How Characteristics of Creator and Campaign Shape Crowdfunding Performance: Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling.

Project quality signal, online communication between creators and backers and social capital of serial creator are the key factors that affect crowdfunding performance. However, while existing studies ignored projects initiated by the same creator are not independent, they may suffer from a level bias, with a single level of analysis only (e.g., the project level, or serial creator level). To address this situation, this paper uses a hierarchical linear model to conduct an empirical analysis of a total of 6,286 projects initiated by 2,394 serial creators on the Indiegogo platform. The results show that project-level attributes (project quality and online communication) positively affect crowdfunding performance. Creator-level factors (experience of serial creator) has a positive effect on crowdfunding performance. More important, we further identify several interesting moderators: the social capital of the serial creator positively moderates the relationship between pictures, project comments and performance across levels, but it is negative when moderating the relationship between the updates and performance.