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The role of semantics in the success of crowdfunding projects

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  • Orel Babayoff
  • Onn Shehory

Abstract

Crowdfunding platforms allow entrepreneurs to publish projects and raise funds for realizing them. Hence, the question of what influences projects’ fundraising success is very important. Previous studies examined various factors such as project goals and project duration that may influence the outcomes of fundraising campaigns. We present a novel model for predicting the success of crowdfunding projects in meeting their funding goals. Our model focuses on semantic features only, whose performance is comparable to that of previous models. In an additional model we developed, we examine both project metadata and project semantics, delivering a comprehensive study of factors influencing crowdfunding success. Further, we analyze a large dataset of crowdfunding project data, larger than reported in the art. Finally, we show that when combining semantics and metadata, we arrive at F1 score accuracy of 96.2%. We compare our model’s accuracy to the accuracy of previous research models by applying their methods on our dataset, and demonstrate higher accuracy of our model. In addition to our scientific contribution, we provide practical recommendations that may increase project funding success chances.

Suggested Citation

  • Orel Babayoff & Onn Shehory, 2022. "The role of semantics in the success of crowdfunding projects," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(2), pages 1-14, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0263891
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263891
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Douglas J. Cumming & Gaël Leboeuf & Armin Schwienbacher, 2020. "Crowdfunding models: Keep‐It‐All vs. All‐Or‐Nothing," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 331-360, June.
    2. Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Natalicchio, Angelo & Panniello, Umberto & Roma, Paolo, 2019. "Understanding the crowdfunding phenomenon and its implications for sustainability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 138-148.
    3. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
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