The Nearer, the Better? The Impact of Cultural and Geographic Distance on Crowdfunding Project Attractiveness

Table 2

Definitions of the variables.

Variables	Type and unit	Definition
Dependent variables
Success or failure	Dummy coded	1 if a project succeeds and 0 otherwise
Average fund	Ratio variable; USD	The average amount per backer contributes for a particular project, calculated by the total amount a project raises divided by the number of total backers
The number of experienced backers	Counting variable	The number of experienced backers funding a particular project
The number of new backers^a	Counting variable	The number of new backers funding a particular project
Independent variables
Cultural distance	Ratio variable	The average cultural distance between the creator and the funding backers based on the six-dimension culture model
Geographic distance	Ratio variable; kilometer.	The average geographic distance between the creator and the funding backers based on the Google Maps APIs
Covariates
The number of total backers	Counting variable	The number of total backers funding a particular project
Requested amount	Ratio variable; USD	The specified amount a creator requests for the initiated project
Fundraising cycle	Ratio variable; day.	The specified days for fundraising
Historical projects	Counting variable	The number of projects a creator previous initiated
Historical success	Counting variable	The number of successful projects previously initiated by a creator

^aThe number of total backers and the number of naïve backers included as control variables in the regressions on project attractiveness.