Trust is critical for successful participation in online marketplaces. In crowdfunding, fundraisers seek to win the trust of potential supporters towards contributing to their projects despite risks of non-delivery or deviations from campaign promises. This study explores how cultural differences in social trust proclivities influence reward crowdfunding campaign design and success. Specifically, we analyze data about 700 campaigns from a relatively high social trust society (HTS) – Finland, and 700 campaigns from a relatively low social trust society (LTS) – Poland. We find that sharing campaign information via social media is positively associated with campaign success in both contexts. Building on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we show that central route cues to persuasion are more prevalent in campaigns from LTS vs. HTS, and that some peripheral cues are more prevalent in campaigns from HTS than LTS. Finally, we find partial support that central route cues are more important for campaign success in LTS.

信任对于成功参与在线市场至关重要。在众筹中，筹款者寻求赢得潜在支持者的信任，以为其项目做出贡献，尽管存在无法交付或背离竞选承诺的风险。这项研究探讨了社会信任倾向中的文化差异如何影响奖励众筹活动的设计和成功。具体来说，我们分析了来自相对较高的社会信任协会（HTS）-芬兰的700个运动和来自相对较低的社会信任协会（LTS）-波兰的700个运动的数据。我们发现，在两种情况下，通过社交媒体共享竞选信息都与竞选成功成正相关。在精致度可能性模型的基础上，我们表明，在LTS相对于HTS的广告系列中，以说服力为中心的线索更为普遍，而且在HTS的战役中，某些外围线索比LTS更普遍。最后，我们发现部分支持者认为中央路线提示对于LTS战役成功更重要。