Pitching with your heart (on your sleeve): Getting to the heart of how display authenticity matters in crowdfunding

It is known that people can distinguish authentic from inauthentic emotional displays. It is also known that emotions are generally impactful in crowdfunding pitches. Yet, the potential lynchpin-like role that displays of authentic emotion may play in funding pitches has been overlooked in entrepreneurial resource acquisition research. More importantly, research on authenticity has not uncovered the mechanisms through which display authenticity positively affects observers’ responses. Our work fills this gap by developing a theoretical model that explains the underlying processes of entrepreneurs’ display authenticity and success in crowdfunding. Consistent with the predictions of the emotions as social information model, results from a field study and an experiment reveal the mediating roles of inferential and affective processes. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence for the moderating role of funders’ epistemic motivation on performance. We find that, depending on path, these effects take different directions.