding research based on conventional symmetric thinking, this research investigates the crowdfunded projects using asymmetric analytics to identify different configurational paths to delivery performance. Using data from the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) was conducted for the antecedent factors, including project venture status, promised lead time, and sourcing as well as production approaches. The findings indicate that the configurational models, with high consistency and coverage, are sufficient antecedent conditions for on-time and late delivery. Further, the results confirm that a single antecedent condition cannot solely produce an outcome but should be incorporated with other conditions to produce an intended outcome. The findings offer insights into the setting of realistic promised lead times that can be combined with other antecedent conditions to achieve on-time delivery. This research supports the complexity theory and extends its application to crowdfunding research by emphasizing that the approaches for on-time reward delivery performance are unique and not mirror opposites of those applied in late reward delivery performance. Further implications are drawn for crowdfunding stakeholders.