IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/elcore/v25y2025i3d10.1007_s10660-023-09748-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Certified by social networks: the role of social certifications in medical crowdfunding

Author

Listed:
  • Wanting Hao

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Xianguo Li

    (Renmin University of China)

  • Fangliang Zhang

    (Guangxi University)

Abstract

Nowadays, medical crowdfunding platforms are faced with two challenges: the trustworthiness issue caused by inauthentic information provided by fundraisers and the trackability issue caused by insufficient information updates in the fundraising process. In the current research, we aim to examine the role of social certifications, a practice of turning fundraisers’ social networks into social certifiers of crowdfunding campaigns, in mitigating these two issues. By establishing a panel vector autoregression model based on data from a Chinese medical crowdfunding platform, we find that social certifications promote the contributing behavior of backers, mitigating the trustworthiness issue. At the same time, social certifications facilitate the information-updating behavior of fundraisers, alleviating the trackability issue. We also find that the diversity and professionalism of social certifiers strengthen the influences of social certifications on backers and fundraisers. Besides, fundraisers’ information-updating behavior promotes backers’ contributing behavior. The results have significant theoretical and practical implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Wanting Hao & Xianguo Li & Fangliang Zhang, 2025. "Certified by social networks: the role of social certifications in medical crowdfunding," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 25(3), pages 1827-1864, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:elcore:v:25:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10660-023-09748-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s10660-023-09748-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10660-023-09748-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10660-023-09748-8?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. Meer, Jonathan, 2014. "Effects of the price of charitable giving: Evidence from an online crowdfunding platform," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 113-124.
    2. Susan Feng Lu, 2012. "Multitasking, Information Disclosure, and Product Quality: Evidence from Nursing Homes," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 673-705, September.
    3. Shaun Bond & Avis Devine, 2016. "Certification Matters: Is Green Talk Cheap Talk?," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 117-140, February.
    4. Jörn Block & Lars Hornuf & Alexandra Moritz, 2018. "Which updates during an equity crowdfunding campaign increase crowd participation?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(1), pages 3-27, January.
    5. Nofer, Michael & Hinz, Oliver, 2014. "Are Crowds on the Internet Wiser than Experts? The Case of a Stock Prediction Community," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 69935, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    6. Tingting Song & Jinghua Huang & Yong Tan & Yifan Yu, 2019. "Using User- and Marketer-Generated Content for Box Office Revenue Prediction: Differences Between Microblogging and Third-Party Platforms," Service Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(1), pages 191-203, March.
    7. Rick Harbaugh & John W. Maxwell & Beatrice Roussillon, 2011. "Label Confusion: The Groucho Effect of Uncertain Standards," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 57(9), pages 1512-1527, February.
    8. Hailiang Chen & Prabuddha De & Yu Jeffrey Hu, 2015. "IT-Enabled Broadcasting in Social Media: An Empirical Study of Artists’ Activities and Music Sales," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 513-531, September.
    9. Liuan Wang & Lu (Lucy) Yan & Tongxin Zhou & Xitong Guo & Gregory R. Heim, 2020. "Understanding Physicians’ Online-Offline Behavior Dynamics: An Empirical Study," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 537-555, June.
    10. Marc F. Bellemare & Casey J. Wichman, 2020. "Elasticities and the Inverse Hyperbolic Sine Transformation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 82(1), pages 50-61, February.
    11. Daniel W. Elfenbein & Raymond Fisman & Brian McManus, 2015. "Market Structure, Reputation, and the Value of Quality Certification," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 7(4), pages 83-108, November.
    12. Love, Inessa & Zicchino, Lea, 2006. "Financial development and dynamic investment behavior: Evidence from panel VAR," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 190-210, May.
    13. Joost Rietveld & Robert Seamans & Katia Meggiorin, 2021. "Market Orchestrators: The Effects of Certification on Platforms and Their Complementors," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(3), pages 244-264, September.
    14. Sofia Bapna, 2019. "Complementarity of Signals in Early-Stage Equity Investment Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(2), pages 933-952, February.
    15. Gaia Bassani & Nicoletta Marinelli & Silvio Vismara, 2019. "Crowdfunding in healthcare," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 44(4), pages 1290-1310, August.
    16. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    17. Jorge Mejia & Gloria Urrea & Alfonso J. Pedraza‐Martinez, 2019. "Operational Transparency on Crowdfunding Platforms: Effect on Donations for Emergency Response," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 28(7), pages 1773-1791, July.
    18. Yen-Yao Wang & Chenhui Guo & Anjana Susarla & Vallabh Sambamurthy, 2021. "Online to Offline: The Impact of Social Media on Offline Sales in the Automobile Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 582-604, June.
