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This article explores the impact of different types of products and rewards on the amount of funds raised in reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF). Specifically, we have analyzed two different product types, i.e., based on individual ownership or temporary use, and four types of rewards, i.e., prototype, branded promotional item, special edition, and discount. Results of a within-subject survey-based experiment indicate that individual ownership products obtain more funds than temporary use products. In addition, depending on the product type, some rewards are more effective in attracting funds from backers. These outcomes extend the application of Signaling Theory in the context of RBCF, as backers respond to multiple signals connected to both product and reward types because they are related to the likelihood of project realization, and of Self-Determination Theory, as backers are nonprofessionals and contribute their money mainly for the satisfaction of supporting what they consider valuable entrepreneurial projects. The findings of this article advance the scientific understanding of RBCF and provide advice for entrepreneurs on how to properly craft their call for money depending on the type of product proposed to the crowd.

Start-ups need investor funding to overcome the early stages of their life, during which they are more vulnerable and exposed to failure. They need to convince investors to fund their business ideas by signaling the potential success of their entrepreneurial venture, through a demonstration of cohesion, shared views, and determination. The educational background of the founders of start-ups can be a strong driver of start-up performance, as it is a visible signal for investors. However, education is composed of two different dimensions (i.e., its depth and its heterogeneity), and their configurations should be carefully considered. To clarify this aspect, in this article, we discuss the impact that these two education dimensions have on funds raised by start-ups in the early stages of their life. Results show that highly educated cofounders have improved access to external funding as long as they do not have highly heterogeneous educational backgrounds; in a parallel fashion, cofounders educated in different disciplines also have improved access to funding, as long as they have less advanced levels of education. These findings are relevant to start-up founders and indicate the best team configurations to guarantee better access to capital in the initial stages of their life.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of the digitalization phenomenon in the development of innovative business models that are sustainability oriented. Thus, the authors aim to understand whether the presence of digitalization forces companies to create, capture and deliver value in new ways, focusing on their social impact.Design/methodology/approachThrough the analysis of a case study in the automotive sector, the authors provide evidence that both digitalization and sustainability need to be considered to adequately innovate business models. Moreover, these two dimensions are interrelated, and therefore digitalization sustains sustainability and vice versa.FindingsBy inductively investigating the evolutionary path along which companies tend to adapt their business models to digitalization and sustainability trends, the authors found that this innovative transformation needs to be as sustainable as possible in order to offer benefits to organizations, customers and society at large. Furthermore, the authors revealed that, at least in the automotive sector, companies and customers are aware of the remarkable consequences of digitalization; however, they are still uncertain regarding the actual adoption of new technologies.Originality/valueThe literature on business model innovation is quite extensive. However, the role of digitalization in developing sustainable business models to achieve a competitive advantage has been overlooked. This study suggests that, within a specific context, forging a value network of stakeholders is helpful when innovating a business model with a sustainability orientation.

Pocket-sized urban parks may contribute to more widely distributing the advantages created by parks in urban neighborhoods, allowing more citizens to benefit more frequently from park environments. Notwithstanding their several benefits, including citizens’ psychological, physiological and physical well-being; possibilities for recreational activities; and improved economic attractiveness of a neighborhood, pocket parks (PPs) are not yet widely diffused worldwide. Considering the state of the art of PPs, we identify four main perspectives that characterize them: architectural, microclimate, managerial and legal. Focusing on a relevant case study, i.e., the Mediterranean context, we analyze the multi-disciplinary challenges – connected to the four identified dimensions – for their diffusion elsewhere. Finally, we provide a general framework for favoring PPs’ creation and management, as the original contribution of this work. Besides advancing scientific knowledge about PPs, our results also interest policymakers and public organizations, as the diffusion of PPs can mitigate urban environmental challenges by creating pleasant experiences for citizens and favoring economic activities.

Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs), i.e. the initial offer of a crypto-token, represent an increasingly popular method to raise money. However, the determinants of ICOs’ returns for investors are still ...

