Crowdfunding is a novel way for entrepreneurs to raise funds. Differing from the traditional funding methods such as getting support from government or angels, crowdfunding raises funds directly from the “crowds”. The majority of existing crowdfunding research focuses on the key factors of a project’s success. Some studies target at building potential backers’ trust, while others discuss the importance of arousing people’s motivation. However, few researches elaborate together on the influences of trust and motivation. Studies that include the comprehensive relationships among trust, motivation and pledging intention are still somewhat incomplete.
To clarify the relationships, we propose a new theoretical model by consolidating relevant factors in the previous theories. In our model, we define potential backers’ trust to crowdfunding as “Crowdfunding Trustworthiness”, and customers’ motivation for spending time on a specific crowdfunding project as “Participating Motivation”. The new model discusses the relationships among “Crowdfunding Trustworthiness”, “Participating Motivation” and “Pledging Intention”.
In order to test the proposed model, we survey 417 individuals who have participated in the ‘XPUMP Premium – smart audio processor’ crowdfunding project. We examine the reliability and validity of each construct using confirmatory factor analysis and test the relationships applying structural equation modeling. In the empirical result, we find that the interactive effects between Crowdfunding Trustworthiness and Participating Motivation exist. In one aspect, Crowdfunding Trustworthiness has a positive impact on Pledging Intention, while the high-level of Participating Motivation moderates the impact and make the relationship insignificant. Thus, Participating Motivation is a moderator between Crowdfunding
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Trustworthiness and Pledging Intention. In another aspect, Participating Motivation can also be a mediator between Crowdfunding Trustworthiness and Pledging Intention. Thus, Crowdfunding Trustworthiness affects Pledging Intention through Participating Motivation.
Further, the quality of information and the response provided by entrepreneurs are two important factors for building Crowdfunding Trustworthiness.
The result of this study has implications in different stages of a crowdfunding campaign: (1) before conducting a crowdfunding project, entrepreneurs should take every effort on providing the best information quality since the information is so important on building Crowdfunding Trustworthiness, (2) During a crowdfunding campaign, the conversation with the potential backers becomes an important factor on building Crowdfunding Trustworthiness. Therefore, entrepreneurs should notice every comment and question from their potential customers and provide fast and qualified response to answer every concern. These results provide entrepreneurs with insight on how people build their Crowdfunding Trustworthiness and participating motivation before pledging a crowdfunding project. Comparing to previous research, the finding of this study helps entrepreneurs better understand the behaviors of the crowdfunding backers thus allow them to plan their budget more efficiently.

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