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What Makes Crowds Fund? The Link Between Crowdfunding and Self-Construal in the Music Industry

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Date

2015

Authors

Supervisor

Waiguny, Martin
Marshall, Roger

Item type

Thesis

Degree name

Master of Business

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Auckland University of Technology

Abstract

Crowdfunding through an online environment has emerged as a popular capital raising means for a variety of different organisations and industries across numerous countries. The increasing popularity of crowdfunding brings with it a need for a better understanding of this expansive movement, including the influencing drivers that motivate individuals to contribute towards a crowdfunding campaign. The past few years has realised the potential of crowdfunding from the general public in the entertainment industry (Kickstarter, 2013b; Palmer, 2014; PledgeMusic, 2013), with a growing number of musicians and artists utilising the funding opportunities offered to them through online platforms such as Kickstarter and PledgeMusic. This research explores the notion of self-construal and communication methods as motivating factors in an individual’s decision to participate in a crowdfunding endeavour in the specific context of the music industry. An experimental design using an online survey was conducted to examine this connection. Respondents were asked to complete a priming activity designed to set either a dependent or independent state of self- construal, the viewed one of three simulated Facebook pages featuring band content which was presented using different communication strategies. Respondents were then asked to answer a range of questions relating to crowdfunding, contributions, and their perceived attitudes. The resulting data set from this experiment was then analysed using SPSS. The results indicate that independently, neither self-construal nor communication strategy significantly influence a individuals contribution behaviour in a crowdfunding situation, however, a combined self-construal state and communication strategy shows a significant influence on an individual’s contribution towards crowdfunding endeavour.

Description

Keywords

Crowdfunding, Self-construal, Communication, Crowdsourcing, Social Media, Experimental design

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Permanent link

https://hdl.handle.net/10292/9238

Collections

Masters Theses