Financing Decisions and the Role of CSR in Donation-Based Crowdfunding: Evidence from Pakistan and Indonesia

Donation-based crowdfunding and corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have potential symbiotic ramifications to raise funds, but campaigners are confronted with challenges and competition to accomplish their charitable target. For instance, CSR activities could warrant the possibility of using crowdfunding to raise money. On the other hand, a company's CSR objectives can be achieved by using crowdfunding to micro-fund various social initiatives. Current research investigates the relationship between fundraisers in donation-based crowdfunding activities, which become potential CSR activities. Exclusively, the study analyzes the correlation among the value raised at the end of fundraising activity, the amounts targeted by the fundraiser, and CSR-Type activities on the project's success in donation-based crowdfunding. Based on this, a research taxonomy has been established for a comparative analysis between Pakistan and Indonesia. Secondary data is collected from donation-based platforms and analyzed through Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression and the models are validated using a robustness check. The outcomes show that a higher value raised (V) correlates more positively with project success in Pakistan (164) as compared with Indonesia (122). The Target fund (T) has a significant and negative association with the project's success in the Pakistani market, however, the significant and negative effect on the project’s success in the Indonesian market. Lastly, CSR-related activities such as education, environment, community, and health have a positive relationship with project success in Pakistan, except for the product which has a negative, however significant relationship. In contrast, for Indonesia, CSR-type activities such as education, environment, community, product, and health have a positive and significant relationship with the project's success. This study contributes to the donation-based crowdfunding literature to develop a vivid understanding of different CSR activities and their impact on the project's success. The current study is one of the first to examine the significance of CSR activities and will enrich the body of knowledge regarding crowdfunding in diverse economies.