Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
possibility of human defection or error. That is the purpose of trusted computing
platforms. When used, thus, trust is not a design level at all but rather a description
of the outcome of a system, which signifi es confi dence in its performance'.
Choi and Scott (
2012
) carried a research whereby they found that the social net-
work sites' usage intensity is positively linked to some of the aspects of users'
relational social capital (trust and identifi cation), which have a positive effect on
electronic word-of-mouth quality.
Trust at crowdfunding platforms is highly needed because the mainstream moti-
vation of these websites is to get people funding the projects, and that means users
making online payments. Reimink (
2014
) identifi ed eight factors which may be
important for the intention to invest in a crowdfunding initiative: 'quality of the
project, amount of money, rewards, geography, network involvement, shared values,
trust and duration'.
Brogan and Smith (
2012
: 215) elaborated a formula which should help to calcu-
late trust in a virtual environment: 'C (credibility) × R (reliability) × I (intimacy)/S
(self-orientation)'. The formula says that 'the more credible and reliable a person
appears, and the lesser I am in doubt about his altruism, the more I will trust him or
her'.
To generate trust, both platforms, Kickstarter and Indiegogo, state clearly the
conditions that they impose to creators and to donors. Furthermore, they have a
tracking income system, which is visible and updated immediately to let users see
the changes that occurred in the project's state. This tracking income system is cen-
tral to these online platforms because it permits users to dispose of the funding data
immediately, creating an environment where all is done with transparency. If a per-
son funds any project, he or she can see how the money is automatically added to
the chosen project. This improves notably the method created by Pulitzer, which
consisted on publishing on his newspaper the name of the donors and the quantity
they had given. It is possible to know immediately the changes that occurred in the
state of a project, seeing the quantity of money received, the number of donors and
even the quantity given by each donor.
Kickstarter and Indiegogo state clearly which are the fees they keep and also
explain the payment methods that supporters can use. Kickstarter obtains 5 % from
the amount of money if a project is successfully funded. Indiegogo permits users to
choose a fl exible option which means that in case the project does not achieve the
goal aimed, the creators still receive the money that the donors gave to them until
the last day of the campaign. In this case, the platform will keep 7 % of the amount
collected.
Both platforms indicate how to do the payments and also refer to their security
servers and to the possession of certifi cates certifying trust on the operations. It is
important to highlight that, as it is explained at the platforms, there are payment
processing fees of 3 or 5 % (see Table
10.4
).
