The dynamics of crowdfunding campaigns in the Middle East: Does social capital matter?

The purpose of this study is to analyze the dynamics of crowdfunding campaigns in the Middle East and raise the question of “does social capital matter” in this respect? The study uses the Zoomaal.com platform as a case study for 2019 and 2020. Required data was collected from Zoomaal.com and conducted online semi- structured interviews with key people in control to further explore the crowdfunding practice in the selected Middle Eastern countries (i.e., Turkey, Egypt, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and UAE). The OLS robust standard error regression and logistic regression techniques were both utilized to test the study model. The findings reveal that social capital in the Middle East countries is very coherent and both structural dimension (DS) as measured by entrepreneurs’ interaction with the social media (such as Facebook and Instagram) and cognitive dimension (DC) as measured by the number of words that are composed by entrepreneurs in the Zoomaal.com platform has significant positive impacts on the crowdfunding campaign success. Moreover, we confirm our results to Zoomaal.com and conclude the main factors that influence the success or failure of a crowdfunding campaign in the Middle East.