Thinking about Novelty: Effects of Combinatorial Novelty and Comparative Novelty on Crowdfunding Success

Speaker：Yan LIN（SHENZHEN University, Assistant Professor）

Host：HUANG Teng（Assistant Professor, Lingnan College）

Time and Date： 14:30-16:30, May 7, 2021

Venue：WANG Daohan Conference Room, Lingnan Hall

Language： Chinese + English

Abstract：

Recognizing the multi-dimensional nature of novelty, we examine two different dimensions of project novelty in the crowdfunding context. Combinatorial novelty captures the technological newness of product, while comparative novelty captures the project’s positioning relative to past launched projects. The use of both dimensions of novelty highlight the need for projects to appeal to both perceived novelty and familiarity of crowdfunders. Both measures can be calculated from the project’s description and can scale when comparisons are made across a large number of projects. Using data collected from Kickstarter, we show that both measures are associated with project funding performance. The two novelty measures also allow us to provide a more nuanced understanding of the performance impact of novelty. We find that project creators innovate through recombinatorial innovation – presenting ideas  previously not connected together. Both aspects of novelty are associated with better funding outcome: projects high in combinatorial novelty and projects with comparative novelty - similar to successful projects and distinct from failed projects - are favored by the crowdfunder community.