Seducing the crowd: An LDA literature review on language in crowdfunding

Objective: As crowdfunding continues to gain traction worldwide as an alternative financing method for entrepreneurs and social initiatives, the language used in campaign communications has become a critical factor influencing funding outcomes. Therefore, understanding how linguistic elements affect backer engagement and campaign success constitutes an increasingly important research area. This article aims to identify the dominant themes and emerging trends in academic research concerning the role of language in crowdfunding. We applied latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) to systematically explore how scholars have investigated linguistic features in crowdfunding-related studies and how this area has evolved. Research Design & Methods: We applied an LDA topic model to the dynamically growing body of literature on the aspects of language in crowdfunding campaigns to identify the key research topics and find the most current avenues of further research. It is a stochastic-based approach. Therefore, it fits well with the analysis of short blocks of text such as article abstracts. We considered 143 papers from Scopus published on the topic since 2013 to identify the key trends in the contemporary research on language in crowdfunding. Findings: We identified seven key topics, including: (1) language in crowdfunding success, (2) entrepreneurial narratives, (3) emotional language in social/medical campaigns, (4) gender in crowdfunding, (5) branding and linguistic strategies, (6) values in crowdfunding, and (7) ethical considerations. The analysis shows temporal shifts in topic prevalence, highlighting growing interest in interdisciplinary themes such as gender and values, while general or ethical-focused research has declined over time. Implications & Recommendations: The study revealed a shift from basic linguistic metrics to more detailed explorations of identity, ethics, and emotional appeal. It recommends that fundraisers and platforms tailor communication strategies to match backer expectations and influence persuasive narratives. Crowdfunding platforms may enhance user support by integrating language analysis tools and offering narrative-building guidance. Contribution & Value Added: This is the first known study to apply LDA topic modelling to academic literature on language use in crowdfunding. It provides a structured, data-driven mapping of the field’s development and offers insights into how language shapes crowdfunding outcomes. It contributes to both the crowdfunding literature and interdisciplinary research, linking linguistics, psychology, marketing and finance, underlining the international applicability of these findings.