Key factors of information management for crowdfunding investor satisfaction

Manpower, financial, material resources, and participation level in national fitness: a fuzzy-set QCA approach

Background

In the era of economic globalization, major public health events-such as the Ebola epidemic, the avian influenza epidemic, the "SARS" epidemic, and the COVID-19 pandemic-occur more frequently, severely endangering human life safety and health and making global public health governance a major survival issue of universal concern. Therefore, governments have included the improvement of national health in their sustainable development goals, and its important position in global and national health policies has become increasingly prominent. However, the most common non-medical intervention taken by the government is to encourage people to actively participate in physical fitness activities to prevent disease and improve health. Therefore, how to improve the level of participation in national fitness is not only a hot topic in the academic community, but also a work content that governments around the world attach great importance to.

Objectives

To reveal the complex interaction of the factors affecting the participation level in national fitness and obtain the linkage and adaptation mode of multiple conditions.

Study design

Starting from the three elements of manpower, financial, material resources, combined with the characteristics of the organizational behavior of local governments in China, this study puts forward an integrated analysis framework to understand the difference of the participation level in national fitness in various provinces and regions.

Methods

Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is used to carry out configuration analysis on the participation level in national fitness in 31 provinces and regions in China.

Results

First, no single necessary condition can explain the results, whether for high-or low-level national fitness participation. Second, the construction of social sports instructors, public financial support for mass sports, and the supply of sports venues are the core conditions for improving the participation level in national fitness. Third, high-level participation of national fitness is carried out in five ways in China's provinces.

Conclusion

These findings enrich the literature on improving the participation level in national fitness, and provide useful practical enlightenment for the local governments to increase the participation level in national fitness.

Fundraiser engagement, third-party endorsement and crowdfunding performance: A configurational theory approach

Reward-based crowdfunding is a typical two-sided platform (fundraiser side and backer side) with high information asymmetry. While existing research indicates that signals from fundraisers and backers can impact crowdfunding performance, the interplay among these signals warrants further investigation. Drawing on signaling theory, this study adopts a configurational perspective and utilizes the fsQCA method and linear regression to investigate the combined effects of fundraiser engagement (update and fundraiser comment), third-party endorsement (backer comment and Facebook sharing), and project preparedness (video, image, and description) on crowdfunding performance. Drawing data from the reward-based crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, this research pointed out that these signals cannot generate better crowdfunding performance alone and examined substitution and complementary effects among different signals. Based on the linear regression and fsQCA results, configurations that lead to high crowdfunding performance are identified. We found that project preparedness must work with other signals to produce high crowdfunding performance. Besides, we summarized these configurations into two patterns that may lead to high crowdfunding performance: a fundraiser engagement-driven pattern and a third-party endorsement-driven pattern. This study contributes a configurational perspective and valuable insights into how signals can work together to mitigate information asymmetry in crowdfunding.

When does a freemium business model lead to high performance? - A qualitative comparative analysis based on fuzzy Sets

Existing research has neglected to explain why freemium business models lead to differentiated performance or what accounts for the difference in their revenue models. This study investigates how the configuration effect of freemium business models promotes performance and explores the different ways through which freemium business models, their dynamic capabilities, and environmental uncertainty interact to achieve high performance. The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach was used to test the conceptual model with data from 45 freemium business model apps. From empirical evidence on the relationship between freemium business models, dynamic capabilities, and environmental uncertainty, the study finds that (1) bundled and fragmented freemium business models are fundamental performance drivers. However, they work only in combination with dynamic capabilities and environmental uncertainty. Moreover, the bundled and fragmented freemium business models have complementary rather than substitution relationships. (2) For companies with bundled and fragmented freemium business models, high sensing and seizing capabilities are critical to achieving high performance. A high bundled freemium business model, high sensing capability, and a lack of fragmented freemium business models and seizing capability can lead to high performance, regardless of reconfiguration capabilities and environmental uncertainty. (3) Under high environmental uncertainty, offering fragmented freemium business models with or without a bundled freemium business model will lead to high performance if they have high sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capabilities. This study can provide systematic decision support for achieving high performance through freemium business models and the configuration of dynamic capabilities under environmental uncertainty.

Investors' confidence in the crowdlending platform and the impact of Covid-19

Crowdlending platforms have gained importance in recent years due to digitalization. The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted the entire economy, including repercussions on digital transactions. Investors considering transactions on these platforms require confidence in both the platform and the project in order to make the right decision. For this reason, this study analyzes the links between the parties involved in the process. A survey was sent to 135 investors on the Colectual platform in January 2022, and the research method adopted is Fuzzy Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). The study examines the connections between the platform, the investors, and the project developers, to assess the influence exerted by the platform on the confidence of the parties seeking and providing investment. The main result is that Covid-19 has been a key factor in the confidence of investors in the platform, and it has had a significant influence on the investments made.

How to capitalize on investors by using information presentation and feedback on crowdfunding projects

As an innovative financing activity, online crowdfunding is characterized by extremely high information asymmetry. To reduce this information asymmetry, crowdfunding companies typically use information presentation, feedback, and other means to convey more information about the fundraising project to investors. Whether the information presentation and feedback affect the investment behavior of nonprofessional ordinary investors is yet to be determined. Moreover, the method by which the information presentation and feedback influence the investment behavior and consequently, the financing performance of crowdfunding companies, has to be identified as well. Currently, research on this subject remains deficient. Therefore, with signal theory and the difference in the cost of information transmission considered, this study classifies the information released by fundraisers on the crowdfunding platform into two categories: low-quality signal and high-quality signal. Projects on the JD.com Crowdfunding website are then used as research samples to explore how the difference in signal quality in the information presentation and feedback of crowdfunding projects influences financing performance from the perspective of investors. The results show that low-quality signals such as video duration, the number of updates, and the number of comments on projects positively affect the success of crowdfunding; meanwhile, crowdfunding experience, which represents high-quality signals, positively moderates the relationship between project video duration, project updates, and crowdfunding success.

Prioritising crowdfunding benefits: a fuzzy-AHP approach

The current research aims to explore and prioritize the key benefits that influence the acceptance of crowdfunding as a fund-raising tool, either directly or indirectly. The study utilized a multidisciplinary approach to find out the varied benefits of crowdfunding. The study also prioritized the benefits by applying the buckley fuzzy-AHP technique. The results indicate the various benefits of crowdfunding. The study's results suggest fund-raising (FR), venture viability (VV), cost structure (CS), customer relationships (CR), demand building (DB), general strategy (GS), market intelligence (MI), personal sphere (PS), business ecosystem (BE), team development (TD) and product lifecycle (PL) are the benefits associated with the crowdfunding process. The findings also suggest that the topmost benefit of crowdfunding is FR. But our study has not categorized the benefits according to different types of crowdfunding, and the study's findings cannot be generalized as the study was conducted in India. The study highlighted the critical financial and non-financial benefits of crowdfunding which can help the entrepreneurs to have more insightful knowledge of the potential benefits of crowdfunding. Studying the financial and non-financial benefits of crowdfunding can further help the entrepreneurs utilize crowdfunding platforms, depending on the need, to provide the right solution to their requirements. This research is the first study to apply the buckley fuzzy-AHP technique to prioritize the multidisciplinary benefits of crowdfunding, thereby widening the knowledge base of academicians and entrepreneurs.