Circular or Cumulative? Complementary Resource Mobilization from Crowdfunding and Local Ecosystems

Entrepreneurs increasingly tap into both spatial and digital resource environments to mobilize critical resources in support of new ventures. Yet we know surprisingly little about how entrepreneurs make joint use of these environments. Linking the recent debate on spatial and digital affordances to the resource mobilization literature, this study examines how entrepreneurs mobilize critical resources from local ecosystems and the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in complementary ways. We identify and discuss two strategies of resource mobilization: (1) The circular strategy, which is mainly applied by social ventures, leverages community narratives and local ties for crowdfunding campaigns and uses the latter to strengthen and expand community support. (2) The cumulative strategy, which is mainly applied by commercial high-tech ventures, mobilizes the symbolic value of local institutional ties to promote success in crowdfunding, and uses the latter to attract new resource-holders in the local ecosystem. Our findings contribute to research on entrepreneurial resource mobilization and our understanding of the interplay of spatial and digital affordances.