Crowdfunding has emerged as a mechanism to raise funds for entrepreneurial ideas. On crowdfunding platforms, backers (i.e., individuals who fund ideas) jointly fund the same idea, leading to affiliations, or overlaps, within the community. We find that while an increase in the total number of backers may positively affect funding behavior, the resulting affiliations affect funding negatively. We reason that when affiliated others fund a new idea, individuals may feel less of a need to fund, a process known as vicarious moral licensing. Based on data collected from 2,021 ideas on a prominent crowdfunding platform, we show that prior affiliation among backers negatively affects an idea’s funding amount and eventual funding success. Creator engagement (i.e., idea description and updates) and backer engagement (i.e., Facebook shares) moderate this negative effect. The effect of affiliation is robust across several instrumental variables, model specifications, measures of affiliation, and multiple crowdfunding outcomes. Results from three experiments, a survey, and interviews with backers support the negative effect of affiliation and show that it can be explained by vicarious moral licensing. We develop actionable insights for creators to mitigate the negative effects of affiliation with the language used in idea descriptions and updates.

众筹已经成为一种为创业想法筹集资金的机制。在众筹平台上，支持者（即资助想法的个人）共同资助同一想法，导致社区内的从属关系或重叠。我们发现，虽然支持者总数的增加可能会对融资行为产生积极影响，但由此产生的附属关系会对融资产生负面影响。我们的理由是，当附属他人资助一个新想法时，个人可能会觉得不需要资助，这个过程被称为替代道德许可。根据从著名众筹平台上的 2,021 个想法收集的数据，我们表明，支持者之间的先前隶属关系会对想法的融资金额和最终的融资成功产生负面影响。创作者参与（即想法描述和更新）和支持者参与（即，Facebook 股票）缓和了这种负面影响。隶属关系的影响在多个工具变量、模型规范、隶属关系度量和多个众筹结果中是稳健的。三项实验、一项调查和对支持者的采访的结果支持从属关系的负面影响，并表明它可以通过替代道德许可来解释。我们为创作者提供可操作的见解，以减轻与想法描述和更新中使用的语言有关的负面影响。与支持者的访谈支持从属关系的负面影响，并表明它可以通过替代道德许可来解释。我们为创作者提供可操作的见解，以减轻与想法描述和更新中使用的语言有关的负面影响。与支持者的访谈支持从属关系的负面影响，并表明它可以通过替代道德许可来解释。我们为创作者提供可操作的见解，以减轻与想法描述和更新中使用的语言有关的负面影响。