The impact of corporate strategy decisions on capital structure has attracted substantial scholarly and managerial attention from decades, although leading to mixed and inconclusive results until now. While previous studies have focused on the effect brought about by a single strategy at a time, this study tries to reconcile the overall picture of the impact of strategic decisions on capital structure. Based on the Strategy Hierarchy Theory, we estimated the effect brought about by the three strategies determined at the corporate level: internationalization, diversification and integration. The results provide empirical evidence that the above-mentioned strategies impact firms’ capital structure both simultaneously and independently. Integration and internationalization are negatively related with debt ratio while diversification is positively related with debt ratio. The findings of our paper contribute to enrich the strategy/capital-structure literature, and provide academics and managers a clearer understanding of the effect brought about by the corporate strategy on capital structure.

This study examines how the success of reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF) is affected by two narrative styles—namely “results in progress” (RIP) and “ongoing journey” (OJ)—and by the entrepreneur’s RBCF experience. Our findings reveal that greater success in collecting funds is achieved by RBCF campaigns that are communicated through RIP narrative styles rather than OJ styles. Moreover, we have underscored the positive effect brought about by an entrepreneur’s RBCF experience. In addition, we highlight how these two factors interact with each other in their overall effect on successful fundraising through RBFC, showing that entrepreneurs with extensive experience in RBCF attract more pledges by adopting OJ narratives rather than RIP narratives. The outcomes of this study advance the theoretical understanding of success factors in RBCF and provide RBCF entrepreneurs with suggestions regarding the most appropriate narrative style to adopt, depending on their level of experience.

As organizations are increasingly involving individuals across their boundaries in the generation of new knowledge, crowd involvement can also be beneficial to cultural heritage organizations. We argue that in an &ldquo, Open Innovation in Science&rdquo, approach, visitors can contribute to generate new scientific knowledge concerning their behavior and preferences, by which museum managers can re-design the cultural offerings of their institutions in ways that generate major economic and social impacts. Accordingly, we advance visitor-sensing as a novel framework in which museum managers leverage digital technologies to collect visitors&rsquo, ideas, preferences, and feedback in order to improve path design and the organization of artwork in exhibitions, and to shape a more satisfying museum experience for visitors. We contend that visitor-sensing has the potential to yield higher numbers of visitors, with positive impacts in terms of increased revenues and increased literacy of the general public, thus benefiting the economic and social sustainability of cultural organizations towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals outlined in the Agenda 2030.

Advances in information technology (IT) have prompted tremendous growth in security issues for companies. Increasingly, cyberattacks represent a threat to companies and national security; to prevent them, firms should routinely perform risk assessments of their IT infrastructure and employees. This article highlights the importance of open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools in conducting risk assessments to prevent cyberattacks. More specifically, we performed a vulnerability assessment on the critical infrastructure of a company operating on the U.S. electrical grid. We successfully profiled the company’s network software, hardware, and key IT personnel—using OSINT—and detailed potential vulnerabilities associated with these findings. The results of our study provide empirical evidence for the efficacy of OSINT in improving the security posture of organizations. Our research findings were subsequently used to produce tactical and strategic recommendations for organizations based on the use of OSINT to identify vulnerabilities, mitigate risks, and formulate more robust security policies to prevent cyberattacks.

Based on Signaling Theory, in this research we have analyze the effect of product types, i.e., based on individual ownership or temporary use, and types of rewards, i.e., prototype, branded promoti...

Nudging is a framework for directing individuals toward better behavior, both for personal and societal benefits, through heuristics that drive the decision-making process but without preventing any available choice. Considering the Grand Challenges that our society faces today, nudging represents an effective framework to tackle some of these pressing issues. In this work, we assessed the effectiveness of informational nudges in the form of detailed, customized feedback, within an energy-demand-management project. The project aligns energy production and demand, thereby reducing greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions to mitigate climate change. We also offered evidence that this kind of feedback is efficacious in involving individuals as citizen scientists, who volunteer their efforts toward the success of the environmentally-related aim of the project. The results of this research - based on surveys, electroencephalography measurements and online participation measures - indicate that feedback can be an effective tool to steer participants' behavior under the libertarian paternalistic view of nudging, increase their motivation to contribute to citizen science, and improve their awareness about environmentally-related issues. In so doing, we provide evidence that nudging and citizen science can be jointly adopted toward the mitigation of pressing environmental issues.

