Journal of Global Business 11 March 4, 2017 De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines Extending the Definition of Crowdfunding Success: The Case of the Flight of Super Mudball Raymond Allan G. Vergara Assistant Professor, Marketing and Advertising Department, Ramon V. Del Rosario College of Business De La Salle University Manila raymond.vergara@dlsu.edu.ph Abstract: Extant literature on crowdfunding measure success based on whether the campaign achieves its funding target. However, many cases of successfully funded campaigns have failed to deliver rewards to backers within prescribed timelines, while several projects have been reportedly abandoned altogether. Furthermore, nascent literature acknowledges that crowdfunding benefits go beyond financial gains and assert that it provides valuable marketing advantages. These suggest that the current definition for crowdfunding success remain incomplete. This paper proposes extending the definition of crowdfunding success to include post-campaign outcomes. Using the case study approach, the paper focuses on the project "Flight of Super Mudball," a Philippine- based crowdfunding campaign hosted on The Spark Project. The campaign failed to raise its funding target but was instrumental in completing the project it raised funding for, was able to deliver rewards to its backers, and was instrumental in the establishment of a viable social enterprise. Keywords: Crowdfunding, Crowdfunding Success, Philippines 1. INTRODUCTION Current crowdfunding literature on the dynamics and determinants of campaign success (Alois, 2013; Belleflamme, Lambert, & Schwienbacher, 2014; Canada Media Fund, n.d.; Clifford, 2016; Corl, 2013; Etter, Grossglauser, & Thiran, 2013; Holm, 2013; Huili & Yaodong, 2014; Kuppuswamy & Bayus, 2013; Mollick, 2014; Spacetec Capital Partners, 2014; Vergara, 2016; Ward & Ramachandran, 2010; Weiss, 2015; Yeh, 2015a; Yeh, 2015b). Some studies, on the other hand, focus on understanding what motivates both fund seekers—or project owners, and funders—or campaign backers to participate in crowdfunding campaigns (Gerber & Hui, 2013; Gerber, Hui, & Kuo, 2012; Hui, Gerber, & Greenberg 2012; Ordanini, Miceli, Pizzetti & Parasuraman, 2011)—but still in the context of crowdfunding campaign success. Success, in these studies, is clearly defined—it is achieved when the campaign raises or exceeds its funding target. Most of these studies, however, do not describe or discuss success beyond the completion of the crowdfunding campaign. It is generally assumed that once the campaign has been fully funded, the project for which the campaign was launched will be completed given that the project has raised the funding it needs. Mollick (2015), on the other hand, proposes looking at crowdfunding success differently and from the standpoint of the campaign backers: (I)t is important to note that rewards are but one potential outcome of a project as there are many ways by which a project could ―succeed‖ but still fail to deliver rewards–for example, an art exhibit may have been successfully staged, but not deliver a promised t-shirt or sticker to backers. Given this caveat, the degree to which backers believe they receive the expected outcome is a reasonable measure of one kind of success or failure. (p. 3) This brings to light current realities in crowdfunding—that not all successfully funded projects are completed and that not all backers receive the rewards that they were promised. Projects can successfully raise or even exceed their funding targets but still fail to deliver rewards or even complete the project (Mollick, 2014, 2015). For example, two popular Kickstarter projects, the Coolest Cooler and Pebble Core Smartwatch, both of which far exceeded their funding targets and were supported by thousands of backers, failed to deliver rewards (Beck, 2016; Hern, 2015; Hern, 2016). Mollick (2014) believes that reward delivery delays are to be expected as 50% of successfully funded projects did not deliver their rewards on time, with an average delay of 2 months. Furthermore, Mollick (2015) found that 9% of successfully funded projects failed to deliver the rewards to their backers, and only about 60% of backers received the reward that was promised. This only means that current definitions of crowdfunding success are incomplete and inaccurate. Expanding the definition of success As crowdfunding is increasingly being seen as a new paradigm for entrepreneurs (Kaufma, Kassinger & Traeger, 2013), crowdfunding success should also be seen from the entrepreneurial success standpoint. There are different dimensions of entrepreneurial success, many of which point to non-financial aspects (Alstete, 2008). Furthermore, Boyer, Creech and Pass (2008) identified ten key factors that contribute to startup business failure, 9 of which are non-financial in nature: (1) inadequate planning, (2) inadequate startup capital, (3) incorrect market estimate of market demand for product or service, (4) lack of management ability, (5) no access to appropriate professional advice or mentorship, (6) lack of appropriate and effective