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While studies about business-to-business (B2B) relationships have mainly addressed buyer–supplier long-term exchanges, focusing on social outcomes such as trust, commitment and cooperation, there is little research that explores the social outcomes which stem from short-term B2B transactions. The purpose of this paper is to explain buyers’ intention to renew a contract after discrete and time-delimited transactions by suggesting a model that complements social exchange theory with theories of fairness. In detail, this study aims to determine how evaluations of economic and social outcomes are complemented by both procedural fairness and distributive fairness.

The hypotheses are tested in the social couponing industry with a survey of a sample of 199 firms purchasing advertising services from daily deal websites. Data are analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM).

The findings reveal direct effects of procedural fairness on social outcomes (satisfaction) and distributive fairness on the intention to renew a contract, negative moderating effect of procedural fairness on the relationship between economic outcomes (campaign effectiveness) and social outcomes (satisfaction).

In discrete, time-delimited transactions, high levels of procedural fairness may partially compensate for low levels of economic outcomes and prevent a reduction in social outcomes. Hence, when economic outcomes are influenced largely by external, uncontrollable conditions, the buyer seems to appreciate the supplier’s efforts to behave fairly.

Social outcomes matter even in discrete transactions and considerations of fairness should be integrated in the management of discrete transactions. Sharing economic outcomes fairly is not sufficient to secure the buyer’s intention to renew the contract.

This study proposes and tests a model that complements social exchange theory with theories of fairness and explains contract renewal in discrete, time-delimited transactions, encompassing both economic outcomes and social outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to probe how reward-based crowdfunding campaigns accomplish their goal by adopting the theoretical constructs of social capital dimensions: structural, cognitive and relational.

The approach used is a design model for concluded campaigns in a Mexican crowdfunding platform, which determines social capital from operating social networks (Facebook and Twitter). By using this model, the associations between the dimensions are revealed, verifying how social capital flourishes during the campaign and how it alters the campaign’s outcome.

The findings demonstrate how social interaction through a wide social network (structural dimension), shared vision and values among entrepreneurs and their potential funders (cognitive dimension), and the development of trustworthiness within the campaign (relational dimension) boost the probability of achieving the crowdfunding goal.

The results inform researchers on how social capital is forged from social networks during a crowdfunding campaign. However, the method must be validated with other crowdfunding models and other social network platforms commonly used by campaign creators.

Contributions from this paper include tools (design model and evaluation method) associating theory with the crowdfunding mechanism, complementing previous work. Crowdfunding providers, as well as campaign creators, have now an approach to appraise social capital and obtain the desired goal.

In addition to providing much-needed research on the current state of crowdfunding, this paper analyzes the link between practice and theory, which can be valuable in confining the mechanism to an accurate theory and ensuring the theory’s longevity.

This study provides a comprehensive framework of adaptation in triadic business relationship settings in the service sector. The framework is based on the industrial network approach (see, e.g., Axelsson & Easton, 1992; Håkansson & Snehota, 1995a). The study describes how adaptations initiate, how they progress, and what the outcomes of these adaptations are. Furthermore, the framework takes into account how adaptations spread in triadic relationship settings. The empirical context is corporate travel management, which is a chain of activities where an industrial enterprise, and its preferred travel agency and service supplier partners combine their resources. The scientific philosophy, on which the knowledge creation is based, is realist ontology. Epistemologically, the study relies on constructionist processes and interpretation. Case studies with in-depth interviews are the main source of data.

Though the coexistence of nonviolent and violent groups within a single movement is a common phenomenon in maximalist campaigns (e.g., regime change, anti-occupation), the effects of this coexistence remain understudied. Focusing on primarily nonviolent movements with a simultaneous “radical flank” pursuing the same goals, this study builds on previous, inconclusive literature which narrowly accounts for limited and often case-specific radical flank effects. After conducting a series of large-N regression analyses using a subset of the NAVCO 2.0 dataset, this study finds that the presence of a radical flank (1) increases both the likelihood and degree of repression by the state and (2) is most significantly linked with decreased mobilization post-repression – yet, (3) is not necessarily detrimental to overall campaign progress.

This study aims to examine consumers’ responses to crowdsourcing campaigns in the request initiation stage using the signaling theory from economics. The purpose of the research is threefold. First, it provides a comprehensive classification of various task types within crowdsourcing. Second, it conceptualizes crowdsourcing announcements as signals of customer orientation and empirically tests the differential effects of the two most common crowdsourcing task types (product- and communication-related) on customer orientation perceptions. Third, it illuminates the downstream behavioral consequences of crowdsourcing campaign announcements.

