Talking Up a Storm: How Backers Use Public Discourse to Exert Control in Crowdfunded Systems Development Projects

New models of information systems development (ISD) have emerged to accommodate distributed participation and large numbers of contributors. Crowdfunding extends distributed models by allowing members of the public to finance a project, bypassing or lessening the need for traditional investor-controllers. Backers lack most defined power relationships and control mechanisms available to traditional investor-controllers. Yet some backers still successfully assume the power to influence the projects they support. This challenges traditional notions of power and control in ISD. We thus study two famous crowdfunded cases to explore how power and control are attained in these projects. Findings show that backers do indeed collectively impose each of the same high-level control types as traditional investor-controllers, albeit the specific controls imposed may vary. Key to backers’ power is their ability to construct a positive or negative public image around a project, a power for which they continuously battle among themselves. This uncovers important vulnerabilities in crowdfunding, many of which emerge when public perceptions of project failure are high. Under these conditions, backers may become increasingly assertive, which paradoxically causes owners to become less compliant. This study further identifies issues with attracting large numbers of backers, as power and control dynamics become increasingly unstable.

• 저널Information Systems Research · 30(2) · 447–465
• 토픽FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Management Information Systems
• DOI10.1287/isre.2019.0840
• 저자Rob Gleasure, Kieran Conboy, Lorraine Morgan