Cognition, emotion and perceived values in crowdfunding decision making

Current research on crowdfunding treats different crowdfunding forms as identical, and focuses on finding generic success factors in crowdfunding. We argue that funding decisions are contingent on the vastly different types of crowdfunding and that these require more attention. Against the backdrop of neuroscience and consumption value theory, we shed more light on crowdfunders’ decision making. Using a factorial survey with 309 crowdfunding backers we find that decision making differs among equity, loan and presales crowdfunding types. In equity crowdfunding, cognitive values (perceived financial and informational benefits) play a dominant role. In contrast, loan and presales funding decisions are subject to both cognitive and affective factors (such as emotional value). In presales, affective values dominated, whereas financial value did not play a significant role. Loan-based forms shared characteristics with both extremes, taking some middle ground. Interestingly enough, neither novelty, nor aesthetics nor social value was found to be significant in any of the three crowdfunding types investigated.