TY - JOUR
T1 - Funding the story of hybrid ventures
T2 - Crowdfunder lending preferences and linguistic hybridity
AU - Moss, Todd
AU - Renko, Maija
AU - Block, Emily
AU - Meyskens, Moriah
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - Prosocial crowdfunding platforms are venues for individual lenders to allocate resources to ventures that specifically pursue economic and social value. In a setting where hybridity is expected, do crowdfunders respond positively to category-spanning ventures, or do they prefer to fund ventures that are more clearly situated within a single category? Drawing on theory rooted in category membership and spanning, our hypotheses test whether prosocial crowdfunding lenders will more quickly allocate resources to hybrid microenterprises that communicate their hybridity, or to those that communicate a single one of their dual aims. Our study demonstrates that even in such a setting, crowdfunders lend more quickly to microenterprises that position themselves within a single linguistic category in which the social is emphasized over the economic. This suggests that how hybrid organizations position themselves in their linguistic narratives has a significant impact on resource allocation by external prosocial audiences.
AB - Prosocial crowdfunding platforms are venues for individual lenders to allocate resources to ventures that specifically pursue economic and social value. In a setting where hybridity is expected, do crowdfunders respond positively to category-spanning ventures, or do they prefer to fund ventures that are more clearly situated within a single category? Drawing on theory rooted in category membership and spanning, our hypotheses test whether prosocial crowdfunding lenders will more quickly allocate resources to hybrid microenterprises that communicate their hybridity, or to those that communicate a single one of their dual aims. Our study demonstrates that even in such a setting, crowdfunders lend more quickly to microenterprises that position themselves within a single linguistic category in which the social is emphasized over the economic. This suggests that how hybrid organizations position themselves in their linguistic narratives has a significant impact on resource allocation by external prosocial audiences.
KW - Categories
KW - Crowdfunding
KW - Hybrid organizations
KW - Prosocial organizing
KW - Social entrepreneurship
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85038878231&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85038878231&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.12.004
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2017.12.004
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85038878231
JO - Journal of Business Venturing
JF - Journal of Business Venturing
SN - 0883-9026
ER -