Crowdfunding is described as a facilitator for creative entrepreneurs in their gathering of funds for projects. This bachelor’s thesis  aims at finding differences in communication components found between successful and unsuccessful crowdfunding campaigns on one of the most popular platforms, Kickstarter. Through a quantitative content analysis and a rhetorical analysis of literary topoi this study suggests that there are apparent differences in usage of titles, text, visual expressions, rewards and in themes of preparation, humility as well as quality. The findings we present conclude that a campaign with a title consisting of eight words and one punctuation are more likely to succeed than other. Further it is shown that campaigns lacking in visual expressions are running a bigger risk of failure than campaigns using a video and some images. Also a correlation between the amount of rewards and the amount of backers are being shown. The study suggests that texts should include literary topoi deriving to “person”, “item” or “special themes”. A campaign that is moderate and shows signs of preparedness in “Risks & Challenges” are more likely to succeed. Apart from this, the study show a rise in the amount of already developed products being published on Kickstarter.   It should be noted that this study is not a checklist for creating a successful campaign on Kickstarter, it is an indication on what differs between a successful and an unsuccessful campaign. / Crowdfunding beskrivs som ett effektivt sätt för kreativa entrepenörer att finansiera sina projekt eller produkter. En av de större plattformarna för detta är Kickstarter. I denna undersökning studeras skillnader i kommunikativa komponenter för crowdfundingkampanjer på Kickstarter som lyckats, respektive misslyckats, nå sitt mål för finansiering. Utifrån en kvantitativ innehållsanalys och en retorisk analys av topiker menar denna undersökning att sådana skillnader finns och består i utformningen av titeln, texten, användandet av bilder, rewards och mått av förberedelse, ödmjukhet och kvalitét inför kampanjgenomförandet. Studien slår fast att en kampanj med en titel beståendes av ca 8 ord och ett skiljetecken har en högre sannolikhet att lyckas än andra. Vidare konstateras att crowdfundingkampanjer som saknar film och har få bilder löper stor risk att misslyckas. Studien menar att texter bör omfatta topiker rörande “person”, “sak” samt “speciella teman”. En kampanj som uppvisar måttfullhet och förberedelse i avsnittet som behandlar “Risks & Challenges” har en större sannolikhet att lyckas. Studien konstaterar vidare en korrelation mellan antal rewards och antal backers. Avslutningsvis konstateras att förekomsten av redan färdigutvecklade produkters ökar på kickstarter. Studien ska inte avses som en checklista för framgång, men ger goda insikter för vilka kommunikativa komponenter skiljer sig mellan lyckade och misslyckade crowdfundingkampanjer.

The effect of rewards on Kickstarter funding for video games.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze crowdfunding campaigns on Kickstarter, and contribute towards increasing the effectiveness of such campaigns, as most campaigns are unsuccessful. The theoretical part will focus on defining crowdfunding as the new phenomena of capital distribution and compared with other forms of financing new ideas. The empirical part focuses on a paired comparison analysis of campaigns from two various locations and three industries in total. Factores affecting the successfulness are analyzed and a pattern which would help towards solving the initial problem is looked for. The aim of the thesis was fulfilled by giving recommendations which have an impact on the success rate.

This diploma thesis deals with the development and potential of crowdfunding in the European Union and the Czech Republic. The thesis examines the structure of campaigns published on two crowdfunding portals - Kickstarter and HitHit. The main part is making of a logit model, which result is evaluation of the factors that influence the success of the campaigns. The examined factors include the number of supporters, the category to which the campaign is assigned, or the target amount. The main aim of this thesis is evaluation of the potential of crowdfunding in the Czech Republic and the European Union. The thesis also deals with evaluati-on of successful crowdfunding campaigns. At the end of the thesis there are evaluated success factors, such as a dance category or projects originating by initiators from the Great Britain. There are also discussed some risks which are associated with this type of financing and may threaten future development of crowdfunding in the European Union, such as Brexit.

Companies may need an infusion of capital for a multifold of reasons. The importance of capital needed for innovation applies not only to large companies but also to start-ups. In recent years crowdfunding has evolved and become a common alternative for entrepreneurs to finance their start-up. Research about crowdfunding is still in its infancy, and few articles about crowdfunding has yet been published. The purpose of this paper is to examine how social media influences crowdfunding as a communication and marketing channel. The paper is based on a quantitative research strategy, with data regarding 156 campaigns, featured on Kickstarter.com. The outcome of this paper shows that many campaigns used social media to market the campaign. On the contrary not all campaigns used all examined social media. Some social media were more commonly used than other, such as Facebook or Twitter. The outcome of the paper however shows that the number of updates made on the campaigns site does not have any connection regarding the funding level. It can furthermore be other factors that play a crucial role whether or not a campaign reaches its funding goal.

With the rise of technology and finance, crowdfunding has been uprising as a popular method of financing projects. Kickstarter provides an online platform in which anyone with Internet access can upload their own project “pitch” to gain funding for their idea on an all-or-nothing model. My thesis explores financial trends and factors that potentially contribute to a successful Kickstarter campaign within the classical music projects subcategory. I use a logistic regression and the Ordinary Least Squares model to examine a dataset of already successfully funded projects and a second dataset that contains both successfully and unsuccessfully funded projects that were tracked over a period of time. Additionally, I collected text files of the word content on all projects to identify most frequently utilized words for the successful and unsuccessful files. Controlling for other characteristics, the key findings are that projects with higher target funding levels are both less likely to fund and fund at a lower percentage of the target, projects receiving more comments are more likely to fund, and projects proposed by those that fund other projects are more likely to fund. In addition, certain words are correlated with success or failure. However, since the method of identifying important words used data mining rather than just testing, we cannot predict that these words would increase the likelihood of success in future projects. Due to limited sample size and high correlations among the variables in specifications including both the project characteristics and words, the main results for each set of explanatory variables used separately tend to become statistically insignificant. Additionally, the funding pattern over time appears not to exhibit the herding behavior found in some asset pricing markets. This is an interesting finding given the highly social nature of funding via Kickstarter.

