Is Crowdfunding for All? A Study of Medical Crowdfunding to Examine the New Facets of Digital Divide

The outcome of a crowdfunding campaign has been a topic of special interest for Information Systems (IS) researchers. Despite the success of crowdfunding platforms, there have been questions raised about their egalitarian nature in sharing the benefits across participants. Crowdfunding campaigns especially in philanthropic domains like medical crowdfunding are becoming popular in developing countries. Given the varying rates of success of these campaigns, it is imperative to understand if crowdfunding platforms are level playing fields for all kind of fundraisers. This ongoing research makes an effort to address this concern by examining how the disparities in digital capabilities influence the participation and therefore the outcome of crowdfunding campaigns. We believe that the differences in the digital media capabilities of campaigners can influence the outcome of the campaign. We examine this phenomenon with the help of Language Expectancy Theory and Elaboration Likelihood Model using data extracted from a large medical crowdfunding platform.