From organizational preparedness to funders’ decisions:effects of synergetic trust formation and systematic processes in organization-led crowdfunding campaigns

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the processes observed in organization-led, reward-based, crowdfunding campaigns towards successful funding outcomes. Prior research has overlooked the processes organizations encounter when planning and executing crowdfunding campaigns that subsequently shape funders’ decision-making processes. This qualitative research uses a process-based view and trust theories to understand the crowdfunding processes arising from interactions occurring during temporal organization-led crowdfunding initiatives in the creative industries. The study completed 35 in-depth and open-ended interviews and observations to understand these processes. Additional qualitative data forms enhance the study including digital data sources, screen-based documents and archival documents (675 pages). The study’s aim to differentiate between individual-led and organization-led crowdfunding processes becomes the first contribution to the crowdfunding literature. Next, the first two articles contribute individually to distinct and yet, interdependent synergies (i.e., organizational crowdfunding teams and funders). Each article presents its focused inquiry with the goal of understanding different aspects of organization-led crowdfunding campaigns. A third article provides a teaching case. The thesis comprises five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces an overview of the literature, the purpose of the study, the research methodology and the structure of the thesis. Chapter 2 presents the first article, ‘From Inception to Finalization: Curating campaign processes in organization-led crowdfunding.’ This article explores eight cases representing mainstream crowdfunding organizations. Specifically, the study examines the processes crowdfunding organizations teams employ to acquire and assemble the necessary knowledge and skills to stage successful crowdfunding campaigns. The article also addresses context-related challenges such as diverging ideologies and the expectations of multiple internal stakeholders. Key findings demonstrate interdependent trust dimensions rising as synergetic mechanisms leveraging the initialization, the steering and the finalization exchanges affecting the choreographed organizational processes in this context. Chapter 3 submits the second article, ‘Capitalizing Relational and Competence Trust: funders’ decision processes in organization-led crowdfunding.’ This article investigates funders’ interactions and reliance on a trusted environment and associations to develop their decisions at distinctive stages of the crowdfunding contribution process. Using data responses from an assortment of funders (e.g., experienced and nascent funders), key findings demonstrate that funders exercise a certain level of sophisticated screening to arrive at their final financing decisions and circulation of campaign information based on their professional experience and social involvement in the creative industries. Chapter 4 offers a published article, ‘Crowdfunding and Museums: A Field Trip Exemplar in the UK.' This learning innovation exercise links theory and practical entrepreneurial experiences, including group interfaces and processes, in the preparation of a project-based crowdfunding campaign. The conclusion (Chapter 5) outlines the significant contributions the three articles make to the advancement of our knowledge of the unique processes experienced by crowdfunding organizations and their funders