Technology and Crowdfunding (original) (raw)

Crowdfunding in the Cultural Industries

Advances in Crowdfunding, 2020

Cultural production has stood at the forefront of crowdfunding adoption representing some of the first crowdfunding campaigns on record. This development emerged as part of comprehensive value chain reconfigurations in the cultural sector, which were triggered by the advent of digitalization on the one hand and the downsizing in public funds on the other. As a result, the emerging phenomenon here labelled as ‘cultural crowdfunding’ (CCF) has captured the imagination of researchers and practitioners. The study of CCF is of high relevance, as it presses creators to strike a balance between the commercial and the non-commercial, the economic and the cultural outcomes, as well as the authentic and independent versus the mass dictated and dependent. In this chapter we review earlier research on CCF and identify core themes and key studies representing such themes. Later, we outline an agenda for future research, while also suggesting some implications for practice.

Crowdfunding cultural projects and networking the value creation

Arts and the Market, 2019

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how online crowdfunding is strategically applied to artistic productions featuring strong social and cultural values, exploring potential and risks of networking value creation and community engagement. Mission-driven initiatives and their crowdfunding campaigns are analyzed through platform society framework (van Dijk, 2019), considering the business models and marketing strategies that support the scope and intentions of a variety of agents involved within the online networks. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple case-study approach is adopted to sample and analyze in depth significant examples from the most representative crowdsponsoring platforms in Portugal. Agents’ perspectives and practices are collected through semi-structured interviews with campaign creators and platform managers, and complemented by the design of specific business model canvas (Osterwalder and Pigneur, 2010) adapted to crowdfunding projects...

Cultural crowdfunding, key to the economic downturn of 2008

In consequence of the global financial crisis, during the past 6 years, the cultural sector has faced large private funding cuts, leading to a growing attention towards the involvement of private citizens as potential new supporters. Crowdfunding platforms, whereby arts organizations are able to raise contributions from a plurality of supporters, present themselves as a possible solution to the present disengagement, particularly evident in the area of business support.

Communication in Crowdfunding Online Platforms.Creativity in the Digital Age Springer Series on Cultural Computing 2015, pp 171-190

The internet is the media, or sum of media, which have probably provoked the most relevant revolution in the last decades. This revolution has utterance at different contexts of the citizens’ lives. Searching a job, being in touch with people who are far away, being informed about issues of interest, streaming videos, listening to music, buying and or reading books and cocreating documents are all activities now performed online by most of the 40 % of the world population who have internet connection. Collective creation can be done with ease on the cyberspace by using any of the multitude of devices and options available.

Crowdfunding: Towards a redefinition of the artist’s role – the case of MegaTotal

International Journal of Cultural Studies, 2016

This article uses empirical research conducted on MegaTotal, a crowdfunding platform operating in Poland, in order to demonstrate the complexity of the relations between project initiators and contributors in equity/royalty-based crowdfunding. The presented research shows how differences among crowdfunding models have an impact on relations between project initiators and contributors as well as the collection process for funding by comparing MegaTotal and Kickstarter. The article proposes an analysis of these relations depending on crowdfunding type, the size and structure of the pre-existing fanbase, and the project initiator’s opinion on the role played by contributors. Our research shows that elements both suggesting that crowdfunding empowers fans and that it can be used as a means of exploiting them may be found in the analysed model of crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding artists: beyond match-making on platforms

Socio-Economic Review

This article analyzes the role that crowdfunding plays for artists who create small-scale projects. We find that artists struggle to reach new audiences and, thus, mainly use this funding tool to transform monetary gifts into reputation for their careers. Crowdfunding platforms are believed to lower transaction costs while allowing for more direct engagement between founders and funders. Instead, our study demonstrates that artists use the platform to build distance from their thick relationships and intimate networks where most of their funding originates. They hope that a successful project will help them cross the symbolic boundaries between amateur and professional realms. Despite a high success rate, most of them report not wanting to create crowdfunding campaigns again since they rarely reach other social networks. We develop these arguments to contribute to a socio-economic perspective of online funding platforms as important intermediaries in the career path of users operati...

Varieties of cultural crowdfunding The relationship between cultural production types and platform choice

Baltic Journal of Management, 2020

Purpose-Due to the unique nature of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs), the impact of crowdfunding on them is more significant than on other industries. This study investigates the association between crowdfunding campaigns in four different categories of cultural production and each campaign promoter's decision regarding platform choice. Design/methodology/approach-We classified cultural productions according to the Cultural Enterprise Framework. We collected data from 1,465 successful, reward-based, culture crowdfunding campaigns from five Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden). We used binary logistic regression for estimation purposes. Findings-We find that cultural productions with a high degree of cultural affinity are more likely to use a local platform, while cultural productions with a higher degree of complexity in production or with composite motives are more likely to use an international platform. Additionally, the funding goal and the platform's financing model affect the probability of using an international platform. Originality/value-Our finding is that there is a relationship between cultural production type and crowdfunding platform choice, and that these choices can be crucial for campaign promoters. Based on the findings and empirical setting, there is evidence that campaign promoters of cultural productions with a cultural affinity orientation may choose to use local platforms, while promoters of projects with complex production requirements or composite motives for using crowdfunding similarly may tend to opt for international platforms. We also propose a framework for the categorisation of cultural productions. Keywords Cultural and creative industries, Cultural enterprise framework, Reward-based crowdfunding, Cultural economics, Logistic regression Paper type Research paper Varieties of cultural crowdfunding 261 The authors would like to thank Mia Dahl Meidell Haaland and Eva Sastre Canelas for assistance collecting data, and Tino Carreño Morales for initial data analysis.

The Role of Crowdfunding as a Business Model in New Media Industry

2017

The business models in new media industry are in transformation. The Internet’s impact (both technological impact as well as participatory culture), decreasing readership, and audience fragmentation are among the most influential factors putting into question media management practices. In this changing scenario, the quest for new funding models of media is a priority. One new potential revenue source is crowdfunding—a distributed funding model in which projects funded by small donations or payments from a large crowd of people. In presented article a special attention is given to the case of new media. The focus of inquiry of this paper lies in exploring crowdfunding platforms. Finally, the role of crowdfunding as a funding model for new media is considered.