Matching donations based on social capital in Internet crowdfunding can promote cooperation

Social capital is an important but often overlooked intangible resource. Unlike other ways of matching donations, we try to match the social capital contributed by individuals in Internet crowdfunding to promote cooperation, and at the same time publish the material capital along with social capital to stimulate people’s enthusiasm for donations. Evolutionary results show that making full use of social capital attracts more public donations on the Internet. Through the analysis of marginal cost, it can be found that the organization can achieve higher level of cooperation at lower cost. Furthermore, there is an optimal threshold for publishing donation lists on the Internet to achieve better cooperation. We also find that network structure, historical information and the existence of altruists have influences on cooperation. Our research helps organizers effectively solve the dilemma of insufficient public participation in public utilities and high construction cost of public goods.