The authors conducted secondary data analysis of 883 crowdsourcing campaigns (pilot study) to provide evidence on the differential effects of crowdsourcing task types. In addition, four laboratory experiments were conducted to test the theoretical arguments. To test the main effect of crowdsourcing task types, Study 1A (N = 252 MTurk workers) used a one-factor (product- vs communication-related crowdsourcing vs control) between-subject design, whereas Study 1B (N = 171 undergraduate students) used a 2 (task type: product- vs communication-related) by 2 (product category: restaurant vs fashion) between-subject design. Study 2 (N = 93 MTurk workers) explored the underlying mechanism using a one-factor (product- vs communication-related) between-subject design. Study 3 (N = 375 MTurk workers) investigated the boundary condition for the effect of task type with a 2 (task type: product- vs communication-related) by 3 (company credibility: low vs neutral vs high) between-subject design.

The pilot study provides evidence for the conceptualized typology and the differential effects of crowdsourcing task types. Study 1A reveals that product-related crowdsourcing tends to have a more substantial impact than communication-related crowdsourcing on how customer-oriented consumers perceive a company. Study 1B validates the results of Study 1A in a different product category and population sample. Study 2 shows that the differential customer-orientation effect is mediated by the perceived cost of implementing the crowdsourcing outcome and unravels the differences in consumers’ purchase and campaign participation intentions depending on task type. Study 3 highlights that the customer-orientation effect attenuates as company credibility increases.

This research contributes to the crowdsourcing literature by categorizing the various types of crowdsourcing campaigns companies undertake and revealing the differential impact of the different types of crowdsourcing campaigns on consumers’ perceptions and behavioral intentions. In doing so, this research converges two lines of consumer research on crowdsourcing, i.e. product- and communication-related crowdsourcing. The findings add to the debate over the returns from research and development (R&D) versus advertising and extend it from marketing strategy to crowdsourcing literature.

The findings highlight the importance of choosing specific task types for crowdsourcing and lead to practical recommendations on designing crowdsourcing campaigns to maximize their benefits to crowdsourcing brands.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that differentiates crowdsourcing task types and compares their effectiveness from a consumer perspective.

The objectives of this study are threefold: to delineate the phenomenon of “You Share, We Donate” (YSWD) campaigns and what distinguishes them from sales-based cause-related marketing; to contrast the effectiveness of YSWD and sales-based cause-related marketing campaigns and provide an explanation for the differences in the effectiveness; to explore boundary conditions of the proposed differences.

Three experiments were conducted to empirically test the differential effect of campaign formats (i.e. YSWD vs sales-based cause-related marketing), the underlying mechanism and structural as well as contextual features moderating the differential effect.

The findings suggest that YSWD messages elicit consumers’ message-sharing intentions more than traditional cause-related marketing messages. The effect is explained by consumers’ sense of empowerment and can be enhanced through donation cap non-specification. The findings further indicate that YSWD campaigns are especially fruitful in low power distance cultures.

This study contributes toward corporate donation campaign literature by focusing on the usage of social media.

From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This paper extends cause-related marketing literature by not only introducing the phenomenon of YSWD campaigns to the literature but also exploring strategies to enhance the effectiveness of such campaigns and shedding light on an outcome beyond the sales impact of cause-related marketing campaigns, i.e. an increase of visibility in social media. From a managerial perspective, this research provides marketers with guidelines on how to choose between the two cause-related marketing campaign formats and how to enhance the effectiveness of YSWD campaigns.

This paper aims to provide a multidisciplinary framework that allows an integrated understanding of reasons of success or failure in equity crowdfunding (ECF), a Fintech digital innovation of the traditional entrepreneurial finance, defining a future research agenda.

A systematic literature review (SLR) has been conducted on 127 documents extracted from two multidisciplinary repositories (Elsevier’s Scopus and Clarivate Analytics Web of Science) for the period between 2015 and early 2022. After a systematized series of inclusion and exclusion criteria, in line with the objectives and conceptual boundaries, a final list of 32 peer-reviewed articles written in English was analyzed by the authors through a meta-synthesis and thematic analysis to identify the key themes and dominant concepts.

Results show that the body of literature is recent and fast growing. The proposed integrative framework of existing research indicates that the outcome of an ECF campaign is related to signals conveyed by entrepreneurs in the form of hard information (firm characteristics, financial information, business characteristics and project description) and soft information (intellectual capital, human capital, social capital and social media network), catalyzed by digital media that facilitate also personal interactions between entrepreneurs and investors. Similarly, external factors (investors and campaign characteristics, with the fundamental role of ECF platform managers in building trust between entrepreneurs and investors) allow for the alleviation of information asymmetries. The present study sheds light on which signal mechanisms are decisive in improving the outcome, taking into consideration various disciplines which follow different but complementary perspectives.

