A Non-Liner Decision Model for Green Crowdfunding Project Success: Evidence from China

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2019 Jan 10;16(2):187. doi: 10.3390/ijerph16020187.

Abstract

Green growth and environmental sustainability have become a significant focus in today's living. We believe that green crowdfunding project can make an important contribution to the creation and evaluation of environmental systems. This study aims to investigate the determinants of green crowdfunding project success. Contrary to the linear relationship in previous literature, we propose a non-liner decision model that includes three determinants, funds pledge, goal setting, and project duration to predict project success. The quantitative approach method was employed. We crawl data on 1389 green crowdfunding projects from Tencent Lejuan, a crowdfunding platform in China. By using ordinary least square method to conduct data analysis, we find that the effect of goal setting on project success is non-linear as low and moderate levels of goal setting are not always likely to have a significant impact on project success, but the presence of a higher goal is likely to exert a positive effect on project success. Moreover, results show that the effect of project duration on project success is non-linear as short and moderate levels of duration is not always certain to have significant impact on project success, but the presence of a long duration is likely to exert a positive effect on project success. This study has implications for fund-seekers for green crowdfunding projects and managers of crowdfunding platforms.

Keywords: decision making model; environmental sustainability; goal setting; green crowdfunding project; non-linear; project duration.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China
  • Conservation of Natural Resources / economics*
  • Crowdsourcing / methods*
  • Decision Theory*
  • Fund Raising / methods*
  • Humans
  • Motivation
  • Time Factors