IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/corfin/v64y2020ics0929119920301371.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness, gender, and crowdfunding success

Author

Listed:
  • Duan, Yang
  • Hsieh, Tien-Shih
  • Wang, Ray R.
  • Wang, Zhihong

Abstract

This study examines whether and how entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness is associated with the success of their crowdfunding campaigns. We adopt a novel dataset extracted from the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform and employ machine learning-based facial detection techniques to construct a comprehensive index that measures facial trustworthiness for our investigation. Our results suggest that entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness is positively associated with crowdfunding campaign success. Specifically, trustworthy-looking entrepreneurs receive a 13.1% greater pledge amount and attract 4.8% more backers in their crowdfunding campaign as compared to those who are untrustworthy-looking. We also find that the facial trustworthiness of female entrepreneurs plays a more prominent role in determining project success than that of male entrepreneurs. Our results are robust to a series of additional analyses and sensitivity checks. Overall, the results of our study suggest that entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness is an important factor that affects funders' decision-making process in reward-based crowdfunding.

Suggested Citation

  • Duan, Yang & Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Entrepreneurs' facial trustworthiness, gender, and crowdfunding success," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s0929119920301371
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101693
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0929119920301371
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcorpfin.2020.101693?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Laura Bottazzi & Marco Da Rin & Thomas Hellmann, 2016. "Editor's Choice The Importance of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Venture Capital," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 29(9), pages 2283-2318.
    2. John O. Ogbor, 2000. "Mythicizing and Reification in Entrepreneurial Discourse: Ideology‐Critique of Entrepreneurial Studies," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5), pages 605-635, July.
    3. Douglas J. Cumming & Gaël Leboeuf & Armin Schwienbacher, 2020. "Crowdfunding models: Keep‐It‐All vs. All‐Or‐Nothing," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 49(2), pages 331-360, June.
    4. Pevzner, Mikhail & Xie, Fei & Xin, Xiangang, 2015. "When firms talk, do investors listen? The role of trust in stock market reactions to corporate earnings announcements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 190-223.
    5. Belleflamme, Paul & Omrani, Nessrine & Peitz, Martin, 2015. "The economics of crowdfunding platforms," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 11-28.
    6. Mi (Jamie) Zhou & Baozhou Lu & Weiguo (Patrick) Fan & G. Alan Wang, 2018. "Project description and crowdfunding success: an exploratory study," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 259-274, April.
    7. Clougherty, Joseph A. & Duso, Tomaso & Muck, Johannes, 2016. "Correcting for Self-selection Based Endogeneity in Management Research: Review, Recommendations and Simulations," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 19, pages 286-347.
    8. L. Bottazzi & M. Da Rin & T. Hellmann, 2007. "The Importance of Trust for Investment: Evidence from Venture Capital," Working Papers 612, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    9. Roland Strausz, 2017. "A Theory of Crowdfunding: A Mechanism Design Approach with Demand Uncertainty and Moral Hazard," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(6), pages 1430-1476, June.
    10. Hasan, Iftekhar & Hoi, Chun Keung & Wu, Qiang & Zhang, Hao, 2017. "Social Capital and Debt Contracting: Evidence from Bank Loans and Public Bonds," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(3), pages 1017-1047, June.
    11. Li, Feng, 2008. "Annual report readability, current earnings, and earnings persistence," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2-3), pages 221-247, August.
    12. S. Trevis Certo & John R. Busenbark & Hyun‐soo Woo & Matthew Semadeni, 2016. "Sample selection bias and Heckman models in strategic management research," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2639-2657, December.
    13. Barbara Bird & Candida Brush, 2002. "A Gendered Perspective on Organizational Creation," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 26(3), pages 41-65, April.
    14. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    15. Chatterji, Aaron K. & Seamans, Robert C., 2012. "Entrepreneurial finance, credit cards, and race," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(1), pages 182-195.