Entrepreneurs should adapt to the transition toward the digital era, exploiting alternative financial instruments and learning effective signaling strategies, within a large variety of skills requested. Platform managers can obtain more focused information on selected entrepreneurial projects more efficiently.

Although it is fast-growing, the field of research is very recent, still fragmented and limited to the perspective/discipline followed. This SLR is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first multidisciplinary and integrative analysis of reasons that motivates success, or failure, of an equity-based crowdfunding campaign. The digital nature of ECF encourages future research to move toward more pioneering and unconventional theories and research methods. Hence, the authors add to the existing literature by proposing future patterns of research based on an integration of highly technological skills and behavioral/psychological approaches.

Restaurant entrepreneurs are increasingly leveraging crowdfunding as an alternative financing mechanism. In the context of restaurant crowdfunding, studies have identified factors related to campaign communication that affect crowdfunding success from the entrepreneurs’ perspective. Integrating a funder perspective, this study aims to investigate the role of the consumption value offered by rewards and builds a value-based understanding of restaurant crowdfunding.

This study uses a sample of 3,134 restaurant campaigns launched on the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform, and texts of 34,128 rewards were analyzed using a Python program. A hierarchical linear regression approach with a generalized logistic regression model was adopted to test hypothesized relationships.

Drawing upon consumption value theory (CVT), this study finds that in restaurant crowdfunding, utilitarian value holds a strong inverted-U relationship and participatory value holds a strong linear relationship with crowdfunding success. However, socioemotional value does not have a significant effect on outcomes. This study also finds evidence for positive effects of greater variety, higher number of rewards and lower average pledge level on restaurant crowdfunding success.

This study extends the literature on restaurant crowdfunding by integrating insights on the effects of value offered through rewards. Primarily, this study finds evidence for distinct effects of consumption values for restaurant crowdfunding audience. Practically, this study holds implications for reward menu design and value offering design for restaurant entrepreneurs seeking crowdfunding.

Restaurant crowdfunding has been studied to a limited extent, with extant literature focusing on characteristics of campaign descriptions. The role of rewards is uncovered using CVT and thus a value-based understanding of restaurant crowdfunding is presented.

Despite the growing research exploring the possibility and feasibility of financing socially oriented projects through crowdfunding, relatively little research examines which crowdfunding model is better to serve such purpose. The purpose of this paper is to offer novel insights to mitigate this research gap.

A unique data set collected from the largest Chinese crowdfunding platform is used to test the hypotheses. To solve the perceived self-selection problem, the propensity score matching method is adopted in this paper. Based on this approach, the results of similar prosocial campaigns in two different models (pure donation and hybrid donation) are compared.

The empirical results show that the hybrid donation model is negatively associated with the status of success and the extent of success of prosocial campaigns. Specifically, compared to the pure donation model, hybrid donation model leads to a lower probability of success, fewer contributors, a lower funding amount and a lower completion ratio.

The paper contributes to a relatively understudied theme in crowdfunding, namely, donations. It does so by introducing the concepts of pure vs hybrid donation models and investigates the model selection problem in financing social projects through crowdfunding based on cognitive evaluation theory.

This study examines how narratives and legitimacy formation affect crowdfunding capital assembly from distributed, heterogeneous investors.

The study explores a dataset of 80,181 projects from Kickstarter, a rewards-based crowdfunding platform, between 2009 and 2013. We explore the link between project-related variables, legitimacy formation and outcomes.

Entrepreneurs design narratives and create project legitimacy by exploiting crowdfunding platform-specific features. First, lower funding targets and shorter campaign durations confer positive project legitimacy. Second, entrepreneurs exploit reward-levels as narrative tools that encourage funders to engage with the project. Third, visual pitches transmit a broader sociocultural narrative, leveraging emotional rather than financial reasoning. We also note certain gender effects.

Crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to pitch business ideas to a broad online audience. We show that project legitimacy, including both structural and narrative elements, is linked to crowdfunding outcomes. In particular, legitimacy is co-created through the generation of a persuasive narrative linking the entrepreneur and investor cohort.

Entrepreneurs use crowdfunding platforms to generate a coherent narrative around unfamiliar business models. Generic platform tools may be set and manipulated in online crowdfunding pitches to support project legitimacy. Ultimately, these are less important than establishing an affinity-based narrative that engages and exploits investor participation. Successful crowdfunding pitches co-author the project story with investors.

Crowdfunding has been traditionally understood as simply an online-mediated venture resource assembly tool. A narrative framework highlights the critical role of legitimacy formation in a disintermediated investment system.