Signaling and perceiving on equity crowdfunding decisions — a machine learning approach

Yang, Jinjuan; Xin, Jiayuan; Zeng, Yan; Liu, Pei Jose

Abstract

This study explores how signaling and perceiving jointly influence crowd investors’ decision-making. We utilize five machine learning models to assess the predictive power of various information types on crowdfunding success. Our findings indicate that investors prioritize well-structured quantitative data over complex qualitative content. Processing quantitative information is also found to be less cognitively taxing than extracting useful information from qualitative text and images. Entrepreneurs’ signaling and investors’ processing jointly reduce information asymmetry in crowdfunding, highlighting the critical yet often-overlooked role of investors’ information processing. Additionally, we test the policy effect of the ‘2016 Interim Measures on Online Lending’ on crowdfunding success by comparing the predictive accuracy of information during the thriving and constraining periods of crowdfunding development in China. Our results have significant implications for policymakers that crowdfunding fosters economic growth by connecting entrepreneurs and investors and should not be halted due to risks, especially during periods of financial constraints.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 4, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jan 18, 2025
• Deposit Date: Jan 20, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 21, 2025
• Journal: Small Business Economics
• Print ISSN: 0921-898X
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-0913
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-024-00991-3
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/13628136
• Additional Information: Accepted: 4 December 2024; First Online: 18 January 2025; : ; : The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.