Influence mechanism of charitable crowdfunding context on individual donation intention: BASED on the SOR framework

ABSTRACT

For philanthropic crowdfunding projects based on Internet platforms, their specific situational features(perceived credibility of the platform, perceived reputation of the project initiator and perceived persuasiveness of the project text) are important factors influencing the audience’s donation intention, but the exact mechanism of influence is not clear. This paper attempts to reveal the mechanism of the influence of crowdfunding contexts on individuals’ willingness to give, based on the SOR framework, combined with motivation theory, using crowdfunding situational characteristics as the initial stimulus and donor motivation as the psychological activity of the organism, with the help of mediating effects. At the same time, financial constraints are set as a moderating variable to examine whether personal financial status affects the transformation of motivation into a willingness to give. The results show that: firstly, the situational characteristics of crowdfunding projects (perceived credibility of the platform, perceived reputation of the project initiator and perceived persuasiveness of the project text) have a significant effect on individuals’ donation intention.Secondly, intrinsic motivation plays a significant mediating role in the path of influence of crowdfunding situational characteristics on donation intentions, and social influence in extrinsic motivation has a significant mediating role.Finally, the moderating effect of financial constraints was not significant in the pathway of intrinsic motivations (pity, guilt, satisfaction) on donation intentions. Similarly, the moderating effect of financial constraints on the pathway of extrinsic motivations (personal gain, social influence) on donation intentions was also not significant.

KEYWORDS:

• Crowdfunding
• donation
• SOR theory
• motivation theory

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Miss. Li for her guidance on this paper, and also the Chongqing Institute of Social Sciences Planning for its financial support of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).