Exploring individuals’ behavioral intentions toward donation crowdfunding: evidence from China

Date12 August 2019
Published date12 August 2019
Pages1515-1534
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/IMDS-10-2018-0451
AuthorTao Wang,Yalan Li,Minghui Kang,Haichao Zheng
Subject MatterInformation & knowledge management
Exploring individualsbehavioral
intentions toward donation
crowdfunding: evidence from China
Tao Wang and Yalan Li
School of Economic Information Engineering,
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
Minghui Kang
School of Economics, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China, and
Haichao Zheng
School of Economic Information Engineering,
Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, Chengdu, China
Abstract
Purpose Thepurpose of this paperis to apply the self-determinationtheory (SDT) topropose a researchmodel
that incorporates the SDT framework and contextual variables as determinants and self-identity and social
identity as mediating constructs to predict individualsintentions toward donation crowdfunding in China.
Design/methodology/approach Structural equation mo deling is used to analyz e the data collected
from China.
Findings The results indicate that the self-identity and social identity collectively or separately mediate the
effect exerted by the sense of self-worth, face concern, moral obligation, perceived donor effectiveness, social
interaction and referent network size on donation intentions. However, there is no evidence supporting the
hypothesis connecting moral obligation with self-identity.
Practical implications The study provides suggestions for service providers on how to improve and
perfect the functions, and it also provides insights for donation crowdfunding fundraisers on how to increase
the success rate.
Originality/value The conclusions of this study provide academics with a more thorough understanding of
the driving forces of individual behavior intention toward donation crowdfunding in China. This study further
expands the SDT and identity theory in the context of donation crowdfunding, which improves their robustness in
explaining behavioral intention. These theories may be an important part of future information system research.
Keywords Self-identity, Social identity, Self-determination theory, Donation crowdfunding,
Individualsbehavior, Self-determination theory (SDT)
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Although donation crowdfunding was only introduced to China less than five years ago, it is
already considered the most popular crowdfunding approach today that can effectively
organize the funding of fixed project development costs (Boudreau et al., 2015). From
rescuing homeless animals to overcoming medical crises, eliminating community problems
to reallocating educational resources, donation crowdfunding covers an incredibly broad
spectrum of topics. Furthermore, donation crowdfunding has attracted a surge of interest
from researchers, industry practitioners and even the general public (Boudreau et al., 2015).
According to the World Bank, China is a rising star in the global crowdfunding market, and
by the end of 2025, it will reach a size of $50bn, among which donation crowdfunding is
expected to account for one-fifth of that figure. Moreover, based on the report released
Industrial Management & Data
Systems
Vol. 119 No. 7, 2019
pp. 1515-1534
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0263-5577
DOI 10.1108/IMDS-10-2018-0451
Received 15 October 2018
Revised 19 May 2019
19 July 2019
Accepted 25 July 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0263-5577.htm
This work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71502145,
71702155), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. JBK1902032), and the
Key Laboratory of Financial Intelligence and Financial Engineering of Sichuan Province.
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Exploring
individuals
behavioral
intentions
by Tencent Charity, 20 Internet fundraising information platforms designated by the
Charity Law issued 21,000 fundraising documents for more than 1,400 public charitable
organizations nationwide in 2018. Meanwhile, over 8.46bn people are involved, raising a
total of more than 3.17bn yuan, an increase of 26.8 percent compared with 2017.
Compared with traditional charity, donation crowdfunding is free from the allocation
cycle of traditional capital, and it has broken the restrictions of time and space. Through
donation crowdfunding, smaller entrepreneurs or individuals who traditionally had great
difficulty in obtaining capital now have access to anyone in the world with a computer and
Internet access, and gather up small amounts of funds from crowds without the limitations
of time and space. With the wide reach of social networking and the popularity of mobile
payments, donation crowdfunding has more of the general public involved in it. It has
become a new belief system and has changed the nature of charity, which encourages
everyone to do something good.
Although donation crowdfunding provides exciting opportunities for both fundraisers and
funders, it also has many challenges to overcome. Donation crowdfunding remains a topic of
hot debate, with questions raised about whether the wider public should engage in donation
crowdfunding, characterized by many as highly risky and lacking donor protections (Boudreau
et al., 2015). As an emerging topic, the relevant literature has paid considerable attention to loan-
based, equity-based and reward-based crowdfunding, with the exception of donation
crowdfunding, not to mention what factors influence donation intention. Insufficient research on
the donation intention of the public raises critical questions, particularly when evidence
indicates that donation crowdfunding has experienced an extremely low success rate. Moreover,
despite the fact that the proportion of the population engaged in donation crowdfunding is
much higher than other types, when considering the total population of China, it is evident that
too few people are willing to participate in it. Given that the success of a crowdfunding project
depends entirely on the involvement of potential investors, understanding their motivations and
behaviors is a more compelling purpose of this research area.
Drawing on the existing literature, we have identified potential factors underlying
donation intentions that adopted the self-determination theory (SDT) and identity theory as
the theoretical foundation. Based on SDT, most individualsbehavior is driven by the
combination of extrinsic and intrinsic motivations. In addition to these, previous studies
have also revealed the importance of contextual support in influencing individualsbehavior
(Ryan and Deci, 2000b); therefore, we have also incorporated contextual factors into our
model to provide a better understanding for individualsintentions. To shed light on this, we
have looked over extensive literature on donation crowdfunding and identity research.
However, owing to the fact that donation crowdfunding is still at a preliminary stage,
empirically validated research that is relevant to individualsdonation intentions is virtually
absent. For this reason, we have reviewed an expanded range of related studies, including
three other kinds of crowdfunding, as well as charitable giving. Eventually, SDT was
adopted as the theoretical foundation and incorporated self-identity and social identity as
mediating constructs to analyze the antecedents of individualsdonation intentions.
The model combined contextual factors with the SDT framework including extrinsic
motivations and intrinsic motivations. To test the model, structural equation modeling was
introduced to analyze data collected from 588 respondents in China.
The study will be of great significance to both industry and academia. Specifically, this
paper provides service providers suggestions on how to improve and perfect the functions,
and it also provides insights for donation crowdfunding fundraisers into how to increase the
success rate from a practical perspective. From a theoretical perspective, the findings of this
study provide a better understanding of the driving forces of individualsintentions toward
donation crowdfunding for academics. This study also further expands the SDT and
identity theory into the context of donation crowdfunding, which improves their robustness
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