Social marketing and digital platformsdonation-based crowdfunding campaigns

Abstract

This doctoral thesis analyzes the new social marketing strategies challenging the traditional behavior of nonprofit sector organizations, through the promotion of Donation-based Crowdfunding (DCF) campaigns via digital platforms. Chapter 1 maps DCF for charitable causes, resulting from a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis. This is a very recent field of scholarship, broadly developed via empirical and quantitative research, in which individual antecedents and technological enablers are the main protagonists. An integrated conceptual framework is proposed, identifying the significant causal relationships between antecedents, processes, and outcomes of DCF. Chapters 2 and 3 explore the explanatory capacity of factors influencing the success of DCF campaigns promoted through digital platforms. In particular, of those factors traditionally explaining the success of offline fundraising campaigns for charitable causes (2), and of campaigns factors (3). Quantitative analysis is used based on a database of 360 campaigns fostered between 2012 and 2017. Results confirm the high explanatory capacity of determinants related to the geographical scope of the campaign, the volume of potential beneficiaries involved, the information provided by the promoting organizations, and the spreadability of the campaign.