Crowdsourcing of inventive activities is a particular form of crowdsourcing that helps firms to innovate by involving dispersed individuals to exploit &ldquo, crowd wisdom&rdquo, In this context, the greater the number of contributions, the greater the possibility to gather extremely valuable ideas to produce innovative products and services. While monetary and social rewards can be an effective means to boost contributors&rsquo, extrinsic and intrinsic motivations to contribute, a theoretical understanding and empirical evidence of their effects are lacking. This paper focused on the crowdsourcing of inventive activities, initiated by listed companies worldwide, from 2007 to 2014. Our findings shed light on the influence of monetary and social rewards on the number of ideas collected. In particular, we analyzed the impact on the number of contributions brought about by monetary rewards and noted a positive influence related to its presence and also a negative effect related to the amount of the compensation. Moreover, we have demonstrated how the presence of a social cause is beneficial to the number of contributions. Consequently, we contribute to a scholarly understanding of the crowdsourcing phenomenon and we have provided guidance to managers seeking to initiate crowdsourcing campaigns.

Online participation is becoming an increasingly common means for individuals to contribute to citizen science projects, yet such projects often rely on only a small fraction of participants to make the majority of contributions. Here, we investigate a means for influencing the performance of citizen scientists toward enhancing overall participation. Building on past social comparison research, we pair citizen scientists with a software-based virtual peer in an environmental monitoring project. Through a series of experiments in which virtual peers outperform, underperform, or perform similarly to human participants, we investigate the influence of their presence on citizen science participation. To offer insight into the psychological determinants to the response to this intervention, we propose a new dynamic model describing the bidirectional interaction between humans and virtual peers. Our results demonstrate that participant contribution can be enhanced through the presence of a virtual peer, creating a feedback loop where participants tend to increase or decrease their contribution in response to their peers' performance. By including virtual peers that systematically outperform the participants, we demonstrate a fourfold increase in their contribution to the citizen science project.

Notwithstanding the growing academic and managerial interest towards big data, it is not yet clear when it is beneficial for firms. This lack of clarity is mainly due to the fact that big data is c...

Hospitality firms are increasingly investing in corporate social responsibility (CSR) to generate strong relationships with stakeholders while aiming to benefit their own performance. However, CSR may bring both costs and benefits to the focal firm. We analyze how corporate financial performance (CFP) is affected by CSR, finding that the impact of CSR on CFP has a U-shaped form, where CSR is a cost that translates into higher benefits only when it generates solid relationships between firms and their stakeholders. Furthermore, we adopt a contingency approach, assessing the role of quality management (QM) on the CSR-CFP relationship. We find that the simultaneous implementation of CSR and QM is less beneficial to CFP than the isolated implementation of CSR due to the redundancy of different activities aimed at similar goals, i.e., stakeholders’ satisfaction. In doing so, we advance academic understanding of the impact of CSR and QM on CFP.

Citizen science involves the general public in research activities that are conducted in collaboration with professional scientists. In these projects, citizens voluntarily contribute to the research aims set forward by the scientists through the collection and analysis of large datasets, without a preliminary technical background required. While advancements in information technology have facilitated the involvement of the general public in citizen science through online platforms, several projects still fail due to limited participation. This paper investigates the feasibility of using selected reward mechanisms to positively influence participation and motivations to contribute in a technology-mediated citizen science project. More specifically, we report the results of an empirical study on the effects of monetary and public online acknowledgement rewards. Survey indices and electroencephalographic measurements are synergistically integrated to offer a comprehensive basis for the analysis of citizens' motivations. Our results suggest that both reward mechanisms could crowd-in participants in technology-mediated citizen science projects. With this study, we seek to lay the foundations for a private-collective research model, where the focus is the intensification of participation in technology-mediated citizen science projects.

The involvement of citizens in research projects led by professional scientists, a phenomenon known as citizen science, is rapidly increasing. While the advancements in information technology in th...

