Navigating the temporal commitments of entrepreneurial hype: Insights from entrepreneur and backer interactions in crowdfunded ventures

Abstract

This paper examines how entrepreneurs manage temporal commitments associated with hyped audience expectations. We examine hype in the crowdfunding context, conducting an inductive study of 155 entrepreneur project updates from five new ventures that mobilized significant funding on Kickstarter. Entrepreneur updates were matched with 17,807 backer comments, creating call and response pairs. Using LIWC sentiment analysis, we tracked changes in backer negative tone over time and observed spikes and dips corresponding with temporal events. The pattern suggested that entrepreneurs have techniques to tamp down negative sentiment from backers as they delay product shipments. Through inductive examination of entrepreneur and backer interactions, we uncover entrepreneurs' use of four narrative practices to manage the temporal constraints of hyped audience expectations: frequent communication, evidence of progress, proximal temporal reach, and time-quality trade-off. While initially effective, these practices have diminishing returns over time, eventually triggering backer outrage as continual delays frustrate backers. We additionally find that the effectiveness of the narrative practices is influenced by external temporal pacers, with entrepreneurs using pacers to amplify narrative practice effectiveness, while backers use them as reasons to reject delays.