För att bilda en djupare förståelse kring hur kommunikationen mellan skapare och intressenter ser ut och hur relationen påverkar resultatet av en slutprodukt har denna uppsats undersökt skillnader och likheter i framställning av spel utifrån val av finansiering (förläggare eller Kickstarter), interaktionen mellan skapare och intressenter analyserades för att se hur det påverkar spelets slutprodukt. Genom intervjuer, enkätundersökningar och intressentanalyser framställdes empirin där slutsatserna blev att relationen mellan skapare och intressent skiljer sig beroende på hur stor roll förläggarna vill ha inom projektet. Den andra skillnaden, utifrån val av finansiering, mellan studios med förläggare och Kickstarterprojekt, är att det är vanligt inom Kickstarterprojekt att man blir intvingad till att vara öppna om projektet inför sitt community, medan självständiga studios eller studios med förläggare har möjligheten att välja hur öppna de vill vara. / How crowdfunding effects relationships in game development.To achieve a better understanding of the communication between creators and stakeholders, and how the relationship between these two can affect the end result of a product, this essay has investigated the differences and similarities in the production of games, resulting from the choice of financing (publishers or Kickstarter). This topic has been examined through interviews, surveys and stakeholder analysis, and the end empiricism was that the relationship between creators and stakeholders differed depending on the level of involvement on the part of the publishers. The second difference from studios with publishers and Kickstarter project, apart from the choice of financing, was that Kickstarter projects often got forced to have an open dialogue with the community about the project, while independent studios or studios with publishers could choose freely how open they want to be.

在網際網路普及率日益升高的現今，各式各樣以網路作為媒介的商業模式快速興起，而平台的概念更顛覆了過往的使用習慣，藉由將使用者群聚在同一虛擬環境中，使他們之間產生互動與交流，許多商業價值便從中應運而生。透過同邊與跨邊網路效應的發酵，不斷累積用戶數、建構使用平台的慣性，久而久之便加深了用戶的黏著度，也增加了移轉成本。 本研究便著重於近年來平台商業模式的新概念：群眾募資，探討其如何跨越過往繁複的籌資手續，創造出一個可供擁有創意專案的提案者及擁有資金的贊助者媒合的場域。先分別對全球群眾募資產業和台灣群眾募資產業概況做出簡單的分析，知曉目前的大環境趨勢及台灣的市場發展潛力，並以美國的Kickstarter和台灣的flyingV兩間群眾募資平台作為個案研究對象。在了解兩個案的發展現況、營運模式後，再以策略行銷4C架構剖析兩者建立出平台機制以處理用戶的四項交易成本。 而研究結果發現，雖然兩者在政經環境及市場規模上的差異造成經營成效上的落差，但除去外在的先天因素後，Kickstarter相較於flyingV，建構出的4C循環更加完善，也使其自創立以來一直穩居全球群眾募資界的龍頭地位。而flyingV雖然在台灣擁有最高的市佔率，但在平台本身的4C架構上仍有許多成長空間，因此本研究最終以Kickstarter為範本，對flyingV在現行環境下的營運模式以4C架構做出建議，期許flyingV未來能持續發展，成為亞洲群眾募資平台的領導品牌。

Although small businesses borrowed $1 trillion in 2013 from traditional lenders, 35% of small business owners were unable to obtain adequate financing and subsequently sought alternative sources such as crowdfunding. Guided by the pecking order theory, the purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore how 6 small business owners in Tennessee successfully used crowdfunding to start, grow, or sustain their businesses. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of crowdfunding project data on the internet platform including the project description, target goal, amount achieved, number of backers, and locations of the funders. Data were inductively analyzed, first into coded phrases, then categories, and finally emergent themes. Findings revealed that these small business owners tapped into a strong social media network of potential funders for increased funding opportunities. They also advocated that project descriptions consist of high-quality project content and videos, 9 to 11 reward levels, and valuable rewards to entice funders to contribute to the campaign. These small business owners also noted that they devoted more time than originally anticipated during the planning, execution, and fulfillment phases, and they all faced preliminary transaction, fulfillment, and shipping costs when using crowdfunding. The risks included not receiving any funding, negative customer feedback, and poor reputation. These stories have implications for positive social change by illuminating the necessary resources to establish a successful business through employment of a social change mechanism. With funding for growth, the small business owner, family, and local community will promote economic prosperity.

This dissertation thesis deals with crowdfunding campaigns in terms of their structure and important elements of successful crowdfunding projects. The main aim of this thesis is to create a set of recommendations for the creation of successful crowdfunding projects. In order to achieve this task, the statistical method of binary logistic regression analysis is used to determine the effect of the utilization of the introductory video, the number of updates during the duration of the project, the number of imagines, the number of words in the project description, the duration of the project and the project category on the probability of success of the project. The first part of this thesis is composed of the description of different concepts of crowdfunding including their historical context, the crowdfunding business models and the project typology, chosen platforms and the principals of their operation, chosen successful campaigns and their structure. In the analytical part I deal with the impact of the above mentioned variables on the probability of success.