Crowdfunding platforms serve to connect project creators and backers. Previous research has explored several project and platform determinants that impact crowdfunding outcomes. However, there has been limited research on these determinants at an individual level. Our paper addresses how backers may influence the outcomes of projects in crowdfunding platforms. We explore several methods commonly used in the industry to identify influence and show that centrality measures through a backer affiliation network best exemplifies influence. Using data from Kickstarter, we construct a weighted backer network based on 52,678 common projects backed by 11,134 backers. Controlling for digital media mentions and project quality, we find evidence that backers in central positions within the network have a positive impact on multiple project outcomes such as the project success rates, amount of funds raised, speed of reaching the crowdfunding goal as well as the number of backers contributing to the project. These findings are replicated and reinforced by using data from a different crowdfunding platform using the entire backer network based on 1095 projects backed by 87,896 backers. Several robustness tests are used to validate these results.

众筹平台用于连接项目创建者和支持者。先前的研究探索了影响众筹结果的几个项目和平台决定因素。但是，在个体水平上对这些决定因素的研究很少。本文探讨了支持者如何影响众筹平台中项目的成果。我们探索了行业中通常用于识别影响力的几种方法，并表明通过支持者联盟网络进行的集中度度量可以最好地体现影响力。利用来自Kickstarter的数据，我们基于由11,134个支持者支持的52,678个普通项目构建了一个加权支持者网络。控制数字媒体提及和项目质量，我们发现有证据表明，网络中处于中心位置的支持者对多个项目的成果有积极影响，例如项目成功率，筹集的资金量，达到众筹目标的速度以及为项目做出贡献的支持者数量。通过使用来自不同众筹平台的数据来复制和加强这些发现，这些数据基于基于87,896个支持者支持的1095个项目的整个支持者网络。几种鲁棒性测试用于验证这些结果。