Crowdfunding Success Factors: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

A significant body of research has explored various antecedent determinants of crowdfunding success. However, the mixed findings and a lack of theoretical consensus in this domain have impeded efforts to understand which factors truly influence crowdfunding success. In response to this challenge, we carry out a meta-analysis of pertinent research on crowdfunding success factors, guided by the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to construct central and peripheral information links. Drawing upon 173 empirical studies, we categorize all independent variables into 22 widely investigated factors and scrutinize each one’s correlation with crowdfunding performance. Further, we examine the moderating roles of metrics for measuring crowdfunding success, crowdfunding model, platform popularity, and project region in these relationships, which serve as research context factors referring to the role of elaboration likelihood within the ELM. In addition, a cross-temporal meta-analysis using 103 samples uncovers that although the percentage of successful crowdfunding projects across data sets increases as time goes on, the overall increasing rate slows down over time. Our study synthesizes existing research on the determinants of crowdfunding success, reconciles conflicting results, and pinpoints several reasons for the inconsistencies among existing studies. Our findings facilitate future theoretical developments in this research area and assist market participants in optimizing their practical strategies.

History: Jason Thatcher, Senior Editor; Chad Ho, Associate Editor.

Funding: This work was supported by the University Grants Committee through the Research Grants Council General Research Fund [Grants 14500521, 14504524, and 165052947] and by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [Grants 72121001, 72301301, 72071038, and 7247030852].

Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.0640.