Empirical Research On Prosocial Behavior Of Internet Crowdfunding Investors

In recent years,Internet crowdfunding has developed vigorously and has become a new form of financing for SMEs and individuals.It is gradually accepted by the public.Compared with traditional financing models,Internet crowdfunding has the characteristics of low threshold and popularity.Internet crowdfunding provides a platform for financiers and the public to fully exchange and generate ideas,which not only provides convenient financing opportunities for financiers,but also give investors a strong sense of participation and accomplishment and certain spiritual or material rewards.One of the criteria for measuring the flourishing of crowdfunding is the success rate of crowdfunding projects,and the success of crowdfunding projects is inseparable from the support behavior of investors,and the behavior of investors is driven by motivation.Therefore,studying the motivations and behavior patterns of crowdfunding investors will help project sponsors and crowdfunding platforms to take targeted improvement measures to better improve the success rate of crowdfunding projects.Based on sorting out the existing literature and theoretical research on the prosocial behavior of investors participating in crowdfunding activities,this paper concludes that the psychological opportunities for investors to participate in crowdfunding projects are affected by prosocial motives and show the target gradient effect.On this basis,the hypothesis of this paper is proposed.The project of the Jingdong crowdfunding platform is used as a sample to study the behavior pattern of investors,and the impact of the completion of the crowdfunding project goals on investor support behavior.Then,this article establishes a conditional fixed effect negative binomial regression model and conducts a robustness test.Finally,this paper studies the moderating effect of time factor and target amount on the target gradient effect and the influence on prosocial motivation.The research results show that there are pro-socially motivated investors in the Internet crowdfunding industry,and it will show a target gradient effect,that is,the closer the project financing amount is to the target amount,the stronger the prosocial motives and the more willing investors will support the crowdfunding project.After the target amount is achieved,the prosocial motivation is reduced and investors’ willingness to support will diminish.The prosocial motivation is also affected by the project financing stage and the target amount.In addition,the behavior of the project investor in supporting the project is significantly affected by other factors that change over time: the project’s attention,the topic of the project,the progress of the project’s update,whether the project is recommended on the homepage,and the number of likes of the project.