Abstract
Research examining potential drivers of lender intentions and behaviours in prosocial lending platforms has often ignored
ethical considerations in such decisions. We suggest a new model in this context which marries the components of the
theory of planned behaviour with two additional variables: sense of moral obligation and platform trust. We apply structural
equational modelling to a novel longitudinal dataset that combines information derived from a survey of 2398 individual
lenders and data obtained directly from the UK-based platform Lendwithcare. Our analysis demonstrates that lender intentions
and behaviour are positively and significantly associated with ethical factors, including moral obligation and platform
trust. These relationships are shown to be consistent when using different measures of lending behaviour, as well as across
different time periods pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence highlights the importance of ethical considerations
in understanding intention and behaviour in prosocial lending crowdfunding.
ethical considerations in such decisions. We suggest a new model in this context which marries the components of the
theory of planned behaviour with two additional variables: sense of moral obligation and platform trust. We apply structural
equational modelling to a novel longitudinal dataset that combines information derived from a survey of 2398 individual
lenders and data obtained directly from the UK-based platform Lendwithcare. Our analysis demonstrates that lender intentions
and behaviour are positively and significantly associated with ethical factors, including moral obligation and platform
trust. These relationships are shown to be consistent when using different measures of lending behaviour, as well as across
different time periods pre- and post-COVID-19 pandemic. The evidence highlights the importance of ethical considerations
in understanding intention and behaviour in prosocial lending crowdfunding.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | (In-Press) |
| Number of pages | 20 |
| Journal | Journal of Business Ethics |
| Volume | (In-Press) |
| Early online date | 5 Jul 2025 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 5 Jul 2025 |
Bibliographical note
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.Keywords
- Crowdfunding
- Intentions
- Moral obligation
- Platform trust
- Prosocial lending
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business and International Management
- General Business,Management and Accounting
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
- Economics and Econometrics
- Law