We examine the effect of the issuer fee paid to portals on the success of investment crowdfunding using 1,694 offerings launched in the US during May 2016 – September 2019. We show that a mixed issuer fee (i.e. fixed gross fee and a share of securities) influences the probability of success, suggesting a positive signaling-effect that mitigates adverse selection problems between retail investors and issuers. Specifically, the use of a mixed issuer fee increases the probability of success by 33.5%. This effect remains after controlling for other information-risk-reducing mechanisms and it is contingent on firm-level characteristics.

我们使用 2016 年 5 月至 2019 年 9 月期间在美国推出的 1,694 种产品，研究了支付给门户网站的发行人费用对投资众筹成功的影响。我们表明，混合发行人费用（即固定总费用和证券份额）会影响成功的可能性，表明一种积极的信号效应，可以缓解散户投资者和发行人之间的逆向选择问题。具体来说，混合发行人费用的使用将成功的概率提高了 33.5%。在控制了其他信息风险降低机制后，这种影响仍然存在，并且取决于公司层面的特征。