When language expectations meet entrepreneurial narratives: how narrative structure shapes funding efficiency in prosocial crowdfunding

Purpose Narratives play an important role in entrepreneurial financing because they help external evaluators understand project information and assess whether a funding request is credible and worthy of support. This paper aims to examine how narrative structure shapes funding efficiency in prosocial crowdfunding. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on language expectancy theory (LET), this study examines how narrative structure and narrative distinctiveness affect funding efficiency. Using 22,681 project narratives obtained from Kiva, we apply text-mining techniques to measure the extent to which each project narrative approximates a traditional linear narrative arc and the extent to which its semantic content differs from that of comparable projects. Findings The empirical results show that projects whose narratives more closely approximate a traditional linear narrative arc reach their funding goals more quickly, whereas projects with greater narrative distinctiveness take longer to do so. Entrepreneur gender moderates the relationship between narrative structure and funding efficiency, such that the positive relationship is stronger for female entrepreneurs. However, gender does not significantly moderate the relationship between narrative distinctiveness and funding efficiency. Originality/value These findings advance the application of LET to entrepreneurial communication and deepen our understanding of the relationships among narrative structure, narrative distinctiveness, and funding efficiency. Furthermore, these findings yield practical implications for entrepreneurs, offering evidence-informed guidance on the construction of persuasive narratives capable of effectively enhancing funding outcomes.