SOCIAL NORMS WITH A DYNAMIC FRAME IN
ENCOURAGING INTENTION TO PARTICIPATE IN GREEN
CROWDFUNDING PROJECTS
by Chiao-An Su
University of Groningen Faculty of Economics and Business
ABSTRACT
Although extensive research has examined the influence of social norms on certain behaviors, such as the reduction of meat consumption and increase of purchase intention. The effect of social norms under dynamic and static frames on the intention to participate in the crowdfunding has seldom been discussed. As a result, this research investigated whether injunctive and descriptive norms framing with a dynamic norm are more effective in encouraging people to take part in green crowdfunding than those framing with a static norm. The results surprisingly point out that participants receive a message with an injunctive norm have higher intention than those who receive a message with a descriptive norm, while there is no significant difference between the impact of dynamic and static norms. The current research also found a trend furthermore implicated that a descriptive norm is more influential with a dynamic frame and an injunctive norm is more effective with a static frame.
Keywords: social norms; dynamic norm; green crowdfunding; donation intention;
sustainability.
Research theme: Follow the norm? How to use normative messages to encourage
pro-environmental consumer behavior
1. INTRODUCTION
Crowdfunding is the process of outsourcing tasks to a large group of individuals to collect financial resources (Hemer, 2011). As a novel fundraising channel that attracts investors from all fields, crowdfunding could be a new method to promote environmental protection. With growing environmental concerns, several projects are appearing on the crowdfunding platforms, such as purchasing green products to assist eco-minded entrepreneurs in the startup and directly donating money to support the development of specific sustainable projects. Crowdfunding can help sustainable projects overcome the difficulty of a lack of funding (Ortas, Burritt, & Moneva, 2013). In addition, crowdfunding can raise public awareness of funded projects (Schwienbacher & Larralde, 2010). Up to 70% of sustainability initiatives are likely to survive after the crowdfunding campaign (Bento, Gianfrate, & Thoni, 2019). In other words, crowdfunding could be a great means of promoting environmental issues. Therefore, it is important to understand how we can increase the intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects.
that people prefer to choose an eco-friendly travel plan when they think others engage in the same way (i.e. descriptive norm) or others expect them to do the same way (i.e. injunctive norm). It is also suggested that when people see similar others involved in crowdfunding, people may also have confidence in their capability to complete the task, and therefore participate in crowdfunding (Gerber & Hui, 2013).
Moreover, people are more willing to conform to social norms when they are informed the number of people engaging in a specific behavior is increasing (i.e. dynamic norm), than when they are only presented the status quo of behavior (i.e. static norm) (Sparkman & Walton, 2017). The influence of social norms on people's intention has been widely researched (Ham, Jeger, & Ivković, 2015; Sieverding, Matterne, & Ciccarello, 2010; Sun, 2019; Wang & Chou, 2016). However, how social norms are relevant in enhancing people's intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects is unclear. Therefore, the present study aims to examine how framing injunctive and descriptive norms statically or dynamically can help to promote the intention to donate to a green crowdfunding project.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Crowdfunding: The Intention to Donate to Crowdfunding Projects
crowdfunding is to collect a large number of finance resources via small contributions from individuals. Given that the lack of funding has been seen as the main obstacle that hinders the development of sustainability (Ortas et al., 2013), crowdfunding can be a new source of green financing. In addition, crowdfunding can enhance public awareness of funded goods and services since it usually catches public attention in social media (Mollick, 2014). Lehner (2013) indicates that the backers of crowdfunding usually focus on the core concept behind the projects rather than the business plan. If people become more conscious of environmental issues, they are more likely to support green projects, and vice versa. An individual’s intention can be a highly accurate predictor of actual performance (Ajzen, 1991). Increasing people’s intention to donate crowdfunding green projects can enhance the likelihood to participate in crowdfunding. Therefore, it is crucial to increase people’s intention to participate in crowdfunding.
2.2 Social Norm: Injunctive and Descriptive Norms
conform with the referent group to ensure a fit with the values or behaviors of the group (Noor'ain et al., 2011). People prefer to follow the norm to avoid objectionable condemnation (Wooten & Reed, 2004). Normative beliefs and the people’s motivation to comply with the norms positively influence people’s intention toward a behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1972). Previous studies also demonstrate that social norms have a positive influence on the intentions of financial contribution toward crowdfunding projects since individuals desire to be a member of the community and avoid acting independently from the environment (Gerber & Hui, 2013; Shneor & Munim, 2019). Furthermore, some studies indicate that a descriptive norm may have a more dominant influence on people’s own decisions than an injunctive norm (Melnyk, Herpen, Fischer, & Trijp, 2013; Zou & Savani, 2019). In compliance with previous studies, a hypothesis that a descriptive norm has a more salient influence on the intention to donate than an injunctive norm is constructed in this study.
