The present research investigates certification effects and rational herding in reward-based crowdfunding (RBCF) campaigns of cultural projects. Culture is a domain where expert opinion traditionally plays an important role. Consequently, to test the role of experts in collective behaviour and outcomes of crowdfunding campaigns, RBCF of cultural projects is a particularly relevant field. The authors analyse data obtained from France’s leading RBCF platform, Ulule, and show that the contributing crowd is heterogeneous, both in terms of expertise and willingness to follow information cascades. Testing the impact of different backer categories on (1) campaign success, (2) composition of the crowd and (3) overall day-by-day funding dynamics, the study provides evidence of the existence of both a certification effect at the very beginning of a funding campaign, and dynamic herding later all along the campaign. Contributions from expert backers, whether specialized in the same creative industry as a given project or not, trigger additional contributions and improve the success probability of a funding campaign. Senior experts follow other senior experts, which supports normative social influence and, when specialized, they follow other specialized senior experts, which highlights taste-based homophily. We also show that junior experts, i.e. future serial backers, follow senior experts, particularly when specialized, which supports informational social influence. Experts hence lead the crowd in their decision to contribute to cultural projects, and those who follow them are mostly senior experts themselves and apprentice experts, not one-time contributors, which suggests the existence of community logic and rational information cascades in RBCF.

本研究调查了文化项目基于奖励的众筹（RBCF）活动中的认证效果和合理的羊群效应。文化是专家意见传统上起重要作用的领域。因此，为了测试专家在集体行为和众筹活动成果中的作用，文化项目的RBCF是一个特别相关的领域。作者分析了从法国领先的RBCF平台Ulule获得的数据，并表明，从专业知识和遵循信息级联的意愿来看，做出贡献的人群是异类的。测试不同支持者类别对（1）竞选成功，（2）人群组成和（3）总体日常资金动态的影响，该研究提供了证据，证明在筹资活动开始时既存在认证效果，又在活动后期一直存在动态羊群效应。专家支持者的捐款，无论是否专门从事与给定项目相同的创意产业，都可以触发额外的捐款，并提高筹款活动的成功率。高级专家跟随其他支持规范性社会影响力的高级专家，而在专业化时，他们跟随其他专门的高级专家，后者强调基于口味的同质性。我们还表明，初级专家，即将来的连环支持者，会跟随高级专家，特别是在专门领域，他们会支持信息社会影响力。因此，专家们带领群众做出为文化项目做出贡献的决定，