How Crowdfunders Are Influenced by Entrepreneurial Passion: A Dual Information-Processing Perspective

We incorporate entrepreneurial passion into a dual theory of information-processing, theorizing that passion can be used as information in analytical thinking, and as a heuristic in intuitive thinking. We find that passion is generally associated with an increase in crowdfunding success rates (+1%). Its effect becomes more powerful (+16% increase in success) when exhibited in conditions of coherence/fluency, that is, with high levels of preparedness, while it disappears in conditions of incoherence/disfluency and when the judgment is important. This conceptual framework reconciles contradictory findings of previous studies, suggesting that affective cues have the power to influence decisions in contexts characterized by large numbers of non-professional investors.