Reward-based crowdfunding campaign data from Kickstarter. The core unstructured content is each campaign’s project description (pitch text), which the paper mines for rhetorical signals — emotional tone, cognitive tone, communal language style, and linguistic style match — alongside a substantive signal (backer support), and relates these to the trajectory of funds pledged over the campaign. Campaign metadata typically includes the funding goal, amount pledged, number of backers, category, launch/deadline dates, and final outcome (success/failure). The data supports research on persuasion, entrepreneurship, and consumer/backer behaviour.
Publications Citing This Dataset:
Moradi, M., Dass, M., Arnett, D., & Badrinarayanan, V. (2024). The time-varying effects of rhetorical signals in crowdfunding campaigns. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 52(2), 370–398.
Variables:
Variable name
Variable definition
project_description (blurb / pitch text)
The free-text description of the campaign — the unstructured input from which the rhetorical signals are derived.
emotional_tone
Rhetorical signal (LIWC): the degree of affective/emotional language in the project description.
cognitive_tone
Rhetorical signal (LIWC): the degree of cognitive-process language (e.g., reasoning, insight) in the description.
communal_language_style
Rhetorical signal: use of communal/relational language that emphasises togetherness and community.
linguistic_style_match
Rhetorical signal: similarity between the campaign’s linguistic style and that of its backers/the platform community.
backer_support
Substantive signal: level of support from backers (e.g., number of backers) accrued by the campaign.
funding_formation
Outcome analysed over time (via FDA): the accumulation of pledged funds across the campaign’s fixed duration.
goal
The funding target set by the campaign creator.
pledged
Total amount of money pledged to the campaign.
backers_count
Number of backers who pledged to the campaign.
category / subcategory
Kickstarter category and subcategory of the project (e.g., Technology, Games, Design).
launched_at, deadline
Campaign launch date and funding deadline (define the fixed time frame).
state
Final outcome of the campaign (e.g., successful, failed, canceled).
Details:
Publisher:
Kickstarter, PBC (primary source). Public re-distributions: Web Robots (monthly scrapes since 2014); a Zenodo mirror also exists.
Formats:
Text (project descriptions/blurbs)
Publication Date:
Kickstarter data is generated continuously from campaigns; public Web Robots snapshots run monthly (since March 2016).
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