2.3 Social Norms: The Impact of Static Versus Dynamic Norms
has shown that people are more likely to conform to norms in which the number of people engaging in the behavior is increasing than norms presenting the current state (Mortensen et al., 2017). People conform more to these norms since they expect that the increase in the prevalence will happen. Consequently, emphasizing the change of a norm rather than providing the current behavior could sway people into the desired behavior, especially when the desired behavior is only shown by a minority (Loschelder et al., 2019). As a result, a hypothesis that a dynamic norm is more effective to increase the intention to donate than a static norm is examined in this study.
2.4 The Influence of Social Norms on the Intention to donate
Compared with a static norm, a dynamic norm makes individuals perceive that more people will engage in a certain behavior, increases their perceived importance of this behavior, and therefore makes individuals conform to behave like others. In addition, some studies indicate that social norms play a crucial role in a wide variety of behavior, such as purchase decisions (Noor'ain et al., 2011) and donations (Shneor & Munim, 2019). In this way, when social norms are applied to crowdfunding, people may be more willing to contribute and thereby share the relevant information about crowdfunding ventures they support (Shneor & Munim, 2019). As a result, it is hypothesized in this study that both injunctive and descriptive norms will be more effective to increase the intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects when they are provided with dynamically instead of statically.
2.5 Conclusion
in much detail. Besides, previous studies that discuss the success factors for crowdfunding projects usually consider individual’s reference group and social networking as the important factors (Koch & Cheng, 2016; Koch & Siering, 2015, 2019; Kromidha & Robson, 2016; Mollick, 2014); however, less is known about the influence of social norms on an individual’s intention to support crowdfunding. As a result, the objectives of the present study are to determine to what extent the social norms can influence the intention to donate green crowdfunding projects and to understand how effective social norms are to encourage intention to donate crowdfunding green projects when using a static norm versus a dynamic norm. Based on the literature review and the aim of this study, the following are hypotheses developed in the study (see Figure 1):
Hypothesis 1. A descriptive norm more strongly influences the intention to donate to crowdfunding green projects than an injunctive norm.
Hypothesis 2. A dynamic norm is more effective to increase the intention of donation than a static norm.
3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Designs and Participants
The research design was a two (injunctive norm vs. descriptive norm) by two (static norm vs. dynamic norm) multi-factor between-subject experimental design. In this study, a sample size analysis in G*Power 3.1 was used for a between-subjects ANOVA with four conditions. With a type I error level of α = 0.05, a moderate effect size of f = 0.25, and a power of 1-ß= 0.80, a minimum sample size of 160 subjects was required. That is, 40 participants were needed in each condition. Therefore, the total sample consisted of 160 participants in this study. The sample included 77% of participants had heard of crowdfunding in the past while only 29% of participants had ever participated in green crowdfunding projects. The gender distributions were 67% female and 31% male with age ranging from 18 to 51 (M = 25.49, SD = 5.88).
3.2 Procedure
Participants were asked to take part in a short online survey about their intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects. In the questionnaire, participants answered questions regarding their experience with crowdfunding and were then randomly assigned to one of the four conditions (see ‘Experimental Manipulations’ in Section 3.3). They read an info sheet about the introduction of green crowdfunding in each condition. After the experimental manipulation, they received questions in relation to the manipulation checks and the dependent variable (see ‘Measure’ in Section 3.4). After that, they answered the demographic questions. Finally, they were thanked and provided with a code to redeem points that can be used in SurveyCircle and PollPool.
3.3 Experimental manipulations
The first independent variable was social norms, including two levels: injunctive and descriptive norm. The second independent variable was the way in which the social norms were presented, including two levels: dynamic and static frame. Hence, the final experimental design contained four experimental conditions. Participants in these conditions all first read the following:
“The pace of climate change and its effect is accelerating, with climate-related disasters becoming more frequent and more detrimental. When it comes to making a global impact, few charities are more worthwhile than those dedicated to sustaining and protecting the planet. If people want to make a difference and support these charities, participating in crowdfunding green projects might be a great and easy way to start off.
ventures. In addition to helping fill the finance gap, through the rise of various online platforms, crowdfunding becomes more accessible to the public and therefore can be a great tool for promoting environmental awareness.”
