The challenge of motivating potential donors to contribute is the primary hurdle to the success of online charitable crowdfunding. Anchoring on warm glow theory, we investigate how fundraisers’ self-donations influence donors to contribute to online charitable crowdfunding projects and examine the underlying mechanism through activating potential donors’ warm glow feeling. Using a large-scale dataset from a leading crowdfunding platform in China and a laboratory experiment, we find that fundraisers’ self-donations have a significant positive impact on potential donors’ contributions through developing their warm glow feeling. Our results show that charitable crowdfunding projects with fundraisers’ self-donations perform better in attracting donations from donors. Fundraisers’ self-donations not only improve the probability of success for charitable crowdfunding projects but also facilitates the collection of additional donations. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Impulsive buying accounts for a significant portion of online transactions. However, it is challenging for retailers to stimulate consumers’ impulsive buying in the quick decision-making environment of online shopping, which is often driven by promotional events. As consumers often regret when shopping online, a key factor influencing their impulsive buying is the anticipation of that regret. Yet few studies have examined the role of anticipated regret in impulsive buying. Drawing on regret theory, we explore how online review valence shapes two forms of anticipated regret: anticipated action regret (for buying) and anticipated inaction regret (for not buying). Furthermore, we examine how quantity- and time-based scarcity messages moderate the relationship between review valence and anticipated regret. Findings from two laboratory experiments show that positive review valence reduces anticipated action regret while increasing anticipated inaction regret, with scarcity messages amplifying these effects. We further find that anticipated inaction regret, rather than anticipated action regret, plays a pivotal role in driving impulsive buying. Our qualitative survey provides rich evidence to validate our theoretical arguments and findings. This study enriches the literature by highlighting the affective mechanism of anticipated regret in impulsive buying and offering a nuanced understanding of its dual nature. It provides actionable suggestions to online retailers for optimizing the use of review valence and scarcity messages to enhance sales in fast-paced online shopping contexts.

Cloud Computing (CC) is an emerging technology that can potentially revolutionise the application and delivery of IT. There has been little research, however, into the adoption of CC in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). The indicators show that CC has been adopted very slowly. There is also a significant research gap in the investigation of the adoption of this innovation in SMEs. This article explores how the adoption of CC in Australia is related to technological factors, risk factors, and environmental factors. The study provides useful insights that can be utilised practically by SMEs, policymakers, and cloud vendors.