Philosophy

Neuroscience

Social psychology

Anonymity

Economics

Counterintuitive

Content (measure theory)

Psychology

Mathematics

Entrepreneurship

Political science

Epistemology

Mathematical analysis

Venture capital

Implicit bias

Stereotype (UML)

Amateur

Finance

Perception

Journal of Business Venturing

We examine investor stereotypes and implicit bias in crowdfunding decisions. Prior research in formal venture capital settings demonstrates that investors tend to have a funding bias against women. However, in crowdfunding – wherein a ‘crowd’ of amateur investors make relatively small investments in new companies – our empirical observations reveal a funding advantage for women. We explain the causal mechanism underlying this counterintuitive finding by drawing upon stereotype content theory and testing a dual path moderated-mediation model. Based on archival data and a follow-up experiment, our findings suggest common gender biases held by amateur investors function to increase female stereotype perceptions in the form of trustworthiness judgments, which subsequently increases investors' willingness to invest in early-stage women-led ventures. We discuss our results with specific attention to how our findings extend the entrepreneurship funding literature as well as the gender dynamics literature in entrepreneurship and organization research more broadly.

A woman's place is in the… startup! Crowdfunder judgments, implicit bias, and the stereotype content model