Consumption, Commitment, and Community in Reward-Based Crowdfunding

This book offers an analysis of reward-based crowdfunding based on empirical case studies and gift exchange theory. Reward-based crowdfunding projects aim to produce products that, in addition to their consumer value, also have value in terms of promoting a good cause. Supporters of the projects receive non-financial rewards for their financial contributions. The main rewards are the products of the projects. The book shows that the key to understanding reward-based crowdfunding lies in a three-way relationship between consumption, connection to a cause of deeper meaning, and belonging to a community of like-minded people. The connection between purchase and donation, between consumption and commitment, is thus established by the fact that supporters act as consumers on the one hand, but on the other hand associate a deeper meaning with the object of consumption, which motivates them to engage more strongly with this object than with ‘normal’ products. The book is aimed at social, media and economic scientists who are interested in the phenomena of the sharing economy, crowdsourcing and crowdfunding.