    16. Anglin, Aaron H. & Wolfe, Marcus T. & Short, Jeremy C. & McKenny, Aaron F. & Pidduck, Robert J., 2018. "Narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance: A social role theory perspective," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 780-812.
    17. Gerrit K.C. Ahlers & Douglas Cumming & Christina Günther & Denis Schweizer, 2015. "Signaling in Equity Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 955-980, July.
    18. Karl V. Lins & Henri Servaes & Ane Tamayo, 2017. "Social Capital, Trust, and Firm Performance: The Value of Corporate Social Responsibility during the Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 72(4), pages 1785-1824, August.
    19. Michael Marcin Kunz & Ulrich Bretschneider & Max Erler & Jan Marco Leimeister, 2017. "An empirical investigation of signaling in reward-based crowdfunding," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 425-461, September.
    20. Freedman, Seth & Jin, Ginger Zhe, 2017. "The information value of online social networks: Lessons from peer-to-peer lending," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 185-222.
    21. Tate, Geoffrey & Yang, Liu, 2015. "Female leadership and gender equity: Evidence from plant closure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 77-97.
    22. Ajay Agrawal & Christian Catalini & Avi Goldfarb, 2014. "Some Simple Economics of Crowdfunding," Innovation Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 14(1), pages 63-97.
    23. Elizabeth Blankespoor & Bradley E. Hendricks & Gregory S. Miller, 2017. "Perceptions and Price: Evidence from CEO Presentations at IPO Roadshows," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 275-327, May.
    24. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    25. Peter Kennedy, 2003. "A Guide to Econometrics, 5th Edition," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 5, volume 1, number 026261183x, December.
    26. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    27. Ert, Eyal & Fleischer, Aliza & Magen, Nathan, 2016. "Trust and reputation in the sharing economy: The role of personal photos in Airbnb," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 62-73.
    28. Mi (Jamie) Zhou & Baozhou Lu & Weiguo (Patrick) Fan & G. Alan Wang, 0. "Project description and crowdfunding success: an exploratory study," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    29. William J. Wales & Pankaj C. Patel & G. T. Lumpkin, 2013. "In Pursuit of Greatness: CEO Narcissism, Entrepreneurial Orientation, and Firm Performance Variance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(6), pages 1041-1069, September.
    30. Cumming, Douglas J. & Leboeuf, Gael & Schwienbacher, Armin, 2017. "Crowdfunding cleantech," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 292-303.
    31. Charles Ham & Nicholas Seybert & Sean Wang, 2018. "Narcissism is a bad sign: CEO signature size, investment, and performance," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 234-264, March.
    32. Nancy Buchan & Rachel Croson, 1999. "Gender and Culture: International Experimental Evidence from Trust Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 89(2), pages 386-391, May.
    33. Scott Shane & Daniel Cable, 2002. "Network Ties, Reputation, and the Financing of New Ventures," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(3), pages 364-381, March.
    34. Vishal K. Gupta & Daniel B. Turban & S. Arzu Wasti & Arijit Sikdar, 2009. "The Role of Gender Stereotypes in Perceptions of Entrepreneurs and Intentions to Become an Entrepreneur," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(2), pages 397-417, March.
    35. Endrit Kromidha & Paul Robson, 2016. "Social identity and signalling success factors in online crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(9-10), pages 605-629, October.
    36. Vincenzo Butticè & Massimo G. Colombo & Mike Wright, 2017. "Serial Crowdfunding, Social Capital, and Project Success," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(2), pages 183-207, March.
    37. Vitaly Skirnevskiy & David Bendig & Malte Brettel, 2017. "The Influence of Internal Social Capital on Serial Creators’ Success in Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(2), pages 209-236, March.
    38. Erik J Schlicht & Shinsuke Shimojo & Colin F Camerer & Peter Battaglia & Ken Nakayama, 2010. "Human Wagering Behavior Depends on Opponents' Faces," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(7), pages 1-10, July.
