Graduation Year

2017

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Ph.D.

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Degree Granting Department

Information Systems and Decision Sciences

Major Professor

Wolfgang Jank, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Balaji Padmanabhan, Ph.D.

Committee Member

He Zhang, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Terry L. Sincich, Ph.D.

Keywords

Contribution dynamics, Strategic Decision, Functional Data Analysis, Crowdfunding, Product Shipment

Abstract

In the recent years, crowdfunding (a phenomenon where individuals collectively contribute money to back different goals and projects through the internet) has been gaining a lot of attention especially for its socio-economic impact. This dissertation explores this phenomenon in three distinct but related essays. The first essay explores the nature and dynamics of backers’ contributions and uses the insights generated to develop a forecasting model that can predict crowdfunding campaign outcomes. The second essay investigates how creators’ crowdfunding campaign design decisions impact their funding and post-funding outcomes. Interestingly, the essay highlights that certain crowdfunding campaign design decisions have differential effects on both funding and post-funding phases and this has implications for creators, backers, and crowdfunding platform owners. Finally, the third essay investigates whether creators’ post-funding relations-building efforts with backers matter and how such relations-building efforts might impact the performance of their subsequent crowdfunding campaign. In general, this dissertation not only increases our understanding of the crowdfunding phenomenon across the funding and post-funding phases, it also provides insights and tools that can help stakeholders maximize the benefits accruable to them when they engage in crowdfunding.

Download

Share

COinS