Crowdfunding in digital humanities: some evidence from Indonesian social enterprises

Abstract

Purpose – This article aims to understand how social enterprises adopt crowdfunding in digital humanities by investigating the mission drifting, risk sharing and human resource practices. Design/methodology/approach – This exploratory study uses a qualitative method by observing five different social ventures in Indonesia. The case study involves observation of social enterprises that concern digital humanities projects and interviews with those who manage the crowdfunding for financing the projects as the key respondents. The analysis uses an interpretative approach by involving the respondents to explain the phenomena. Findings – (1) Adopting the crowdfunding platform encourages social enterprises to reshape social missions with more responsive action for digital humanities. (2) Crowdfunding allows social enterprises to share the risk with stakeholders who focus on fostering the social impact of digital humanities. (3) Crowdfunding stimulates social enterprises to hire professional workers with flexible work arrangements to attract specific donors and investors. Originality/value – The result extends the principles of social enterprises by introducing some concepts of crowdfunding in digital humanities. This study also explains the boundary conditions of digital humanities projects and how crowdfunding can support the projects by adopting the principles of the social enterprise that works on digital humanities projects.