W&L Professor Co-Authors Journal Article on Crowdfunding Performance in Countries With Geopolitical Risk Justin Davis studied numerous Kickstarter campaigns and published the findings alongside three colleagues.

By Brian Laubscher
June 12, 2023

Justin Davis, assistant professor of business administration at Washington and Lee University, recently co-authored an article that was published in the Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money.

The article, titled “Geopolitical risk and crowdfunding performance,” was co-authored with assistance from Naif Alsagr, Douglas J. Cumming and Ahmed Sewaid. The four authors have been working on the project since 2020. Alsagr currently represents Imam Mohammad Ibn Sau Islamic University in Saudi Arabia, Cumming is from Florida Atlantic University in the United States and the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom, and Sewaid is from MBS College of Business and Entrepreneurship in Saudi Arabia and Insper Institute of Education and Research in Brazil.

The authors’ research studied the performance of 1,672 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaigns from 19 developing countries that are experiencing geopolitical risk (GPR). They went on to hypothesize that GPR could be affecting crowdfunding performance in the developing world. They suspect that this is a result of suspicions by potential backers that the promised reward won’t be delivered due to GPR-related disruptions. Davis and the team then considered campaign attributes that might mitigate this negative effect on performance.

“We found that narcissistic language in the campaign description and setting a larger project goal, which must be met before any money is transferred, both increase performance in the context of GPR,” said Davis. “This is especially interesting because both factors are found to have a negative effect on crowdfunding performance in non-GPR contexts. We think this study is particularly relevant because of the unfortunate rise in geopolitical instability globally.”

Davis recently finished his first academic year as a member of the W&L faculty. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, as well as a master’s degree and doctorate from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

As part of his doctoral dissertation, Davis co-authored another article with his advisor titled “Institutional ownership, earnings management, and earnings surprises: Evidence from 39 years of U.S. data.” This article has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Economics, Finance and Administrative Science and will soon be published as well.

If you know a W&L faculty member who has done great, accolade-worthy things, tell us about them! Nominate them for an accolade.