Formal institutions shape the governance of economic, legal and social relations and have the purpose of mitigating agency problems. While prevalent research theorizes that firms’ ownership structure tends to become less concentrated as formal institutions protect minority shareholders more strongly, more recent theoretical arguments posit an opposite relationship. A joint read of these perspectives suggests that both strong and weak protection encourages concentrated ownership. In this paper, we contend that these mixed results may be, at least partially, due to the large focus of research on takeover acquisitions and to the neglect of acquisitions of minority equity stakes. While previous studies suggest that controlling shareholders may have incentives to own large equity stakes both under weak and strong shareholder protection, this work argues that minority shareholders have no incentive to own small equity shares when formal institutions weakly protect their interests. Consequently, we argue that fi...

Crowdsourcing is a particular form of open innovation (OI) that aims to boost idea-generation in innovation processes. The underlying rationale is that the collective intelligence of a large number of contributors outside the firm’s boundaries increases the likelihood of achieving ‘extreme outcomes’, i.e., high quality ideas with exceptional business potential. Due to the idiosyncrasies that differentiate crowdsourcing from other forms of OI, the findings from prior research on the performance implications of OI cannot be directly extended to crowdsourcing. Similarly, the findings on the effect of internal R&D on firm performance cannot be directly applied to crowdsourcing due to the greater uncertainty in dealing with a crowd of unknown individuals outside the organization whose ideas have to be evaluated and ultimately processed internally. Thus, while crowdsourcing research has recently burgeoned, it is ambiguous as to whether and when crowdsourcing is beneficial for firms. In fact, the overall effect of crowdsourcing on a firm’s future profits has not been thoroughly investigated. To fill this gap, we conducted an event study analyzing stock market reactions to crowdsourcing announcements, a forward-looking market-based measure able to isolate the effect of crowdsourcing on a firm’s future profits, which we refer to as firm stock market performance. Drawing on the resource-based view, we argue that an external crowd can become a valuable resource if the firm is able to extract value from it. Our findings show that two key contingency factors, i.e., brand value and investment opportunities, determine the boundary conditions that enable firms to extract value from the crowd, resulting in a positive stock market reaction to the announcement of a crowdsourcing campaign. In addition to advancing scholarly knowledge on crowdsourcing, our results provide practitioners with relevant indications for profitable crowdsourcing campaigns.

The use of crowds in research activities by public and private organizations is growing under different forms. Citizen science is a popular means of engaging the general public in research activities led by professional scientists. By involving a large number of amateur scientists, citizen science enables distributed data collection and analysis on a scale that would be otherwise difficult and costly to achieve. While advancements in information technology in the past few decades have fostered the growth of citizen science through online participation, several projects continue to fail due to limited participation. Such web-based projects may isolate the citizen scientists from the researchers. By adopting the perspective of social strategy, we investigate within a measure-manipulate-measure experiment if motivations to participate in a citizen science project can be positively influenced by a face-to-face interaction with the scientists leading the project. Such an interaction provides the participants with the possibility of asking questions on the spot and obtaining a detailed explanation of the citizen science project, its scientific merit, and environmental relevance. Social and cultural factors that moderate the effect brought about by face-to-face interactions on the motivations are also dissected and analyzed. Our findings provide an exploratory insight into a means for motivating crowds to participate in online environmental monitoring projects, also offering possible selection criteria of target audience.

The adoption of open innovation and peer production, powered by 3D printing technology, is transforming traditional manufacturing methods towards a “third industrial revolution”. The purpose of this research is to provide empirical evidence for an integrated approach, based on collaborative product development and peer production, combined with 3D printing, to deliver more sustainable, yet competitive, marketable products. In particular, this experimental study is conducted in the context of mobile forensics, an emerging market where limited expensive products exist and alternative solutions are needed. The technical viability and economic feasibility of the prototype developed in this research validate the proposed integrated approach, which could be a game-changer in the field of mobile forensics, as well as in other sectors. The sustainability improvements with this approach are a reduction of the total cost, thereby making it affordable for lower income users, and a decrease in energy consumption and pollutant emissions. The validated integrated approach offers start-up opportunities to develop and deliver more sustainable, marketable products, towards the paradigm of Open Sustainable Innovation. While the device developed and tested in this research has similar features to existing products, the methodology, implementation, and motivation are original.

Governance and finance literature warns that majority shareholders can extract private benefits of control at the expense of minority shareholders. Yet, results of empirical research are mixed and ...

