Purpose The authors investigate whether the individual “completion contributions” that enable online crowdfunding campaigns to meet or exceed their targets tend to be larger in relative terms when made nearer to the funding deadline. As these contributions are likely to have a disproportionate impact upon campaign outcomes, the authors assess whether the investment patterns they observe are consistent with the theory of impact philanthropy.Design/methodology/approach The authors use campaign-level data incorporating observations on campaigns from reward (both all-or-nothing, AoN and keep-it-all, KiA), donation and equity-based platforms. To the knowledge of the authors, the coverage of the data is unparalleled elsewhere in the crowdfunding literature. Using these data, the authors analyze whether completion contributions tend to vary contingent upon both the proximity of the deadline and form of crowdfunding.Findings The authors find that completion contributions tend to vary significantly and positively with proximity to funding deadlines. The authors also find that this relationship tends to be more pronounced among AoN than for KiA campaigns, as well as for donation-based platforms compared with equity-based platforms. Altogether, the patterns of behavior observed are consistent with the theory of impact philanthropy.Originality/valueThe authors help develop a better understanding of the behaviors of contributors to online crowdfunding campaigns and whether those behaviors are consistent with altruistic motivations. The findings also have considerable value in understanding the non-financial factors associated with the informal financing of business startups.

中文翻译：

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为了爱情还是金钱？截止日期临近对在线众筹完成贡献的影响

目的 作者调查使在线众筹活动达到或超过其目标的个人“完成贡献”是否在接近资助截止日期时相对而言往往更大。由于这些贡献可能对活动结果产生不成比例的影响，作者评估他们观察到的投资模式是否与影响慈善理论一致。设计/方法/方法作者使用活动级别的数据，结合对来自奖励的活动的观察（all-or-nothing，AoN 和 keep-it-all，KiA），捐赠和基于股权的平台。据作者所知，数据的覆盖范围在众筹文献中的其他地方是无与伦比的。使用这些数据，作者分析了完成贡献是否会随着截止日期的临近和众筹形式而变化。研究结果作者发现，随着资金截止日期的临近，完成贡献往往会发生显着的正向变化。作者还发现，这种关系在 AoN 中往往比在 KiA 活动中更为明显，在基于捐赠的平台中与基于股权的平台相比也是如此。总而言之，观察到的行为模式与影响慈善理论一致。原创性/价值作者有助于更好地了解在线众筹活动的贡献者的行为，以及这些行为是否符合利他动机。