After that, participants received different texts and questions based on different conditions. Social norms were manipulated by providing participants with one of the four texts below.
The injunctive static norm condition showed:
“A recent research (Field, 2019) has shown that up to 40% of people believe that people like themselves should contribute to the crowdfunding of green projects because it can help to create a better world. This means that 4 in 10 people tend to support the crowdfunding of green projects. They typically approve of donating money on crowdfunding platforms as it is a worthy cause to support sustainable development.”
The injunctive dynamic norm condition showed:
“A recent research has shown that, compared to last year, 10% more people believe that people like themselves should be willing to contribute to the crowdfunding of green projects, because it can help to create a better world. This makes the total percentage of people approving of the crowdfunding of green projects to 40%. They typically approve of donating money on crowdfunding platforms as it is a worthy cause to support sustainable development.”
“A recent research has shown that up to 40% of people have participated in the crowdfunding of green projects because it can help to create a better world. This means that 4 in 10 people have donated money to support the crowdfunding of green projects. They typically donate money on crowdfunding platforms as it is a worthy cause to support sustainable development.”
The descriptive dynamic norm condition showed:
“A recent research has shown that, compared to last year, 10% more people have started to participate in the crowdfunding of green projects, because it can help to create a better world. This makes the total percentage of people donating money to the crowdfunding of green projects to 40%. They typically donate money on crowdfunding platforms as it is a worthy cause to support sustainable development.”
3.4. Measures
3.5 Data Analysis
Two manipulations were added to make sure that the manipulation of different conditions worked successfully in the survey. An independent t-test was conducted and the results showed that the manipulation of injunctive and descriptive norms (t(158) = 4.56, p = .00) and the manipulation of static and dynamic norms (t(158) = 3.70, p = .03) were both significant, which indicated that the participants did perceive the manipulation.
coefficient was calculated to measure internal consistency reliability (Gliem & Gliem, 2003). As shown in Table 1, the result suggested that the items had adequate reliability. A test of normality and Levene’s test were conducted. The data in this study was skewed and kurtotic for all four experimental conditions, and therefore the data did not fulfill a normal distribution. However, the result of Levene’s test was insignificant, showing that population variances are equal. Hence, these variables did not violate the homogeneity of variance assumption needed for an ANOVA. In order to examine the potentially different influence between the different norms on the intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects, a two-way ANOVA was conducted.
3.6 Results
There was a significant main effect of social norms, F(1, 156) = 4.47, p = .04. People who received a message with an injunctive norm had a stronger intention to donate money to green crowdfunding projects (M = 5.06, SD = 0.87) than those who received a message with a descriptive norm (M = 4.73, SD = 1.09). The result was contrary to the expectation, hereby Hypothesis 1 was rejected. In addition, the main effect of static and dynamic norms (F(1, 156) = 0.00, p = .96) and the interaction effect (F(1, 156) = 1.73, p = .19) appeared insignificant, which described that the influence of dynamic and static norms on the intention to donate did not have much difference, as well as that social norms presented dynamically did not be more effective to increase the intention of donation than those presented statically. In other words, Hypothesis 2 and Hypothesis 3 were not supported.
the ‘descriptive static norm’ group. This trend implied that Hypothesis 3 may be partially supported.
4. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Conclusion
could provide a possible explanation for this result. They argued that people who receive a message with an injunctive norm may be more willing to conduct a certain behavior if they have positive evaluations of consequences. In contrast, a descriptive norm can be used to increase the intention to conduct a certain behavior if people have negative evaluations of consequences. Therefore, since people tend to perceive donation as a good thing, an injunctive norm may be more effective than a descriptive norm in this study.
