Financing Organic Farming through Crowdfunding: Is the Wisdom of Crowds More Supportive for Mixed Gender Teams?

Abstract

Organic production is on the upswing, owing to consumer preferences for safer products manufactured with environmentally friendly methods. It is frequently promoted to achieve economic development, poverty alleviation, and female empowerment. Crowdfunding is considered an ideal mechanism for mobilizing financial resources for people with limited access to traditional sources, such as women. This paper aims to analyze the gender gap in organic farming crowdfunding and estimate which characteristics foster the likelihood of crowdfunding success in organic production campaigns. We used a sample of crowdfunding campaigns from the Kickstarter platform and employed a binary logistic regression model to investigate the main research question. Our findings show that the crowd primarily supports gender-mixed teams. We also found that having more information about the campaign and project quality, a more realistic goal, and a shorter campaign duration increases the likelihood of succeeding. This paper contributes to the growing literature and policy initiatives to promote and develop gender equality in crowdfunding.