@article{b95c0b22e6634ddab8b753e3c0df78f6,
title = "Being seen to care: The relationship between self-presentation and contributions to online pro-social crowdfunding campaigns",
abstract = "Although the desire for image enhancement has long been considered one of the key motivations for prosocial behavior in conventional offline settings, comparatively little evidence exists as to whether the same assumptions hold for online interactions. Our study addresses this gap in the literature by investigating whether self-presentation leads to variations in prosocial behaviors among contributors to online pro-social crowdfunding campaigns. We present an analysis of data from the Internet crowdfunding platform {\textquoteleft}Lendwithcare{\textquoteright} which combines the results of a tailored survey with recorded patterns of actual funding activity. By using the presence of a publicly visible lender profile as a proxy for image consciousness, we hypothesize that self-presenting funders will increase levels of visible activity (number of loans made), but will not vary levels of non-visible activity (average monetary value of each loan) relative to other funders. We find empirical evidence that is largely consistent with our hypotheses. Our findings are likely to be of interest to both academics and practitioners seeking to better understand funder motivations and prosocial behaviors in online settings.",
keywords = "Crowdfunding, Image consciousness, Online, Pro-social behavior, Self-presentation",
author = "Joe Cox and Thang Nguyen and Andy Thorpe and Alessio Ishizaka and Salem Chakhar and Liz Meech",
note = "Funding Information: We would like to acknowledge the extensive cooperation and assistance provided by the Lendwithcare team, without whom this study would not have been possible. We would also like to thank to the community of lenders, especially those who took the time to respond to our survey. Additionally, we would like to express our thanks to Ansgar Wohlschlegel, Petros Sekeris and Robin Lumsdaine for their comments on working versions of this paper. This work was partially supported by funding from the EPSRC and New Economic Models in the Digital Economy (NEMODE) network as part of the Volunteer and Crowdsourcing Economics project ( EP/K039784/1 ). Dr. Joe Cox is a Principal Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth Business School. His research interests relate to the digital economy and areas such as crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, digital piracy and video games. He is also lead academic investigator on research projects funded by the EPSRC and Innovate UK. Dr Thang Nguyen is a Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth Business School. His research expertise relates to crowdfunding and fin-tech innovations, as well as having extensive experience in manipulating and analysing big datasets. Professor Andy Thorpe is a Professor of Development Economics at the University of Portsmouth Business School. He has published in internationally renowned journals such as World Development, the African Development Review and Defence and Peace Economics. Professor Alessio Sihizaka is a Professor in Decision Analysis at the University of Portsmouth Business School. His expertise includes decision making, supply chain management, outsourcing and innovation management. Dr Salem Chakhar is a Research Fellow at the University of Portsmouth Business School. His areas of expertise include multicriteria analysis, group decision making, decision support systems, geographical information science and systems, spatial modelling and analysis, database and information systems, web services, fuzzy theory and applications, and knowledge management. Liz Meech is a Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth Business School. Her research interests include ageing consumers and online consumer behavior, and the role of digital technologies in sales management. Funding Information: This work was partially supported by funding from the EPSRC and New Economic Models in the Digital Economy (NEMODE) network as part of the Volunteer and Crowdsourcing Economics project (EP/K039784/1). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2018",
year = "2018",
month = jun,
doi = "10.1016/j.chb.2018.01.014",
language = "English",
volume = "83",
pages = "45--55",
}