Environmental Data Collection and Classification in Crowd-Funding Platforms - Evidence From Kickstarter

Mass use of social networks and the increasing availability of internet technologies creates a series of possibilities for raising funds for entrepreneurs. Crowdfunding is one such option, in which individuals (project creators) can share their ideas with the general public (crowd) via the dedicated Internet platforms, resulting in getting project supporters (backers). The relevance of crowdfunding platforms is thoroughly described in the contemporary academic literature. Furthermore, crowdfunding has the potential to contribute significantly to the financing of environmental ideas and projects, hence accelerating sustainability. The purpose of this paper is to highlight some of the techniques that can be used in the analysis of data collected from CF platforms, as well as to provide an insight into tests for differences between characteristics of the project with environmental concepts. The study uses a sample of 121,437 projects from the Kickstarter platform between 2011 and 2019. A t-test was employed to determine whether the differences among environmental and non-environmental campaigns. The results show that environmental campaigns are more successful, have a higher goal, attract more funds and investors, while the Kickstarter team favourites them. Analysis showed that quantitative field studies and big data analysis can offer a deeper analysis of the main characteristics of crowdfunding campaigns.