Scholar at Risk: Chernysh Iryna

Due to the 'Scholar at Risk' initiative, Dr. Iryna Chernysh from Ukraine could recommence her activities at BFH Business School in May 2022, engaging in the research project focused on 'Crowdfunding Campaigns of Social Entrepreneurs.'

Situation

Scholar at Risk’ is an international network that encompasses numerous universities and higher education institutions worldwide, advocating for academic freedom and respect for human rights, particularly in the context of teaching and research. This project, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), supports displaced students and academic staff, enabling them to continue their work safely and smoothly. With this support, Dr. Iryna Chernysh was able to come to Bern at BFH and collaborate in the Department of Business on the SNSF project titeld “A Mixed-Methods Inquiry into Social Entrepreneurs' Crowdfunding Campaigns: How do Social Entrepreneurs Persuade Backers Through Verbal and Visual Communication?" Thanks to Iryna Chernysh’s involvement, the ongoing SNSF project was expanded by data from Ukraine. The research project addresses the largely unexplored question of how social enterprises can use successful communication strategies to convince and inspire potential supporters of their social mission. The research project is led by Pascal Dey and Christian Hopp.

Course of action

To work on the project, various sources of information that social entrepreneurs use during their crowdfunding campaigns to reduce uncertainty and provide clarity about their projects were analyzed and observed. This included analyzing the content of campaign pages, social media posts and other online materials used by social entrepreneurs to communicate with potential supporters, interviews with social entrepreneurs. Two types of data were collected: Firstly, publicly available information about social entrepreneurs' campaigns disseminated via crowdfunding and social media platforms. These were analyzed by Iryna Chernysh to understand the persuasion strategies of social entrepreneurs; secondly, responses from interviews with social entrepreneurs, which provided valuable insights into their thought processes and decision-making strategies. Iryna Chernysh expanded the original scope of the project by conducting interviews with social entrepreneurs from Ukrainian campaigns. She was also involved in training a binary classifier that helped distinguish social entrepreneurs from other types of crowdfunding campaigns. This involved developing clear criteria for identifying social entrepreneurs and using these criteria to train the classifier. She also worked on creating a structured framework for conducting interviews with social entrepreneurs, which helped to standardize the interview process and ensure that the project team collected consistent data across all interviews.

Result

By observing and analyzing the different sources of information that social entrepreneurs use during their crowdfunding campaigns, valuable insights were gained into the communication strategies they use to reduce uncertainty and create clarity about their projects. A deeper understanding of the persuasion strategies used by social entrepreneurs during crowdfunding campaigns was also gained. By expanding the data collection with interviews with social enterprises from Ukrainian campaigns, cross-cultural differences in persuasion strategies and similarities and differences between the different countries could be identified. It was also possible to investigate how these strategies differed before and during the war (what significant differences there are in the perception of social enterprises by donors due to various external factors). Training a binary classifier helped to distinguish social entrepreneurs from other types of crowdfunding campaigns. By developing clear criteria to identify social entrepreneurs and using these criteria to train the classifier, we were able to analyze the collected data more effectively and identify patterns in social entrepreneurs' persuasion strategies. Overall, these activities led to significant results and insights that will contribute to a deeper understanding of how social entrepreneurs use verbal and visual communication to persuade supporters in crowdfunding campaigns.

Looking ahead

The exchange enabled networking with researchers from various countries, including Ukraine. Building on these connections, the next step in the partnership is to extend the research to other European countries such as Croatia, Poland, the Netherlands, the UK and Latvia. The participant's links with researchers from these countries provide a valuable opportunity to broaden the scope of the project and explore the cross-cultural differences in persuasion strategies used by social entrepreneurs in these regions. This will improve the quality of the research, foster international collaboration and expand the participants' professional networks. Other planned collaborations resulting from the scientific exchange include collaborations with researchers from Croatia, Poland, the Netherlands, the UK, Latvia, Canada and the USA. These collaborations will build on the connections made during the academic exchange and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the persuasion strategies of social entrepreneurs in different regions. By incorporating a variety of perspectives and experiences, the project team will be able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the factors that influence the success of social entrepreneurship crowdfunding campaigns. The planned collaboration will allow for a more robust validation of the research findings and contribute to the development of best practices for social entrepreneurs seeking to use crowdfunding as a means of financing their ventures.

Contact

Prof. Dr. Sebastian Gurtner

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