    39. Constantin Rezlescu & Brad Duchaine & Christopher Y Olivola & Nick Chater, 2012. "Unfakeable Facial Configurations Affect Strategic Choices in Trust Games with or without Information about Past Behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(3), pages 1-6, March.
    40. Goran Calic & Elaine Mosakowski, 2016. "Kicking Off Social Entrepreneurship: How A Sustainability Orientation Influences Crowdfunding Success," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(5), pages 738-767, July.
    41. Cumming, Douglas & Meoli, Michele & Vismara, Silvio, 2019. "Investors’ choices between cash and voting rights: Evidence from dual-class equity crowdfunding," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(8), pages 1-1.
    42. Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Seeing is believing? Executives' facial trustworthiness, auditor tenure, and audit fees," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    43. Alice Rossi & Silvio Vismara, 2018. "What do crowdfunding platforms do? A comparison between investment-based platforms in Europe," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 8(1), pages 93-118, March.
    44. Tim Loughran & Bill Mcdonald, 2011. "When Is a Liability Not a Liability? Textual Analysis, Dictionaries, and 10‐Ks," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 66(1), pages 35-65, February.
    45. Silvio Vismara, 2016. "Equity retention and social network theory in equity crowdfunding," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 46(4), pages 579-590, April.
    46. Strausz, Roland, 2017. "A Theory of Crowdfunding," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 2, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    47. Gerald J. Gorn & Yuwei Jiang & Gita Venkataramani Johar, 2008. "Babyfaces, Trait Inferences, and Company Evaluations in a Public Relations Crisis," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(1), pages 36-49, March.
    48. Jefferson Duarte & Stephan Siegel & Lance Young, 2012. "Trust and Credit: The Role of Appearance in Peer-to-peer Lending," Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(8), pages 2455-2484.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Feng Chen & Jian Ding & Mochou Li & Bingqing Wang, 2021. "From self‐entertainment to being appreciated: how does social media transfer talent to business?," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(5), pages 6113-6146, December.
    2. Cao, Chunfang & Li, Xiaohui & Li, Xiaoyang & Zeng, Cheng & Zhou, Xuan, 2021. "Diversity and inclusion: Evidence from corporate inventors," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 295-316.
    3. Li, Yuanqing & Sui, Sui & Wu, Sibin, 2022. "The effect of gender fit on crowdfunding success," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    4. Antonio Dávila & Martí Guasch, 2022. "Managers’ Body Expansiveness, Investor Perceptions, and Firm Forecast Errors and Valuation," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 517-563, May.
    5. Adi Hoorvitch Lavi & Eyal Yaniv, 2023. "The Effect of Entrepreneur Attributes on Investment Evaluations in Pitch Competitions," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 32(1), pages 39-74, March.
    6. Aaron H. Anglin & Hana Milanov & Jeremy C. Short, 2023. "Religious Expression and Crowdfunded Microfinance Success: Insights from Role Congruity Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 185(2), pages 397-426, June.
    7. Said Kaawach & Oskar Kowalewski & Oleksandr Talavera, 2023. "Automatic vs Manual Investing: Role of Past Performance," Discussion Papers 23-04, Department of Economics, University of Birmingham.
    8. Lingfei Deng & Qiang Ye & DaPeng Xu & Wenjun Sun & Guangxin Jiang, 2022. "A literature review and integrated framework for the determinants of crowdfunding success," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 8(1), pages 1-70, December.
    9. Yalin Wang & Yaokuang Li & Juan Wu & Li Ling & Dan Long, 2023. "Does digitalization sufficiently empower female entrepreneurs? Evidence from their online gender identities and crowdfunding performance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(1), pages 325-348, June.
    10. Ana Paula Matias Gama & Ricardo Emanuel Correia & Mário Augusto & Fábio Duarte, 2023. "Third-party signals in crowdfunded microfinance: which microfinance institutions boost crowdfunding among refugee entrepreneurs?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 559-586, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cai, Wanxiang & Polzin, Friedemann & Stam, Erik, 2021. "Crowdfunding and social capital: A systematic review using a dynamic perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. W. Cai & F.H.J. Polzin & F.C. Stam, 2019. "Crowdfunding and Social Capital: A Systematic Literature Review," Working Papers 19-05, Utrecht School of Economics.