While the value effect of M&As on acquiring firms is one of the most investigated topics in management research, the relationship between M&As and rivals’ performance remains relatively underexplored. Extant research has predominantly focused on how such relationship is affected by industry-level and firm-level variables. In so doing, it completely neglected the effect that institutional variables may have in the creation or destruction of opportunities for rival firms whose competitors engage in M&A activity. Consequently, this study examines how differences in the degree of development of the institutional environments of acquiring, target and rival firms may impact the performance of rivals upon M&A announcements. The results of our analysis, conducted on a unique sample of large and visible M&As, indicate that M&As affect rivals’ performance more positively when the institutional quality of their home country is higher than the acquirers’ but less positively when it is higher than the targets’. We als...

Patient motivation is an important factor to consider when developing rehabilitation programs. Here, we explore the effectiveness of active participation in web-based citizen science activities as a means of increasing participant engagement in rehabilitation exercises, through the use of a low-cost haptic joystick interfaced with a laptop computer. Using the joystick, patients navigate a virtual environment representing the site of a citizen science project situated in a polluted canal. Participants are tasked with following a path on a laptop screen representing the canal. The experiment consists of two conditions: in one condition, a citizen science component where participants classify images from the canal is included; and in the other, the citizen science component is absent. Both conditions are tested on a group of young patients undergoing rehabilitation treatments and a group of healthy subjects. A survey administered at the end of both tasks reveals that participants prefer performing the scientific task, and are more likely to choose to repeat it, even at the cost of increasing the time of their rehabilitation exercise. Furthermore, performance indices based on data collected from the joystick indicate significant differences in the trajectories created by patients and healthy subjects, suggesting that the low-cost device can be used in a rehabilitation setting for gauging patient recovery.

In this paper we compare the technical and economical performances of a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell with those of an internal combustion engine for a 10 kW combined heat and power residential application. In a view of social innovation, this solution will create new partnerships of cooperating families aiming to reduce the energy consumption and costs. The energy system is simulated through a lumped model. We compare, in the Italian context, the total daily operating cost and energy savings of each system with respect to the separate purchase of electricity from the grid and production of the thermal energy through a standard boiler. The analysis is carried out with the energy systems operating with both the standard thermal tracking and an optimized management. The latter is retrieved through an optimization methodology based on the graph theory. We show that the internal combustion engine is much more affected by the choice of the operating strategy with respect to the fuel cell, in terms long term profitability. Then we conduct a net present value analysis with the aim of evidencing the convenience of using a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell for cogeneration in residential applications.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of including scientific tasks on the satisfaction of patients performing rehabilitation exercises. A low-cost system, comprised of a haptic joystick and a laptop computer, is used for patients to interact with a virtual environment. Within the virtual environment, users are presented with and classify images captured by a robot as part of a citizen science project. Results show that higher levels of satisfaction are attained when the exercise includes scientific tasks.Copyright © 2014 by ASME

In the last years, it became progressively clear that the process of innovation involves complex social practices in which the interactions between multiple parties play a central role: external co...

Thyroid gland size was ultrasonographically determined in 35 pregnant women who live in an area with moderate iodine deficiency. Iodide salt was administered to group A (n = 17), whereas group B (n = 18) was used as a control. Each group was tested for thyroid-stimulating hormone serum levels, iodine excretion, and thyroid volume. In both groups thyroid-stimulating hormone levels were similar and did not change throughout pregnancy. The iodine excretion at the third trimester in the treated group was significantly (p less than 0.01) higher than that of group B (100.0 +/- 39.0 versus 50.0 +/- 37.0 micrograms iodine per 24 hours, respectively). Initially, thyroid volume did not differ between the two groups. At the end of pregnancy, no difference was found in thyroid size in group A, whereas in the untreated women it increased significantly (p less than 0.0001) with a mean increase of 1.6 +/- 0.6 ml (16.2% +/- 6.0%). These results show that the increased thyroid size in the control group was mainly a result of relative iodine deficiency and that iodoprophylaxis should be warranted even in areas with moderate iodine deficiency to prevent the increase in thyroid size and, probably, to avoid the risk of maternal and fetal hypothyroidism.