    19. James H. Stock & Mark W. Watson, 2001. "Vector Autoregressions," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 101-115, Fall.
    20. Bradley S. Wimmer & Brian Chezum, 2003. "An Empirical Examination of Quality Certification in a "Lemons Market"," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 279-291, April.
    21. Simon, Mark & Stanton, Steven J. & Townsend, Janell D. & Kim, John, 2019. "A multi-method study of social ties and crowdfunding success: Opening the black box to get the cash inside," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 206-214.
    22. Dierkens, Nathalie, 1991. "Information Asymmetry and Equity Issues," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 26(2), pages 181-199, June.
    23. Taj, Saud A., 2016. "Application of signaling theory in management research: Addressing major gaps in theory," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 338-348.
    24. Mingfeng Lin & Nagpurnanand R. Prabhala & Siva Viswanathan, 2013. "Judging Borrowers by the Company They Keep: Friendship Networks and Information Asymmetry in Online Peer-to-Peer Lending," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 59(1), pages 17-35, August.
    25. Michael Spence, 1973. "Job Market Signaling," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 87(3), pages 355-374.
    26. Xin (Shane) Wang & Shijie Lu & X I Li & Mansur Khamitov & Neil Bendle & J. Jeffrey Inman & Andrew T Stephen, 2021. "Audio Mining: The Role of Vocal Tone in Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 48(2), pages 189-211.
    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. Cai, Wanxiang & Polzin, Friedemann & Stam, Erik, 2021. "Crowdfunding and social capital: A systematic review using a dynamic perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Yu, Jie & Xiao, Shengsheng, 2023. "Project certification and screening in the reward-based crowdfunding market," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    3. Yen-Yao Wang & Chenhui Guo & Anjana Susarla & Vallabh Sambamurthy, 2021. "Online to Offline: The Impact of Social Media on Offline Sales in the Automobile Industry," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 32(2), pages 582-604, June.
    4. Goran Calic & Rene Arseneault & Maryam Ghasemaghaei, 2023. "The Dark Side of Machiavellian Rhetoric: Signaling in Reward-Based Crowdfunding Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(3), pages 875-896, January.
    5. Pabst, Stefan & Mohnen, Alwine, 2021. "On founders and dictators: Does it pay to pay for signals in crowdfunding?," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    6. Yu-Kai Lin & Arun Rai & Yukun Yang, 2022. "Information Control for Creator Brand Management in Subscription-Based Crowdfunding," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 846-866, September.
    7. Francesca Battaglia & Francesco Busato & Maria Manganiello, 2022. "A cross-platform analysis of the equity crowdfunding Italian context: the role of intellectual capital," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 649-689, June.
    8. Samuel Ribeiro-Navarrete & Juan Piñeiro-Chousa & M. Ángeles López-Cabarcos & Daniel Palacios-Marqués, 2022. "Crowdlending: mapping the core literature and research frontiers," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(8), pages 2381-2411, November.
    9. Boudreau, Kevin J. & Jeppesen, Lars Bo & Reichstein, Toke & Rullani, Francesco, 2021. "Crowdfunding as Donations to Entrepreneurial Firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(7).
    10. Douglas Cumming & Lars Hornuf & Moein Karami & Denis Schweizer, 2023. "Disentangling Crowdfunding from Fraudfunding," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 1103-1128, February.
    11. 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.
    12. Fabrice Hervé & Armin Schwienbacher, 2018. "Crowdfunding And Innovation," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(5), pages 1514-1530, December.
    13. Kgoroeadira, Reabetswe & Burke, Andrew & Di Pietro, Francesca & van Stel, André, 2023. "Determinants of firms’ default on unsecured loans in the P2P crowdfunding market," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    14. Johan, Sofia & Zhang, Yelin, 2020. "Quality revealing versus overstating in equity crowdfunding," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    15. Sardar Muhammad Usman & Farasat Ali Shah Bukhari & Huiwei You & Daniel Badulescu & Darie Gavrilut, 2020. "The Effect and Impact of Signals on Investing Decisions in Reward-Based Crowdfunding: A Comparative Study of China and the United Kingdom," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-20, December.
    16. Gregor Dorfleitner & Eva-Maria Oswald & Rongxin Zhang, 2021. "From Credit Risk to Social Impact: On the Funding Determinants in Interest-Free Peer-to-Peer Lending," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(2), pages 375-400, May.
    17. Rinaldo Dikaputra & Liyu Adhi Kasari Sulung & Sebastian Kot, 2019. "Analysis of Success Factors of Reward-Based Crowdfunding Campaigns Using Multi-Theory Approach in ASEAN-5 Countries," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-15, October.
    18. Jason Chan & Zihong Huang & De Liu & Zhigang Cai, 2024. "Better to Give Than to Receive: Impact of Adding a Donation Scheme to Reward-Based Crowdfunding Campaigns," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 272-293, March.
    19. Zhang, Juan & Huang, Jian, 2020. "Deceptive advertising in a crowdfunding market," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    20. Lenny Phulong Mamaro & Athenia Bongani Sibindi, 2022. "Financial Sustainability of African Small-to-Medium Enterprises during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Determinants of Crowdfunding Success," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-14, 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:spr:elcore:v:25:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s10660-023-09748-8. 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.