Textual sentiment analysis and description characteristics in crowdfunding success: The case of cybersecurity and IoT industries

Crowdfunding platforms offer entrepreneurs the opportunity to evaluate their technologies, validate their market, and raise funding. Such platforms also provide technologies with an opportunity to rapidly transition from research to market, which is especially crucial in fast-changing industries. In this study, we investigated how the sentiments expressed in the text of the project campaigns and project characteristics influence the success of crowdfunding in innovative industries such as cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT). We examined 657 cybersecurity and Internet of Things (IoT) projects between 2010 and 2020 that were promoted on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo, two rewards-based crowdfunding platforms. We extracted technological topic attributes that may influence project success and measured the sentiments of project descriptions using a Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner (VADER) model. We found that the sentiment of the description and the textual topic characteristics are associated with the success of funding campaigns for cybersecurity and IoT projects.