Analysis of crowdfunding descriptions for technology projects

There are many factors that contribute to the success of a project on crowdfunding sites, such as Kickstarter. These include, but are not limited to, the specified project goal of funding, the success of similar projects, the funder incentives, the amount and type of information given on project webpage, the credentials and trustworthiness of project creators. Every successful project on Kickstarter has a project video, which introduces the product. This thesis analyzed four attributes of the project video to determine the success of the project, i.e. whether or not the project received the requested funding. These attributes included the trustworthiness of creators, level of demo of product, finish of product and amount of excitement engendered by video. A survey of undergraduate students was conducted, in which participants were asked to rank each of these attributes for videos of both successful and unsuccessful projects. The results are discussed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Fernandes, Rachel (Rachel C.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Maria Yang.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/83712

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/83712