Social Entrepreneurship Versus Conventional Entrepreneurship: How Entrepreneurship Orientation Moderates the Effects of Human Capital and Social Capital Signals on Media Crowdfunding Success

Given the importance of crowdfunding in the media sector, this study investigates how to make media crowdfunding campaigns successful. Based on institutional theory, this study argues that, because social entrepreneurial projects create greater social values and thus more easily earn legitimacy, they are considered more meaningful and worthy than conventional entrepreneurial projects. Accordingly, this study hypothesizes that social entrepreneurial projects are more likely to achieve funding goals and that the quality signals of human capital and social capital are less important for the success of social entrepreneurial projects than for conventional entrepreneurial projects. This study’s analysis of 630 media crowdfunding projects in South Korea found that social entrepreneurial projects are more likely to succeed than their conventional entrepreneurial counterparts. Social entrepreneurship orientation also negatively moderates the effects of some human capital and social capital signals on the success of media crowdfunding.