Religious and social narratives and crowdfunding success

In this study, we explore how the religiosity and social orientation affects crowdfunding success through the lens of the moral foundation theory. Using a sample of 17,000 crowdfunding campaigns from 91 countries hosted on the LaunchGood platform over the period 2013-2020, we find that narratives expressing religious identity and social orientation increase individual contribution, attract more crowdfunders, and increase the probability of achieving fundraising goals. We also find that this positive effect is conditional to societal cultural characteristics – stronger in individualistic, masculine, long-term oriented, and indulgent societies, but weaker in high power-distance and uncertainty avoiding societies. Our findings provide new evidence for the importance of religiosity in influencing crowdfunding behavior.