Crowdfunding Model Selection And Pricing Strategy Research

Crowdfunding,as an emerging fund-raising method,has developed rapidly in recent years.Reward-based crowdfunding refers to a crowdfunding method in which creators attract consumers to invest by explaining specific product information,and use consumer funds to produce products,and return the products to consumers.Based on the reward-based crowdfunding,this thesis analyzes the market environment suitable for crowdfunding from the perspective of the creators and how to better design the crowdfunding sales model to maximize the optimal profit based on the different characteristics of crowdfunding sales and traditional sales.The main research content and research conclusions of this thesis include the following three aspects:First,Chapter 3 examines two selling strategies,namely,crowdfunding and traditional selling.Under crowdfunding,the production behavior of the creator comes after the pledge of consumers.In this case,consumers bear the opportunity cost,and the campaign can succeed only when the market demand exceeds a threshold.Under traditional selling,the production behavior of the creator occurs before the purchases by consumers.In this case,the demand is uncertain,and the creator's production behavior is affected by the initial funding level.We show that crowdfunding and traditional selling each have advantages under certain circumstances.Specifically,in our basic model,we investigate the pricing strategy as well as the expected profit of the creator for each selling strategy.Our analysis reveals that crowdfunding is more profitable when the creator's initial funding is low or the unit production cost is high,and traditional selling is more advantageous otherwise.We then generalize our models by considering product quality.In addition to the main results consistent with those derived in the basic model,this case yields other interesting results.For example,in the case of endogenous product quality,the creator will always determine a lower production volume under traditional selling,and the optimal strategy is closely correlated with the opportunity cost coefficient when the creator has a moderate level of initial funding.Finally,we provide several extensions to our studies,including the Keep-It-All model considered in some crowdfunding,many potential consumers,and the consumer valuation following a normal distribution.Conclusions from these investigations can guide creators during their sale activities.Second,Chapter 4 analyzes the two crowdfunding modes based on the strategic behavior of customers,and provides some suggestions for the creator' strategic choices.In the AON mode,unless the crowdfunding goal is reached,the creator will get nothing.Under the KIA model,the creator can keep the entire amount raised,regardless of whether the fund-raising goal is achieved.Therefore,under the AON model,if the financing target is reached,customers will get high-quality products,otherwise they will get nothing.Under the KIA model,if the target is reached,the creator will produce a high-quality product.Otherwise,the creator will produce a lower-quality product,the quality of which depends on the amount of funds raised.We built a two-stage model in which two customers(one arrives first and the other arrives later)make decisions in two stages in sequence.In the first part,the consumers we considered were short-sighted consumers.The analysis shows that the AON model can motivate the first-comer customers to purchase products in the first stage,while under KIA,the first-comer customers' purchase stage depends on the price and opportunity cost coefficient.In the second part,we considered that both stages are strategic consumers.The study found that under the AON model,first-come customers would not choose to participate in crowdfunding in the first phase.Under the KIA model,the behavior of first-come customers will be affected by product prices and consumer valuations.The higher the price,the more likely it is to participate in the first period.In the third part,we consider that the later customer has an opportunity cost in the purchase and externalizes his guessing probability.Comprehensive analysis found that when the fixed cost is large,the success rate of the AON model is higher and it is more profitable than the KIA model.Analyze the expected profit,success rate,and risk through numerical research.(1)When the fixed cost is small,the KIA model is more profitable than AON.(2)The success rate of using the AON model is always higher than that of using the KIA model.(3)In most cases,the risk in AON mode is higher than that in KIA mode.Third,Chapter 5 analyzes the sales method of pre-sale crowdfunding,that is,twostage sales,and studies the creator's pricing decision and optimal profit from the perspective of platform influence and product reputation.The analysis found that the pricing of crowdfunding products is related to the influence of the platform and the influence of word-of-mouth communication.When the platform's influence is low,the optimal pricing has nothing to do with the platform's influence,but it is related to the wordof-mouth influence;when the platform's influence is medium,the optimal pricing is related to both the platform's influence and the ability of word-of-mouth communication;when the platform's influence is high,the optimal pricing has nothing to do with the influence of the platform and the ability of word-of-mouth communication.Then,we compared two-stage sales with crowdfunding sales and traditional sales.The analysis found that two-stage sales are more suitable for products with lower project costs and lower initial-funding creators.The main contributions of this thesis include:(1)This thesis considers the influence of the opportunity cost of customers on the creator's determination of crowdfunding product prices and crowdfunding profits.(2)In view of the different characteristics of crowdfunding sales and traditional sales,this thesis compares the two sales models and provides suggestions for the creators' sales strategy selection.(3)This thesis considers how the customer's strategic behavior in crowdfunding affects the determination of crowdfunding prices and the selection of crowdfunding models.(4)This thesis describes the pricing decisions of pre-sale crowdfunding from the perspective of platform influence and product word-of-mouth communication capabilities,and provides suggestions for creators on the strategic choices of pre-sale crowdfunding,crowdfunding,and traditional sales.