Acting on Good Intentions? A Longitudinal Study of Prosocial Lending Intentions and Behaviours

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.