    3. Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Natalicchio, Angelo & Panniello, Umberto & Roma, Paolo, 2019. "Understanding the crowdfunding phenomenon and its implications for sustainability," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 138-148.
    4. Lin, Tse-Chun & Pursiainen, Vesa, 2022. "Regional social capital and moral hazard in crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    5. Xiaobei Liang & Xiaojuan Hu & Jiang Jiang, 2020. "Research on the Effects of Information Description on Crowdfunding Success within a Sustainable Economy—The Perspective of Information Communication," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-36, January.
    6. Anna Prisco & Valerio Muto & Ciro Troise & Mario Tani, 2022. "How to Engage the Crowds to Create Value? Evidence from the Pathfinder Arena Case," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-22, April.
    7. Chan, Ho Fai & Moy, Naomi & Schaffner, Markus & Torgler, Benno, 2021. "The effects of money saliency and sustainability orientation on reward based crowdfunding success," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 443-455.
    8. Vincenzo Butticè & Diego Useche, 2022. "Crowdfunding to overcome the immigrant entrepreneurs’ liability of outsidership: the role of internal social capital," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1519-1540, December.
    9. Shneor, Rotem & Zhao, Liang & Fabian Michael Goedecke, Jann, 2023. "On relationship types, their strength, and reward crowdfunding backer behavior," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    10. Francisca Jiménez-Jiménez & Maria Virtudes Alba-Fernández & Cristina Martínez-Gómez, 2021. "Attracting the Right Crowd under Asymmetric Information: A Game Theory Application to Rewards-Based Crowdfunding," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(21), pages 1-23, October.
    11. Geiger, Mark, 2020. "A meta-analysis of the gender gap(s) in venture funding: Funder- and entrepreneur-driven perspectives," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 13(C).
    12. Xiahua Wei & Ming Fan & Weijia You & Yong Tan, 2021. "An Empirical Study of the Dynamic and Differential Effects of Prefunding," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(5), pages 1331-1349, May.
    13. Saul Estrin & Susanna Khavul & Mike Wright, 2022. "Soft and hard information in equity crowdfunding: network effects in the digitalization of entrepreneurial finance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1761-1781, April.
    14. Hsieh, Tien-Shih & Kim, Jeong-Bon & Wang, Ray R. & Wang, Zhihong, 2020. "Seeing is believing? Executives' facial trustworthiness, auditor tenure, and audit fees," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(1).
    15. Carla Martínez-Climent & Ricardo Costa-Climent & Pejvak Oghazi, 2019. "Sustainable Financing through Crowdfunding," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, February.
    16. Shuangfa Huang & David Pickernell & Martina Battisti & Thang Nguyen, 2022. "Signalling entrepreneurs’ credibility and project quality for crowdfunding success: cases from the Kickstarter and Indiegogo environments," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(4), pages 1801-1821, April.
    17. Felipe, Israel José dos Santos & Mendes-Da-Silva, Wesley & Leal, Cristiana Cerqueira & Braun Santos, Danilo, 2022. "Reward crowdfunding campaigns: Time-to-success analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 214-228.
    18. Zhao, Liang & Shneor, Rotem & Sun, Zhe, 2022. "Skin in the game: Self-funding and reward crowdfunding success," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 89-100.
    19. Sha Zhou & Tao Ma & Zhengchi Liu, 2021. "Crowdfunding as a screener for collective investment," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 195-221, March.
    20. Bagheri, Afsaneh & Chitsazan, Hasti & Ebrahimi, Ashkan, 2019. "Crowdfunding motivations: A focus on donors' perspectives," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 218-232.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:corfin:v:64:y:2020:i:c:s0929119920301371. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcorpfin .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.