Crowdfunding's impact on small business performance through exploitative and exploratory search strategies: An entrepreneurial resourcefulness perspective

AbstractDrawing on the entrepreneurial resourcefulness perspective, this study examines how crowdfunding engagement affects small business performance. We theorize that crowdfunding engagement serves resourcefully to enhance small business performance. Moreover, we hypothesize that exploratory and exploitative search act as effective mechanisms through which crowdfunding engagement increases small business performance. We further posit that the effects of crowdfunding engagement on small business performance are contingent on environmental dynamism. We utilize a quantitative approach, specifically partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS‐SEM), for analyzing our data. Using a sample of 310 small businesses in Ghana, the findings from PLS‐SEM support our theorization, showing that both exploratory and exploitative search positively mediate the effects of crowdfunding engagement on small business performance, while environmental dynamism negatively moderates such effects. Our findings provide important theoretical and practical implications.