Is the crowd sensitive to distance?—how investment decisions differ by investor type

This paper presents the first evidence of the influence of geographic distance among retail, accredited, and overseas investors and venture location in an equity crowdfunding context. By analyzing investment decisions, we show that geographic distance is negatively correlated with investment probability for all home country investors. Our comparison of home country and overseas investors reveals that overseas investors are not sensitive to distance. However, when comparing only home country investors (subdivided into retail and accredited), we document that both investor types are similarly sensitive to the distance of possible ventures.