I've backed a fair few (over a dozen) KickStarter projects, and every single time I've seen it as a risky investment with the HOPE of getting an awesome product out of it.
Some of my backings have been in the few-hundred-dollar range, and as much as I'd be upset if they didn't success and send me my product, I wouldn't expect a refund.
The only point I could see myself actually BLAMING them, would be if they didn't put their best efforts into creating the product, and just bailed with everyones money.
If they truly do try their hardest to create the product, and use up all the money trying, but still fail... I'm OK with that.
I've backed a bunch of small, and a couple of large Kickstarter projects. I viewed each and every one (including the high-value ZPM Espresso Machine and Pebble Watch ones) as a gift to someone with an exciting idea, with the understanding that if things went OK I'd probably get a Watch/CoffeeMachine/AduinoShield/Album in return - but if things went badly I'd get nothing.
I'll be sad if the Pebble guys don't deliver, but sad because I want them to succeed, not because "I bought a watch and they never sent it". Even if they took off and spent all the money on hookers and blow, I'd mostly be sad that an apparently great product never made it to the market, rather than sad about my couple of hundred buck having gone.
Surely this sentence "But financial backers have no clear way of getting a refund if the young businesses fail to deliver." represents a fundamental mis-understanding of what Kickstarter is? If you want "refunds", go buy things from a store with a unambiguous refund policy. If you want to be a "financial backer", work out what that means before claiming you're owed a refund…
Some of my backings have been in the few-hundred-dollar range, and as much as I'd be upset if they didn't success and send me my product, I wouldn't expect a refund.
The only point I could see myself actually BLAMING them, would be if they didn't put their best efforts into creating the product, and just bailed with everyones money.
If they truly do try their hardest to create the product, and use up all the money trying, but still fail... I'm OK with that.