This study examines two selling strategies, namely, crowdfunding and traditional selling. Under traditional selling, the production behavior of the creator occurs before the purchases by consumers. In this case, the demand is uncertain, and the creator’s production behavior is affected by the initial funding level. Under crowdfunding, the production behavior of the creator comes after the consumers have provided funding. In this case, consumers bear the opportunity cost, and the campaign succeeds (leading to production) only when the market demand exceeds a threshold value. In the basic model, we investigate the pricing strategy and the expected profit of the creator for each selling strategy. Our analysis reveals that crowdfunding dominates traditional selling when the creator’s initial funding is low, or the unit production cost is high. We then generalize our models by considering product quality, providing main results consistent with those derived in the basic model but also revealing new and interesting insights. For example, in the case of endogenous product quality, the creator prefers a low production volume under traditional selling, and the opportunity cost has a large (small) impact on crowdfunding (traditional selling). Finally, we examine several extensions to our studies, including adopting Keep-It-All model for crowdfunding, the case involving multiple potential consumers, and the case where the consumer’s valuation follows a normal distribution. Our paper highlights that crowdfunding, as a method of collecting finance, is also advantageous for creators with sufficient initial funding under certain conditions. Conclusions from these investigations can guide creators during their sales planning.

本研究考察了两种销售策略，即众筹和传统销售。在传统销售模式下，创作者的生产行为发生在消费者购买之前。在这种情况下，需求是不确定的，创作者的生产行为受到初始资金水平的影响。众筹下，创作者的生产行为在后消费者提供了资金。在这种情况下，消费者承担机会成本，只有当市场需求超过阈值时，活动才会成功（导致生产）。在基本模型中，我们研究了每种销售策略的定价策略和创作者的预期利润。我们的分析表明，当创作者的初始资金较低或单位生产成本较高时，众筹将主导传统销售。然后，我们通过考虑产品质量来概括我们的模型，提供与基本模型中得出的结果一致的主要结果，但也揭示了新的和有趣的见解。例如，在产品质量内生的情况下，创作者更喜欢传统销售下的低产量，机会成本对众筹（传统销售）影响大（小）。最后，我们检查了我们研究的几个扩展，包括采用 Keep-It-All 模型进行众筹、涉及多个潜在消费者的案例以及消费者估值服从正态分布的案例。我们的论文强调，众筹作为一种筹集资金的方法，在某些条件下也有利于拥有足够初始资金的创作者。这些调查的结论可以指导创作者制定销售计划。作为一种筹集资金的方法，在某些条件下对于具有足够初始资金的创作者也是有利的。这些调查的结论可以指导创作者制定销售计划。作为一种筹集资金的方法，在某些条件下对于具有足够初始资金的创作者也是有利的。这些调查的结论可以指导创作者制定销售计划。