IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v146y2017i2d10.1007_s10551-017-3652-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Beyond the Opposition Between Altruism and Self-interest: Reciprocal Giving in Reward-Based Crowdfunding

Author

Listed:
  • Kévin André

    (ESSEC Business School)

  • Sylvain Bureau

    (ESCP Europe)

  • Arthur Gautier

    (ESSEC Business School)

  • Olivier Rubel

    (UC Davis)

Abstract

Increasingly, frontiers between business and philanthropy seem to be blurred. Reward-Based Crowdfunding platforms contribute to this blurring of lines since they propose funders to support both for-profit and philanthropic projects. Our empirical paper explores the case of Ulule, the leading crowdfunding platform in Europe. Our results, based on a statistical analysis of more than 3000 projects, show that crowdfunding platforms foster specific kinds of relationships relying on reciprocal giving, beyond the usual opposition between altruistic and selfish motivations. We use the work of Marcel Mauss to account for this process of reciprocal giving, and we argue that Maussian theory of gift can be used more generally to describe funding activities in the context of early stage entrepreneurship.

Suggested Citation

  • Kévin André & Sylvain Bureau & Arthur Gautier & Olivier Rubel, 2017. "Beyond the Opposition Between Altruism and Self-interest: Reciprocal Giving in Reward-Based Crowdfunding," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 313-332, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3652-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-017-3652-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-017-3652-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-017-3652-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ernst Fehr & Simon Gächter, 2000. "Fairness and Retaliation: The Economics of Reciprocity," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 14(3), pages 159-181, Summer.
    2. Becker, Gary S, 1974. "A Theory of Social Interactions," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(6), pages 1063-1093, Nov.-Dec..
    3. Avner Offer, 1997. "Between the gift and the market: the economy of regard," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 50(3), pages 450-476, August.
    4. Falk, Armin & Fischbacher, Urs, 2006. "A theory of reciprocity," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 293-315, February.
    5. Johannisson, Bengt, 1988. "Business formation -- a network approach," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 4(3-4), pages 83-99.
    6. Ajay Agrawal & Christian Catalini & Avi Goldfarb, 2015. "Crowdfunding: Geography, Social Networks, and the Timing of Investment Decisions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 253-274, June.
    7. Freeman, R. Edward, 1994. "The Politics of Stakeholder Theory: Some Future Directions1," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(4), pages 409-421, October.
    8. Matthias P. Hühn & Claus Dierksmeier, 2016. "Will the Real A. Smith Please Stand Up!," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 119-132, June.
    9. Douglas A. Bosse & Robert A. Phillips & Jeffrey S. Harrison, 2009. "Stakeholders, reciprocity, and firm performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 447-456, April.
    10. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    11. J. Dees, 2012. "A Tale of Two Cultures: Charity, Problem Solving, and the Future of Social Entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(3), pages 321-334, December.
    12. Chong Ju Choi & Carla C. J. M. Millar & Caroline Y. L. Wong, 2005. "Knowledge and Exchange," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Knowledge Entanglements, chapter 0, pages 65-76, Palgrave Macmillan.
    13. Richard T. Harrison & Colin M. Mason & Paul Girling, 2004. "Financial bootstrapping and venture development in the software industry," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(4), pages 307-333, July.
    14. Robert Westwood & Andrew Chan & Stephen Linstead, 2004. "Theorizing Chinese Employment Relations Comparatively: Exchange, Reciprocity and the Moral Economy," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 21(3), pages 365-389, September.
    15. Marco Caliendo & Frank Fossen & Alexander Kritikos, 2009. "Risk attitudes of nascent entrepreneurs–new evidence from an experimentally validated survey," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 153-167, February.
    16. Gerrit K.C. Ahlers & Douglas Cumming & Christina Günther & Denis Schweizer, 2015. "Signaling in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 955-980, July.
    17. Alex Stewart, 2003. "Help One Another, Use One Another: Toward an Anthropology of Family Business," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 27(4), pages 383-396, October.
    18. Phillip Kim & Howard Aldrich & Lisa Keister, 2006. "Access (Not) Denied: The Impact of Financial, Human, and Cultural Capital on Entrepreneurial Entryin the United States," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 5-22, August.
    19. Elms, Heather & Phillips, Robert A., 2009. "Private Security Companies and Institutional Legitimacy: Corporate and Stakeholder Responsibility," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(3), pages 403-432, July.
    20. Martin A. Nowak & Karl Sigmund, 2005. "Evolution of indirect reciprocity," Nature, Nature, vol. 437(7063), pages 1291-1298, October.
    21. Guglielmo Faldetta, 2011. "The Logic of Gift and Gratuitousness in Business Relationships," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(1), pages 67-77, March.
    22. Arthur Gautier & Anne-Claire Pache, 2015. "Research on Corporate Philanthropy: A Review and Assessment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 343-369, February.
    23. Parker,Simon C., 2006. "The Economics of Self-Employment and Entrepreneurship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521030632, September.
    24. Webley, P. & Lea, S. E. G. & Portalska, R., 1983. "The unacceptability of money as a gift," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 223-238.
    25. Juanjuan Zhang & Peng Liu, 2012. "Rational Herding in Microloan Markets," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(5), pages 892-912, May.
    26. Paolo Crosetto & Tobias Regner, 2014. "Crowdfunding: Determinants of success and funding dynamics," Jena Economics Research Papers 2014-035, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena.
    27. Baviera, Tomás & English, William & Guillén, Manuel, 2016. "The ‘Logic of Gift’: Inspiring Behavior in Organizations Beyond the Limits of Duty and Exchange," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 159-180, April.
