Abstract:
As a result of the advancement of technology and the origin of the internet the way of funding and operating the business around the world has drastically revolutionized. Crowdfunding is one of emerging effective methods of fund raising for many new projects and start-ups via internet nowadays. This so-called “crowd-funding” concept has become a trend and it is now widely used by non-profit organizations in the world to raise funds through the internet for their charity projects. It is important to understand the donors’ intention to support the project as in many cases the success of the charity crowd-funding projects depend on the degree to which the participation of their donors. This study presents an integrated model of UTAUT model and perceived credibility theories to understand the behavioral intention of potential donors in crowd-funding charity projects. According to the conceptual framework this research study investigates the impact of Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE), Social Influence (SI) and Facilitate Condition (FC) on Perceived Credibility (PC) and in turn on Intention to Accept (IA) the crowd-funding platform and charity projects. Research data were collected through an online survey and a mediation analysis was conducted to analyze 70 responses from potential donors in Sri Lanka. The results indicate that Performance Expectancy (PE), Effort Expectancy (EE) Social Influence (SI) and Facilitating Condition (FC) affect Perceived Credibility (PC) and in turn affect Intention to Accept (IA). Findings of this research study are helpful to understand the donors’ behavior and decision making process in participating in a charity crowd-funding projects. This research also contributes to the expansion of the knowledge of theories of new technology acceptance and the theories of credibility in the context of online. Thus this study should be of interest to both academia and practice.
