A mediation–moderation framework of consumers’ intention to participate in crowdfunding

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of perceived risk and shopping frequency as a mediator and a moderator in supporting a reward-based crowdfunding (CF) project by potential backers. A research framework is developed based on consumer decision-making styles and literature studies. A total of 218 valid responses are collected from offline shoppers through an online questionnaire to examine their perceptions and motivation to participate in a CF project on Indiegogo, one of the largest reward-based CF platforms. Descriptive statistics and Hayes’ PROCESS macro are used to analyze data. The results reveal five decision-making styles of Thai offline shoppers. When combining these styles, they significantly directly increase the tentative of offline shoppers to support a CF project, but indirectly decrease their backing intention through perceived risk. Past behavior in terms of respondents’ offline shopping behavior insignificantly moderate the relationships between consumer style inventory (CSI) and perceived risk, perceived risk and intention, and CSI and intention, but significantly help to lower their perceived risk. The results guide project owners in reward-based CF platforms in drawing attention from future backers, expanding their market, and creating marketing strategies for potential consumers with different decision-making styles. This work is one of the first papers that explores offline shoppers as potential backers, examines the impact of consumer decision-making styles, and analyze mediation and moderation models in the context of a reward-based CF platform