Digital Dreams, Institutional Realities: How Entrepreneurs’ Country’s Economic Development and Corruption Shape Their Crowdfunding Outcomes

Entrepreneurs based in developing nations, as well as in contexts with significant corruption, find significant issues when seeking financing, and this was exacerbated by the 2008 financial crisis. Nevertheless, recently developed financial approaches such as international reward-based crowdfunding (RBC), may provide support for these entrepreneurs. Based on this, this study investigates how entrepreneurs’ macroeconomic context, specifically, country-level economic development and corruption, affect crowdfunding outcomes. This aim was addressed by using campaigns on Kickstarter, the world’s leading digital RBC platform, as its study population, and examining campaigns conducted between 2009 and November 2016. Logistic and ordinary least squares multi-level models showed that country-of-origin macroeconomic context was significantly associated with crowdfunding outcomes. After controlling variables specific to the entrepreneur and campaign, developing-economy entrepreneurs found greater success on the platform than those from developed countries. Nevertheless, corruption at the country level has a significant adverse association with campaign outcomes. The study’s empirical findings show robustness and consistency under a range of testing approaches. Implications for digital platforms, entrepreneurial individuals, and policymakers are highlighted.