Reward-based crowdfunding platforms – in which campaigns exchange rewards for financial backing to develop a product or service – are one of the fastest-growing segments of the crowdfunding industry. We use an extension of social exchange theory (SET) called the resource theory of social exchange (RTSE) to examine resource exchanges through rewards on Kickstarter. A resource exchange occurs when a project backer and project creator exchange money (ie, financial backing) for a reward (eg, a thank you or a t-shirt). A project creator can develop a reward portfolio that contains various types of resources, which in the RTSE are categorised as love, status, information, money, goods and services. Our study provides a comprehensive examination of resource exchange on a major reward-based crowd funding platform, answering the call to investigate the effects of a key element of such platforms – rewards. We find that the types of resources project creators include in the reward portfolios they offer should be carefully considered. Specifically, our results indicate it is more beneficial to offer rewards that contain universal and concrete resources (eg, goods, services) than resources that are particularistic and symbolic (eg, love, status). However, the positive effect of offering universal and concrete resources as rewards is diminished as the fundraising goal is increased, which suggests that the optimal design of the reward portfolio is contingent on other characteristics of the campaign. Moreover, our findings reveal that while it is advantageous to offer more rewards, it is disadvantageous to offer too many different types of resources across those rewards. Overall, our study adds depth to the understanding of resource exchange in reward-based crowdfunding and provides practical insight into how to design reward portfolios.

中文翻译：

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爱不能买你的钱：奖励型众筹平台上的资源交换

基于奖励的众筹平台——在这些平台中，活动交换奖励来开发产品或服务的资金支持——是众筹行业增长最快的部分之一。我们使用称为社会交换资源理论 (RTSE) 的社会交换理论 (SET) 的扩展来检查通过 Kickstarter 上的奖励进行的资源交换。当项目支持者和项目创建者交换金钱（即财务支持）以获得奖励（例如，感谢或 T 恤）时，就会发生资源交换。项目创建者可以开发一个包含各种类型资源的奖励组合，这些资源在 RTSE 中被分类为爱、地位、信息、金钱、商品和服务。我们的研究对主要基于奖励的众筹平台上的资源交换进行了全面检查，响应号召，调查此类平台的一个关键要素——奖励——的影响。我们发现应该仔细考虑项目创建者在他们提供的奖励组合中包含的资源类型。具体而言，我们的结果表明，提供包含普遍和具体资源（例如，商品、服务）的奖励比具有特殊性和象征性的资源（例如，爱、地位）更有益。然而，随着筹款目标的增加，提供普遍和具体资源作为奖励的积极效果会减弱，这表明奖励组合的优化设计取决于活动的其他特征。此外，我们的研究结果表明，虽然提供更多奖励是有利的，在这些奖励中提供太多不同类型的资源是不利的。总体而言，我们的研究加深了对基于奖励的众筹中资源交换的理解，并为如何设计奖励组合提供了实用的见解。