Essays on the influence of narratives in crowdfunding

This thesis in entrepreneurship is based on 4 essays. These papers study crowdfunding and try to understand the role of emotions in the context of crowdfunding. Specifically, in this thesis, we focus on how emotions- as communicated by entrepreneurs through narratives, may influence funders' decision to participate into a crowdfunding campaign. After a first paper defining the theoretical framework of the thesis, the second and the third papers rely on a data base analysis and on an experimental design. Results suggest that funders are animated by different types of motivations and that these motivations affect the type of narratives that influence them the most. The fourth and last paper completes this 4-years research work with a context which is particularly emotionally charged: we analyze the motivations of the people who engage into the crowdfunding campaigns launched after a school shooting.(ECGE - Sciences économiques et de gestion) -- UCL, 201