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Crowdfunding has become a popular method to acquire capital for entrepreneurial ventures. To successfully achieve funding goals, it is critical for crowdfunding campaigns to attain support of individuals (backers). This paper aims to presents a conceptual model that links a reward-based crowdfunding campaign’s product, pitch and promoter characteristics to expert and casual backers’ evaluation and behavior.

This paper draws from literature from consumer behavior, network, signaling and informational social influence theories to design a conceptual framework that highlights factors that influence potential backers’ participation in crowdfunding campaigns.

It is demonstrated that the conceptual framework presented in the manuscript usefully organizes the real-world tactical marketing decisions of a crowdfunding backer while also being readily amendable to integrating theoretical accounts of human behavior from a diverse body of social science literature. Empirically testable propositions are derived from this social science literature and recast into a manner that could be investigated in the crowdfunding context to expand the body of knowledge on this topic.

This manuscript provides a framework that can be useful to crowdfunders who wish to strategically plan how their marketing communication plan features may be tailored to attract both early- and late-stage crowdfunding backers.

This paper is novel in the crowdfunding literature because it integrates a diverse body of literature to explicitly identify how the strategic and tactical marketing communication characteristics of a crowdfunding campaign are likely to differently influence different types of potential crowdfunding backers.

The aim of this study is to contribute to previous research by investigating the principle of regulatory congruence in two-sided advertising messages. Additionally, it addresses the underlying mechanisms of the congruence effect.

The study encompasses two experiments: a two-level between-subjects design, manipulating the message’s frame (prevention vs promotion), while measuring respondents’ chronic self-regulatory focus (prevention vs promotion), and a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, manipulating processing depth (central vs peripheral) and message frame (prevention- vs promotion-oriented), while measuring individuals’ chronic self-regulatory focus (prevention vs promotion).

Study 1 shows that in two-sided messages, the effect of regulatory congruence on attitudes toward the message depends on individuals’ self-regulatory focus: a congruence effect was only found in promotion-focused individuals. This congruence effect was driven by processing fluency. The second study builds on the first one by exploring the absence of a congruence effect found in prevention-focused individuals. Its results show that in prevention-focused individuals, processing depth influences regulatory congruence effects in two-sided messages. Under peripheral processing, prevention-focused individuals have more positive attitudes toward the issue when two-sided messages are congruent with their self-regulatory focus. Under central processing, on the other hand, a regulatory incongruence effect on attitudes occurs.

This study complements prior research by examining the validity of the regulatory congruence principle in the context of two-sided messages. Moreover, it addresses the underlying mechanisms driving regulatory (in)congruence effects. As such, our study contributes both to the existing research on two-sided messages and that on regulatory focus.

This study aims to address the credibility effects of refutational versus non-refutational two-sided messages. Additionally, it aims to unravel the moderating role of issue ambivalence and argument type.

A 2 × 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial experimental design (N = 853 adolescents) investigates the effect of eight anti-binge drinking and anti-marijuana messages on source and message credibility.

The results show that refutation increases credibility compared to non-refutation. Additionally, a three-way interaction effect is found: credibility depends on the ambivalence of the issue and the argument type.

First, this study clarifies the inconsistencies found in previous literature regarding (non-)refutational two-sided messages by addressing two important (and so far neglected) moderating variables. Second, we provide useful new insights for health practitioners who develop campaigns to prevent drug abuse among adolescents.