    28. Daniel Arenas & Pablo Rodrigo, 2016. "On Firms and the Next Generations: Difficulties and Possibilities for Business Ethics Inquiry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 165-178, January.
    29. Andreoni, James, 1990. "Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 100(401), pages 464-477, June.
    30. Stanca, Luca, 2009. "Measuring indirect reciprocity: Whose back do we scratch?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 190-202, April.
    31. Isabelle Szmigin & Robert Rutherford, 2013. "Shared Value and the Impartial Spectator Test," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(1), pages 171-182, April.
    32. Yves Fassin, 2012. "Stakeholder Management, Reciprocity and Stakeholder Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 83-96, August.
    33. Chellie Spiller & Ljiljana Erakovic & Manuka Henare & Edwina Pio, 2011. "Relational Well-Being and Wealth: Māori Businesses and an Ethic of Care," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 98(1), pages 153-169, January.
    34. Pitschner, Stefan & Pitschner-Finn, Sebastian, 2014. "Non-profit differentials in crowd-based financing: Evidence from 50,000 campaigns," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 391-394.
    35. Carl Rhodes & Robert Westwood, 2016. "The Limits of Generosity: Lessons on Ethics, Economy, and Reciprocity in Kafka’s The Metamorphosis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(2), pages 235-248, January.
    36. Karl J. Dakin, 2016. "You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet: Investment Crowdfunding has Tremendous Growth Potential!," Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship, Bentham Science Publishers, vol. 3(1), pages 5-6, April.
    37. Sandrine Frémeaux & Grant Michelson, 2011. "‘No Strings Attached’: Welcoming the Existential Gift in Business," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 99(1), pages 63-75, March.
    38. Colin C. Williams, 2007. "The Nature Of Entrepreneurship In The Informal Sector: Evidence From England," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 12(02), pages 239-254.
    39. Neri Karra & Paul Tracey & Nelson Phillips, 2006. "Altruism and Agency in the Family Firm: Exploring the Role of Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 30(6), pages 861-877, November.
    40. Sandrine Frémeaux & Grant Michelson, 2011. ""No Strings Attached": Welcoming the Existential Gift in Business," Post-Print hal-00797037, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo & Reichstein, Toke & Rullani, Francesco, 2021. "Crowdfunding as Donations to Entrepreneurial Firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    2. Andreas Hoegen & Dennis M. Steininger & Daniel Veit, 2018. "How do investors decide? An interdisciplinary review of decision-making in crowdfunding," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(3), pages 339-365, August.
    3. Thomas Clauss & Thomas Niemand & Sascha Kraus & Patrick Schnetzer & Alexander Brem, 2019. "Increasing Crowdfunding Success Through Social Media: The Importance Of Reach And Utilisation In Reward-Based Crowdfunding," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-30, May.
    4. Indu Khurana, 2021. "Legitimacy and Reciprocal Altruism in Donation-Based Crowdfunding: Evidence from India," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-16, April.
    5. Christian Handke & Carolina Dalla Chiesa, 2022. "The art of crowdfunding arts and innovation: the cultural economic perspective," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 46(2), pages 249-284, June.
    6. Yang Zhao & Xuemei Xie & Liuyong Yang, 0. "Female entrepreneurs and equity crowdfunding: the consequential roles of lead investors and venture stages," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-29.
    7. Yang Zhao & Xuemei Xie & Liuyong Yang, 2021. "Female entrepreneurs and equity crowdfunding: the consequential roles of lead investors and venture stages," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1183-1211, September.
    8. Mengyuan Zhou, 2022. "Does the Source of Inheritance Matter in Bequest Attitudes? Evidence from Japan," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 43(4), pages 867-887, December.
    9. Helen Bollaert & Gaël Leboeuf & Armin Schwienbacher, 2020. "The narcissism of crowdfunding entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 57-76, June.
    10. Jung, Eunjun & Lee, Changjun & Hwang, Junseok, 2022. "Effective strategies to attract crowdfunding investment based on the novelty of business ideas," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 178(C).
    11. Yan Lin & Wai Fong Boh, 2020. "How different Are crowdfunders? Examining archetypes of crowdfunders," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1357-1370, November.
    12. Sylvain Dejean, 2019. "The role of distance and social networks in the geography of crowdfunding: evidence from France," Working Papers hal-01645147, HAL.
    13. Friedemann Polzin & Helen Toxopeus & Erik Stam, 2018. "The wisdom of the crowd in funding: information heterogeneity and social networks of crowdfunders," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 251-273, February.
    14. Mohammadi, Ali & Shafi, Kourosh, 2015. "The contribution patterns of equity-crowdfunding investors: Gender, Risk aversion and Observational learning," Working Paper Series in Economics and Institutions of Innovation 419, Royal Institute of Technology, CESIS - Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies.
    15. Yoo, Jenny Jeongeun & Song, Sangyoung & Jhang, Jihoon, 2022. "Overhead aversion and facial expressions in crowdfunding," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Luca Stanca & Luigino Bruni & Marco Mantovani, 2011. "The effect of motivations on social indirect reciprocity: an experimental analysis," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(17), pages 1709-1711.
    17. Yves Fassin, 2012. "Stakeholder Management, Reciprocity and Stakeholder Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 109(1), pages 83-96, August.
    18. Simon Cornée & Marc Jegers & Ariane Szafarz & Simon Cornée & Marc Jegers & Ariane Szafarz, 2022. "Feasible Institutions of Social Finance: A Taxonomy," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 178(3), pages 280-310.
    19. Thomas Neuber, 2021. "Egocentric Norm Adoption," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2021_323, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    20. Marco Bade & Martin Walther, 2021. "Local preferences and the allocation of attention in equity-based crowdfunding," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2501-2533, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:146:y:2017:i:2:d:10.1007_s10551-017-3652-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.