Impression management techniques in crowdfunding: An analysis of Kickstarter videos using artificial intelligence

Crowdfunding entrepreneurs increasingly use videos to present their venture and themselves to potential investors. To do this effectively, they consciously or unconsciously use several impression management techniques. Based on human and automated (AI-based analysis) of technology-related videos, we determine which impression management techniques help crowdfunding creators to attract a higher number of backers and meet their financial targets. Our results indicate that self-presentation and exemplification techniques are positively associated with crowdfunding success, while intimidation is negatively related to crowdfunding success. Our findings show that automated analysis of videos using advanced AI can replace human coding since measures based on human coding become insignificant when AI-based measures are included in the analysis. This illustrates the insights companies can create through the large scale automated analysis of video content using AI, including outside of a crowdfunding context.