When going green backfires: The influence of environmental commitments on crowdfunding success

Kickstarter, a leading reward-based crowdfunding platform, has added a section to campaign pages for creators to disclose their environmental commitments. This raises an important research question: What is the impact of such pro-environmental signals on funding performance? Drawing on signaling theory, which suggests that the signal should align with the signaler's quality to be effective, we propose that adding costly pro-environmental attributes to products may backfire because it may not fit the characteristics of crowdfunding creators who are often startups with limited financial resources. Our analysis of 5022 Kickstarter projects shows that disclosing environmental commitments negatively influences crowdfunding success. Specifically, these projects tend to achieve lower fundraising reach rates, attract fewer backers, raise less money in total, and are less likely to meet their funding goals. However, the negative impact of pro-environmental signaling is attenuated: (1) when the communication between creators and backers is frequent, and (2) when creators have more crowdfunding experience. This study contributes to the signaling and crowdfunding literature by revealing the potential negative impact of pro-environmental signals and the importance of sending fitting signals. It also enriches the sustainability literature by showing crowdfunding as a novel context where sustainability does not necessarily yield benefits.