Dancing to multiple tunes: Establishing legitimacy with first-time and repeat backers in crowdfunding campaigns

Research Summary Using 14,108 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns, we examine three strategies to gather support from first-time versus repeat backers: narrative distinctiveness aligning with backers' expectations of novelty, endorsement from Kickstarter staff, and campaign leadership's reciprocity of funding other campaigns. Staff endorsement is more strongly associated with support from first-time backers, while campaign leadership's reciprocity is associated primarily with repeat backers. Differences between first-time and repeat backers are evident in evaluating narrative distinctiveness: narratives distinct from past campaigns correlate positively with repeat backers and greater funding but negatively with first-time backers. Narratives distinct from live campaigns correlate positively with first-time backers but are associated with lower funding amounts. Our findings conceptualize differences between first-time and repeat backers that shape the associations between campaign legitimization strategies and backer support.Managerial Summary This work examines how Kickstarter campaigns should be designed to attract both new people and get support from existing community members. We test whether differences between these two target groups exist in evaluating commonly established "success factors" of campaigns: An endorsement from Kickstarter, the involvement of the campaign founder on the platform, and a campaign text highlighting the campaign's novel contributions. We find differences in all three between both groups and conclude with insights on how managers should design crowdfunding campaigns based on long-term goals and objectives. We also offer some implications for crowdfunding platforms, such as Kickstarter, in supporting content creators in attracting new backers, which aids with overall platform growth.