IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v117y2020icp432-442.html

Women backing women: The role of crowdfunding in empowering female consumer-investors and entrepreneurs

Author

Listed:
  • Groza, Mya Pronschinske
  • Groza, Mark D.
  • Barral, Luis Miguel

Abstract

Compared with their male counterparts, female entrepreneurs receive a disproportionately small amount of funding. One frequently cited reason for this disparity is the lack of female representation in the entrepreneurial funding decision-making process. Today, crowdfunding offers an innovative avenue for both male and female entrepreneurs and democratizes the funding decision-making process. Individual consumers (i.e., consumer-investors or backers) can now unite to influence funding outcomes. Yet, questions remain as to the motivations and behaviors of these backers supporting entrepreneurial projects through crowdfunding. This study integrates social capital theory along with the theory of choice homophily to examine the motivating factors of both male and female backers. It tests the conceptual model by analyzing empirical data collected from more than 2,000 Spanish crowdfunding backers. The findings confirm that compared with male backers, female backers support internal and external social ties to a greater extent when deciding on what projects to support.

Suggested Citation

  • Groza, Mya Pronschinske & Groza, Mark D. & Barral, Luis Miguel, 2020. "Women backing women: The role of crowdfunding in empowering female consumer-investors and entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 432-442.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:432-442
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S014829632030388X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.013?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zaggl, Michael A. & Block, Joern, 2019. "Do small funding amounts lead to reverse herding? A field experiment in reward-based crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 12(C).
    2. Westermann, Olaf & Ashby, Jacqueline & Pretty, Jules, 2005. "Gender and social capital: The importance of gender differences for the maturity and effectiveness of natural resource management groups," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1783-1799, November.
    3. Smith, Claudia & Smith, J. Brock & Shaw, Eleanor, 2017. "Embracing digital networks: Entrepreneurs' social capital online," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 18-34.
    4. Denis Frydrych & Adam J. Bock & Tony Kinder & Benjamin Koeck, 2014. "Exploring entrepreneurial legitimacy in reward-based crowdfunding," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(3), pages 247-269, July.
    5. Massimo G. Colombo & Chiara Franzoni & Cristina Rossi–Lamastra, 2015. "Internal Social Capital and the Attraction of Early Contributions in Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(1), pages 75-100, January.
    6. Shneor, Rotem & Munim, Ziaul Haque, 2019. "Reward crowdfunding contribution as planned behaviour: An extended framework," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 56-70.
    7. Gordon Burtch & Anindya Ghose & Sunil Wattal, 2015. "The Hidden Cost of Accommodating Crowdfunder Privacy Preferences: A Randomized Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 61(5), pages 949-962, May.
    8. Ali Mohammadi & Kourosh Shafi, 2018. "Gender differences in the contribution patterns of equity-crowdfunding investors," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 275-287, February.
    9. Carla Martínez-Climent & Ana Zorio-Grima & Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano, 2018. "Financial return crowdfunding: literature review and bibliometric analysis," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 527-553, September.
    10. Ajay Agrawal & Christian Catalini & Avi Goldfarb, 2015. "Crowdfunding: Geography, Social Networks, and the Timing of Investment Decisions," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 253-274, June.
    11. Davidsson, Per & Honig, Benson, 2003. "The role of social and human capital among nascent entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 301-331, May.
    12. Sexton, Donald L. & Bowman-Upton, Nancy, 1990. "Female and male entrepreneurs: Psychological characteristics and their role in gender-related discrimination," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 29-36, January.
    13. Carla Martínez-Climent & Ricardo Costa-Climent & Pejvak Oghazi, 2019. "Sustainable Financing through Crowdfunding," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-16, February.
    14. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    15. Baucus, Melissa S. & Mitteness, Cheryl R., 2016. "Crowdfrauding: Avoiding Ponzi entrepreneurs when investing in new ventures," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 59(1), pages 37-50.
    16. James Heckman, 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.
    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. Magdalena Cholakova & Bart Clarysse, 2015. "Does the Possibility to Make Equity Investments in Crowdfunding Projects Crowd Out Reward–Based Investments?," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(1), pages 145-172, January.
    19. Xu, Bo & Zheng, Haichao & Xu, Yun & Wang, Tao, 2016. "Configurational paths to sponsor satisfaction in crowdfunding," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 915-927.
    20. Crittenden, Victoria L. & Crittenden, William F. & Ajjan, Haya, 2019. "Empowering women micro-entrepreneurs in emerging economies: The role of information communications technology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 191-203.
    21. Simon, Mark & Stanton, Steven J. & Townsend, Janell D. & Kim, John, 2019. "A multi-method study of social ties and crowdfunding success: Opening the black box to get the cash inside," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 206-214.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Tanja Jovanović, 2019. "Crowdfunding: What Do We Know So Far?," International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(01), pages 1-25, February.
    2. 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).
    3. Andreas Hoegen & Dennis M. Steininger & Daniel Veit, 2018. "How do investors decide? An interdisciplinary review of decision-making in crowdfunding," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 28(3), pages 339-365, August.
    4. Friedemann Polzin & Helen Toxopeus & Erik Stam, 2018. "The wisdom of the crowd in funding: information heterogeneity and social networks of crowdfunders," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 251-273, February.
    5. 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).
    6. 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.
    7. Fabrice Hervé & Elodie Manthé & Aurélie Sannajust & Armin Schwienbacher, 2019. "Determinants of individual investment decisions in investment‐based crowdfunding," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5-6), pages 762-783, May.
    8. 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.
    9. Thomas Clauss & Thomas Niemand & Sascha Kraus & Patrick Schnetzer & Alexander Brem, 2019. "Increasing Crowdfunding Success Through Social Media: The Importance Of Reach And Utilisation In Reward-Based Crowdfunding," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(03), pages 1-30, May.
    10. Yan Lin & Wai Fong Boh, 2020. "How different Are crowdfunders? Examining archetypes of crowdfunders," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 71(11), pages 1357-1370, November.
    11. Su, Linlin & Cheng, Xusen & Hua, Ying & Zhang, Wenping, 2021. "What leads to value co-creation in reward-based crowdfunding? A person-environment fit perspective," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    12. Alex Murray & Greg Fisher, 2023. "When More Is Less: Explaining the Curse of Too Much Capital for Early-Stage Ventures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(1), pages 246-282, January.
    13. Santautė Venslavienė & Jelena Stankevičienė & Agnė Vaiciukevičiūtė, 2021. "Assessment of Successful Drivers of Crowdfunding Projects Based on Visual Analogue Scale Matrix for Criteria Weighting Method," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 9(14), pages 1-18, July.
    14. 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.
    15. 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.
    16. Calic, Goran & Shevchenko, Anton, 2020. "How signal intensity of behavioral orientations affects crowdfunding performance: The role of entrepreneurial orientation in crowdfunding business ventures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 204-220.
    17. 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.
    18. Peter Gomber & Jascha-Alexander Koch & Michael Siering, 2017. "Digital Finance and FinTech: current research and future research directions," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(5), pages 537-580, July.
    19. Roma, Paolo & Messeni Petruzzelli, Antonio & Perrone, Giovanni, 2017. "From the crowd to the market: The role of reward-based crowdfunding performance in attracting professional investors," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1606-1628.
    20. Frimpong, Bright & Mohammed, Fatima & Larson, Keri M. & Anderson Junior, Henry, 2024. "Take my word for it! The role of projected certainty signaling and certainty alignment in reward crowdfunding outcomes," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 21(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:432-442. 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/jbusres .

    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.