The second finding is that there is no significant difference between the influence of static and dynamic norms on the intention to donate to green crowdfunding projects. This finding contradicts previous research which indicated that a dynamic norm is more effective to increase the intention than a static norm. Hypothesis 2, therefore, receives no support in this paper. This result might be attributable to the conditions in which the experiment is administered since most of the earlier research conducted field studies and examined the behavior in real life while this study only conducted an online survey and investigated the intention. Using intention as the predictor of the behavior and conducting different experimental methods may be the reason that the result of this study is not consistent with the results of previous studies. Since the determinants of actual behavior are not only the intention of participants but also the belief and the ability of them (Yamin, Fei, Lahlou, & Levy, 2019), there might be a certain difference between people’s intention to donate and their actual behavior. In addition, an online survey may create lower salience of a dynamic norm, compared with a field study. Salience is considered as an important factor to affect the strength of the influence of the norms (Cialdini et al., 1990)
finds a trend that an injunctive static norm is more effective than an injunctive dynamic norm while a descriptive dynamic norm is more influential than a descriptive static norm. In line with the study by Sparkman and Walton (2017), a dynamic frame makes the influence of a descriptive norm more salient than a static frame. Besides, a new finding in this study points out that a static frame makes an injunctive norm more influential than a dynamic frame. Hypothesis 3, which predicts that both injunctive and descriptive norms are more effective to increase the intention when these norms are presented as a dynamic norm than a static norm, is partially supported.
Even though the hypotheses are not fully supported, the findings of the current study point out that social norms still have some influence on the intention to support green crowdfunding projects. Additionally, the application of social norms is simple, low-cost, and needs less effort. Social norms can be an effective way to encourage people to participate in crowdfunding. The creators of crowdfunding projects may thus consider social norms as a means of promoting their initiatives.
4.2 Limitations
In addition, the way that social norms were communicated to participants in the experiment was only a description added in the questionnaire. Although the manipulation check shows that the experimental manipulation does make participants perceive different normative messages, the influence of social norms could be stronger with designing more ways to present the norms to the participants.
4.3 Suggestions for Future Research
REFERENCES
Abduh, M., Duasa, J., & Omar, A. 2011. Factors influence depositors’ withdrawal behavior in Islamic banks: a theory of reasoned action. World Academy of Science,
Engineering and Technology. 60:2074-2079.
Ajzen, I. 1991. The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human
Decision Processes. 50: 179-211.
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. 1972. Attitudes and normative beliefs as factors influencing behavioral intentions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 21(1): 1–9. Belleflamme, P., Lambert, T., & Schwienbacher, A. 2012. Crowdfunding: tapping the
right crowd. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1836873. Bento, N., Gianfrate, G., & Thoni, M. H. 2019. Crowdfunding for sustainability
ventures. Journal of Cleaner Production, 237: 117751.
Chandon, P., Morwitz, V. G., & Reinartz, W. J. 2005. Do intentions really predict behavior? Self-generated validity effects in survey research. Journal of Marketing, 69(2): 1–14.
Cialdini, R., Reno, R. & Kallgren, C. 1990. A focus theory of normative conduct: recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology, 58(6): 1015-1026.
Colman, A. M., Norris, C. E., & Preston, C. C. 1997. Comparing rating scales of different lengths: equivalence of scores from 5-point and 7-point scales. Psychological Reports, 80(2): 355–362.
Conner, M., Kirk, S. F., Cade, J. E., & Barrett, J. H. 2001. Why do women use dietary supplements? The use of the theory of planned behaviour to explore beliefs about their use. Social Science & Medicine, 52(4): 621–633.
of Tourism Research, 18(2): 159–166.
Foster, D. W., Neighbors, C., & Krieger, H. 2015. Alcohol evaluations and acceptability: examining descriptive and injunctive norms among heavy drinkers. Addictive
Behaviors, 42: 101–107.
Gerber, E., Hui, J., & Kuo, P. Y. 2013. Crowdfunding: why people are motivated to post and fund projects on crowdfunding platforms. Workshop on Design Influence and
Social Technologies: Techniques, Impacts and Ethics, Seattle, WA.
Gliem R. R., & Gliem J. A. 2003. Calculating, interpreting, and reporting Cronbach’s
alpha reliability coefficient for Likert-type scales. Midwest Research-to-Practice
Conference in Adult, Continuing, and Community Education.
Ham, M., Jeger, M., & Ivković, A. F. 2015. The role of subjective norms in forming the intention to purchase green food. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 28(1): 738–748.
Hauser, D. J., Ellsworth, P. C., Gonzalez, R. 2018. Are manipulation checks necessary? Media release, May 28. Accessed online
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00998/full. 2018, Hemer, J. 2011. A snapshot on crowdfunding. Working paper, Fraunhofer ISI,
Karlsruhe.
