Exploring the Strategic Elements of Backers’ Persuasion in Reward-Based Crowdfunding

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the strategic elements that project founders' use in reward-based crowdfunding campaigns to achieve a higher level of persuasion. Exploration of these elements not only provides insights into an entrepreneur's experience with crowdfunding but also provides material for comparing results reported by other (quantitative) studies. We conducted an empirical study with 13 Kickstarter project founders through in-depth, semi-structured interviews which were analysed through a reflexive thematic analysis approach. Drawing from our findings, we propose four strategic elements that founders use to persuade backers and achieve success drawing from individual-level experiences and observations.

Keywords

• strategic elements
• reward-based crowdfunding
• thematic analysis
• project founders