Product Commercialization through Crowdfunding Websites: A Consumer-Centric Approach

Crowdfunding websites have emerged as a novel financing channel to promote new ideas and facilitate innovative product development. The crowd can examine the project online and provide their support in the form of a donation or in exchange for reward. The study argues that the success of crowdfunding refers not only to financial resources but also to the connection among individuals on the crowdsourcing website. Considering the characteristics of online funders and product development, this study proposes an integrative model to examine the relationships among individuals’ traits, affordance of website design, individual cognition, and funding intention. A survey was conducted to collect and analyze empirical data from the largest Taiwanese crowdfunding website. The research results demonstrate that individuals’ altruism and innovativeness significantly affect their trusting belief in the crowdfunding proposer; design affordance is also an important antecedent of trust and risk perception. Moreover, trust and risk perception significantly affect individuals’ attitude and further intention to donate the crowdfunding project. This study suggests both practical and theoretical views for elucidating and enhancing the effectiveness of crowdfunding.