Description
Online crowdfunding has been a rapidly growing sector of both charitable giving and online purchase behavior. In 2014, $16.2 billion was raised globally by crowdfunding platforms, and that number was projected to more than double in 2015, reaching $34.4 billion. Online crowdfunding aggregates small donations from a large number of contributors to generate funds for many different purposes, including business capital and humanitarian efforts. Using Ajzen’s model of the theory of planned behavior, a survey was constructed to assess how subjective norms influence intention to donate and donation behavior in crowdfunding. In addition to the variables in Ajzen’s original theory, the survey assessed the role of credibility in crowdfunding and whether perceived credibility serves as a predictor of intention to donate or donation behavior. To further adapt the application of the theory of planned behavior to investigate online crowdfunding behavior, the measure of motivation to comply was assessed separately from subjective norms of a social network. Relationships between motivation to comply and the variables intention to donate and donating today were analyzed to determine the strength of the relationships between the variables. A strong relationship between motivation to comply and intention to donate and motivation to comply and donating today would indicate that motivation to comply applies similarly to online and offline transactions. A survey of those who had contributed to crowdfunding campaigns (N = 316) was conducted online using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Results of the survey revealed that the subjective norms of an individual’s social network are the biggest predictor of making a donation to a crowdfunding campaign. Additionally, the results indicated that the variables confidence in ability to donate to a crowdfunding campaign, attitude toward helping others, motivation to comply, and attitude toward crowdfunding campaigns best predict an individual’s intention to donate to a given crowdfunding campaign. Additionally, the results show that intention to donate and actual donation behavior have a weak relationship. This means that intention to donate to a crowdfunding campaign does not predict that an individual will follow through with his or her intentions and complete the intended behavior of donating to a campaign.
