Facets of motivation in crowdfunding

This thesis serves as an introduction to an investigation of sociological aspects of motivation of funding in crowdfunding projects. The text explains basic internal mechanisms of a crowdfunding campaign and the explanation is based on a review of available literature and on own qualitative study carried out on a sample of crowdfunding campaign planners. The described mechanisms reveal individual aspects of crowdfunding motivation. The thesis works with a hypothesis that the aspects can be divided into two dimensions: the social dimension based on the theory of social exchange and the economical dimension based on the theory of rational choice. The hypothesis was tested by a quantitative approach using data collected on a sample of backers. Instead of approving the hypothesis, the data revealed that there were five dimensions associated with the aspects of backer motivation. The dimensions are described and discussed in the thesis