Sustainability, Vol. 12, Pages 650: Research on the Effects of Information Description on Crowdfunding Success within a Sustainable Economy--The Perspective of Information Communication (Sustainability)

Crowdfunding has been widely used by small and micro enterprises, which can raise funds through launching a project in crowdfunding platform. It is also beneficial to sustainable financing. What is more, the success of crowdfunding projects facilitates the sustainable development of those growing enterprises. In this study, from the perspective of information communication and based on information asymmetry and signaling theory, we identify three dimensions of information description, including information quantity (word count, picture count and video count), information attitude (as measured by comment), and information quality (readability and update). We empirically examine their direct effects on crowdfunding success and the moderating effect of information attitude using binary logistic regression. Data (N = 7207) is collected from Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding platform. The results reveal that when considering these three dimensions of information description together, word count is associated with crowdfunding success in an inverted-U shape. Picture count, video count, comment, and update have positive effects on crowdfunding success. In contrast, readability is negatively related to crowdfunding success. In addition, we find that comment negatively moderates the effect of picture count on crowdfunding success. These findings show the significance of information description on crowdfunding success, bringing theoretical and practical insights for project creators.