Despite a large body of research on donation-based crowdfunding platforms, the ways that people appeal for help, and the impact of different appeal types, remain unclear. In particular, it is not clear the extent to which individuals benefit from a temporal orientation on the past, where they can provide personal background, or the future, where they can explain how they will benefit from donors’ help. Building on a novel dataset of 6,282 fundraising campaigns and 44,757 donor comments gathered from a donation-based crowdfunding platform, this study analyzes donors’ financial contributions and expressions of emotional responses in response to past and future oriented appeals. This analysis combines an instrumental variable approach, propensity score matching, natural language processing, and image analysis. The results indicate that verbal responses are similar for past and future oriented appeals, but that future oriented appeals are more effective for fundraising. The results further suggest that, when lower levels of positive affect are used in past oriented appeals, this combination may be linked with more rapidly diminishing financial contributions over time.

Crowdfunding projects have been the subject of contrasting narratives. To many, they are the antithesis of predatory bottom-line business ventures, and to others, they are an under-regulated vehicle for immature, or unscrupulous project owners to exploit inexperienced and vulnerable investors. These differences are significant, given many use crowdfunding to build public awareness and project a positive image. We use the myth of Prometheus – the Greek god associated with “defiant progress” and technological advancement – as a sensitising lens to build a set of competing, dialectic archetypes. We then apply these archetypes through a Hegelian dialectic analysis of three high-profile crowdfunding campaigns. The overarching contribution of the study is that it provides a foundation for discussion of the positive and negative narratives surrounding crowdfunded project owners and explicates the limitations of crowdfunding as an enabler of positive systemic change. The dialectic approach provides a systematic means of identifying the essence of disagreement between narratives. While it may be too early to predict the outcomes for emerging technology-driven initiatives such as crowdfunding, the use of myth offers a sophisticated means to look for “rhyming” phenomena, where the phenomena at play are similar to the grand frailties of humankind throughout history.

Service co-production between professionals and customers is an increasingly popular alternative to traditional “off the shelf” models of service delivery. There is, however, little empirical research describing how services are co-produced with individual customers, nor the most suitable roles for IS/IT in this co-production. This study unpacks how services are co-produced by developing a substantive Theory of Service Co-Production activities (and mediating contextual factors) in the financial services sector. A two-phase theory-building approach is employed. First, a preliminary model is derived based on Activity Theory and extant research. Second, this preliminary model is refined and elaborated upon through an extensive empirical analysis of the co-production of financial services. The study further reveals four key contradictions driving service co-production. These contradictions highlight the incomplete alignment of motives and goals between service professionals and customers, as well as the trickle-down IS/IT impact of this misalignment. The study concludes by discussing the enabling and constraining influence of IS/IT in service co-production.