Crowdfunding innovative but risky new ventures: the importance of less ambiguous tone

Liu, Ye; Zhang, Ke; Xue, Weili; Zhou, Ziyu

doi:10.1186/s40854-023-00529-8

Financial Innovation

Table 7 Regression using word counts to measure tone ambiguity

From: Crowdfunding innovative but risky new ventures: the importance of less ambiguous tone

	Cleantech sample				Matched non-cleantech sample
	(1)	(2)	(3)	(4)	(5)	(6)	(7)	(8)
	Success	Success	Money pledged	Money pledged	Success	Success	Money pledged	Money pledged
Uncertain_R2	−0.089***		−0.162***		−0.005		−0.076***
	(−5.58)		(−4.31)		(−1.38)		(−4.33)
Weak modal_R2		−0.038***		−0.088***		−0.004		−0.024**
		(−4.85)		(−4.03)		(−1.54)		(−2.17)
Funding goal	−0.117***	−0.120***	0.618***	0.601***	−0.115***	−0.116***	0.551***	0.549***
	(−10.56)	(−10.62)	(13.43)	(12.74)	(−22.90)	(−23.08)	(23.77)	(23.52)
Duration	−0.070*	−0.063	0.400***	0.391***	−0.008	−0.009	0.526***	0.530***
	(−1.80)	(−1.56)	(2.78)	(2.67)	(−0.44)	(−0.46)	(6.99)	(6.97)
Rewards	0.127***	0.130***	0.206**	0.223**	0.118***	0.117***	0.098**	0.104**
	(4.99)	(5.20)	(2.28)	(2.48)	(10.37)	(10.35)	(2.07)	(2.19)
Quick updates	0.085***	0.091***	0.174***	0.172***	0.107***	0.107***	0.269***	0.269***
	(4.57)	(4.83)	(2.83)	(2.75)	(12.37)	(12.38)	(7.58)	(7.58)
Comment quantity	0.084***	0.079***	0.332***	0.324***	0.046***	0.046***	0.137***	0.128***
	(13.60)	(13.07)	(15.16)	(14.61)	(34.90)	(37.60)	(21.86)	(22.37)
Backer sentiment	0.071***	0.073***	0.172***	0.196***	0.024***	0.024***	0.093***	0.095***
	(4.03)	(4.09)	(3.06)	(3.53)	(3.04)	(3.02)	(3.64)	(3.67)
Total words	0.110***	0.076***	0.265***	0.207***	0.074***	0.074***	0.205***	0.153***
	(4.44)	(3.49)	(3.46)	(2.85)	(7.38)	(7.30)	(4.92)	(3.78)
Featured	0.207***	0.214***	0.126*	0.130*	0.155***	0.155***	0.299***	0.299***
	(7.67)	(7.71)	(1.75)	(1.79)	(12.70)	(12.70)	(7.56)	(7.54)
Social network	0.032***	0.034***	0.012	0.008	0.012**	0.012**	0.003	0.003
	(3.04)	(3.17)	(0.44)	(0.31)	(2.40)	(2.45)	(0.20)	(0.20)
ARI	−0.003	−0.002	−0.014	−0.018	−0.001	−0.001	−0.011*	−0.012*
	(−0.75)	(−0.51)	(−0.95)	(−1.18)	(−0.82)	(−0.82)	(−1.67)	(−1.74)
Net positive	0.029***	0.035***	0.074**	0.080**	0.020***	0.020***	0.026	0.028
	(2.80)	(3.37)	(2.09)	(2.22)	(4.22)	(4.29)	(1.32)	(1.41)
Risk index	−0.008	−0.010	−0.062	−0.071*	−0.012**	−0.012**	−0.030	−0.032
	(−0.68)	(−0.80)	(−1.48)	(−1.68)	(−2.09)	(−2.04)	(−1.48)	(−1.56)
Video	0.028***	0.028***	0.031	0.035	0.014***	0.014***	−0.002	−0.000
	(3.15)	(3.13)	(0.89)	(1.01)	(3.74)	(3.75)	(−0.16)	(−0.00)
Image	0.040***	0.040***	0.031	0.031	0.009**	0.009**	0.023	0.024
	(3.77)	(3.79)	(0.87)	(0.88)	(2.15)	(2.15)	(1.48)	(1.52)
Constant			0.547	0.621			1.215***	1.241***
			(0.75)	(0.82)			(2.92)	(2.95)
Subcategory control	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Year controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Location controls	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Observations	1172	1172	434	434	4798	4798	1800	1800
Adjusted R²			0.743	0.737			0.688	0.686
Chi square	309.386	321.063			1172.744	1173.057
SUEST test on the difference of the coefficients (Chi square)
	(1)−(5)		(2)−(6)		(3)−(7)		(4)−(8)
Uncertain	23.377***				4.513**
Weak modal			16.398***				7.025***

This table provides the robustness test for the results in Table 4 by using the alternative independent variables Uncertain_R2 and Weak modal_R2. Specifically, we defined variable Uncertain_R2 (Weak modal_R2) as the logarithm of the number of uncertain (weak modal) words in project description. The left panel provides the results for the cleantech sample. The right panel provides the results for the matched non-cleantech sample. In columns (1) and (2) and (5) and (6), the dependent variable is Success. We performed the logit regression and provided the marginal effect instead of the coefficients. In columns (3) and (4) and (7) and (8), the dependent variable is Money pledged. We performed the OLS regression and provided the coefficients. The t statistics adjusted for heteroscedasticity are reported in parentheses.
*, **, and *** indicate significance at the 10%, 5%, and 1% levels, respectively

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