Hill, R. 1998. What sample size is 'enough' in internet survey research? The
Interpersonal Computing and Technology Journal, 6: 3-4.
Koch, J. A., & Siering, M. 2015. Crowdfunding success factors: the characteristics of successfully funded projects on crowdfunding platforms. European Conference
on Information Systems, Germany, Proceedings.
Koch, J. A., & Cheng, Q. 2016. The role of qualitative success factors in the analysis of crowdfunding success: evidence from Kickstarter. Pacific Asia Conference on
Koch, J. A., & Siering, M. 2019. The recipe of successful crowdfunding campaigns: an analysis of crowdfunding success factors and their interrelations. Electronic
Markets, 29: 661–679.
Kromidha, E., & Robson, P. 2016. Social identity and signalling success factors in online crowdfunding. Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, 28(9): 605-629.
Lehner, O. M. 2013. Crowdfunding social ventures: a model and research agenda.
Venture Capital, 15(4): 289–311.
Loschelder, D. D., Siepelmeyer, H., Fischer, D., & Rubel, J. A. 2019. Dynamic norms drive sustainable consumption: norm-based nudging helps café customers to avoid disposable to-go-cups. Journal of Economic Psychology, 75: 102-146.
Melnyk, V., Herpen, E. V., Fischer, A. R. H., & Trijp, H. C. M. V. 2013. Regulatory fit effects for injunctive versus descriptive social norms: evidence from the promotion of sustainable products. Marketing Letters, 24(2): 191–203.
Mollick, E. 2014. The dynamics of crowdfunding: an exploratory study. Journal of
Business Venturing, 29(1): 1–16.
Mortensen, C. R., Neel, R., Cialdini, R. B., Jaeger, C. M., Jacobson, R. P., & Ringel, M. M. 2017. Trending norms: a lever for encouraging behaviors performed by the minority. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 10(2): 201–210. Noor'ain, M., Yunus, R. M., Som, A. A., Majid, U., Munirah, U. A., Abas, M. K., &
Abas 2018. Generation Y purchase intention of personal care products: the influence of attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
Journal of International Business, Economics and Entrepreneurship, 3(2):
29-36.
Journal of Service Management, 22(4): 443–470.
Ortas, E., Burritt, R. L., & Moneva, J. M. 2013. Socially responsible investment and cleaner production in the Asia pacific: does it pay to be good? Journal of Cleaner
Production, 52: 272–280.
Sajadi, S. H., Fazli, M., & Habibi, J. 2018. The affective evolution of social norms in social networks. IEEE Transactions on Computational Social Systems, 5(3): 727-735.
Schwienbacher, A., & Larralde, B. 2010. Crowdfunding of small entrepreneurial ventures. SSRN Electronic Journal. http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1699183.
Shneor, R., & Munim, Z. H. 2019. Reward crowdfunding contribution as planned behaviour: an extended framework. Journal of Business Research, 103: 56–70. Sieverding, M., Matterne, U., & Ciccarello, L. 2010. What role do social norms play in
the context of men’s cancer screening intention and behavior? Application of an extended theory of planned behavior. Health Psychology, 29(1): 72–81.
Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M. 2017. Dynamic norms promote sustainable behavior, even if it is counternormative. Psychological Science, 28(11): 1663–1674.
Sun, W. 2019. Toward a theory of ethical consumer intention formation: re-extending the theory of planned behavior. AMS Review. http://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-019-00156-6.
Symonds, P. M. 1924. On the loss of reliability in ratings due to coarseness of the scale.
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 7(6): 456–461.
Wang, E. S. T., & Chou, N. P. Y. 2016. Examining social influence factors affecting consumer continuous usage intention for mobile social networking applications.
International Journal of Mobile Communications, 14(1): 43.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228470238_Crowdfunding_the_next_hi t_Microfunding_online_experience_goods. Viewed April 8, 2020.
Wooten, D. B., & Reed, A. 2004. Playing it safe: susceptibility to normative influence and protective self‐presentation. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(3): 551–556.
Yamin, Fei, Lahlou, & Levy. 2019. Using social norms to change behavior and increase sustainability in the real world: a systematic review of the literature. Sustainability, 11(20): 5847.
Zou, X., & Savani, K. 2019. Descriptive norms for me, injunctive norms for you: using norms to explain the risk gap. Judgment and Decision Making, 14(6): 644-648.
