IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbvent/v37y2022i4s0883902622000350.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The right touch of pitch assertiveness: Examining entrepreneurs' gender and project category fit in crowdfunding

Author

Listed:
  • McSweeney, Jordan J.
  • McSweeney, Kevin T.
  • Webb, Justin W.
  • Devers, Cynthia E.

Abstract

Scholars have devoted significant attention to the role of entrepreneurs' communication, and gender in crowdfunding. Yet, how female and male entrepreneurs can effectively configure their assertive communication style and the role gender norms within project categories play in shaping crowdfunders' evaluations of entrepreneurs' communication style remains unanswered. To address this, we conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis (QCA) of 1600 entrepreneurs who pitched their ventures on Kickstarter. From prior research, we identified four distinct kinds of assertive language (certain, power, social, tentative) and explore how female and male entrepreneurs' configurations of assertive language relate to crowdfunding success and failure in male-dominated and female-dominated contexts. We found six pitch assertiveness themes, two associated with success, two associated with failure, and two where success versus failure depends on nuanced considerations of the entrepreneur's gender and the gendering of the context. Our study extends our understanding of communication and gender in crowdfunding.

Suggested Citation

  • McSweeney, Jordan J. & McSweeney, Kevin T. & Webb, Justin W. & Devers, Cynthia E., 2022. "The right touch of pitch assertiveness: Examining entrepreneurs' gender and project category fit in crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:37:y:2022:i:4:s0883902622000350
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2022.106223
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902622000350
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2022.106223?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. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Jamie J. Ladge & Cheryl Mitteness & Lakshmi Balachandra, 2016. "Do you See what I See? Signaling Effects of Gender and Firm Characteristics on Financing Entrepreneurial Ventures," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 40(3), pages 489-514, May.
    2. Peter Younkin & Venkat Kuppuswamy, 2018. "The Colorblind Crowd? Founder Race and Performance in Crowdfunding," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(7), pages 3269-3287, July.
    3. Matthew Lee & Laura Huang, 2018. "Gender Bias, Social Impact Framing, and Evaluation of Entrepreneurial Ventures," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16, February.
    4. Hadar Gafni & Dan Marom & Alicia Robb & Orly Sade, 2021. "Gender Dynamics in Crowdfunding (Kickstarter): Evidence on Entrepreneurs, Backers, and Taste-Based Discrimination [Women on the verge of a breakthrough: networking among entrepreneurs in the United," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 25(2), pages 235-274.
    5. Johnson, Michael A. & Stevenson, Regan M. & Letwin, Chaim R., 2018. "A woman's place is in the… startup! Crowdfunder judgments, implicit bias, and the stereotype content model," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 813-831.
    6. Parhankangas, Annaleena & Ehrlich, Michael, 2014. "How entrepreneurs seduce business angels: An impression management approach," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 543-564.
    7. Parhankangas, Annaleena & Renko, Maija, 2017. "Linguistic style and crowdfunding success among social and commercial entrepreneurs," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 215-236.
    8. Silvia Bellezza & Francesca Gino & Anat Keinan, 2014. "The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence from Signals of Nonconformity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 41(1), pages 35-54.
    9. Alex Murray & Suresh Kotha & Greg Fisher, 2020. "Community-Based Resource Mobilization: How Entrepreneurs Acquire Resources from Distributed Non-Professionals via Crowdfunding," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 960-989, July.
    10. Kim Claes & Balagopal Vissa, 2020. "Does Social Similarity Pay Off? Homophily and Venture Capitalists’ Deal Valuation, Downside Risk Protection, and Financial Returns in India," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 576-603, May.
    11. Fisher, Greg & Kuratko, Donald F. & Bloodgood, James M. & Hornsby, Jeffrey S., 2017. "Legitimate to whom? The challenge of audience diversity and new venture legitimacy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 52-71.
    12. Mollick, Ethan, 2014. "The dynamics of crowdfunding: An exploratory study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 1-16.
    13. Ragin, Charles C., 2000. "Fuzzy-Set Social Science," University of Chicago Press Economics Books, University of Chicago Press, edition 1, number 9780226702773, September.
    14. Jean S. Clarke & Joep P. Cornelissen & Mark Healey, 2019. "Actions Speak Louder than Words : How Figurative Language and Gesturing in Entrepreneurial Pitches Influences Investment Judgments," Post-Print hal-02276704, HAL.
    15. 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.
    16. Elco Van Burg & Joep Cornelissen & Wouter Stam & Sarah Jack, 2022. "Advancing Qualitative Entrepreneurship Research: Leveraging Methodological Plurality for Achieving Scholarly Impact," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(1), pages 3-20, January.
    17. Ernst Fehr & Urs Fischbacher, "undated". "Third Party Punishment and Social Norms," IEW - Working Papers 106, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics - University of Zurich.
    18. McKnight, Brent & Zietsma, Charlene, 2018. "Finding the threshold: A configurational approach to optimal distinctiveness," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 493-512.
    19. Anna, Alexandra L. & Chandler, Gaylen N. & Jansen, Erik & Mero, Neal P., 2000. "Women business owners in traditional and non-traditional industries," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 15(3), pages 279-303, May.
    20. Felix Danbold & Corinne Bendersky, 2020. "Balancing Professional Prototypes Increases the Valuation of Women in Male-Dominated Professions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 119-140, January.
    21. Davis, Blakley C. & Hmieleski, Keith M. & Webb, Justin W. & Coombs, Joseph E., 2017. "Funders' positive affective reactions to entrepreneurs' crowdfunding pitches: The influence of perceived product creativity and entrepreneurial passion," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 90-106.
    22. Jeremy C. Short & David J. Ketchen Jr. & Aaron F. McKenny & Thomas H. Allison & R. Duane Ireland, 2017. "Research on Crowdfunding: Reviewing the (Very Recent) past and Celebrating the Present," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(2), pages 149-160, March.
    23. Jean Clarke & Joep P. Cornelissen & Mark Healey, 2019. "Actions Speak Louder than Words : How Figurative Language and Gesturing in Entrepreneurial Pitches Influences Investment Judgments," Post-Print hal-02312189, HAL.
    24. Douglas, Evan J. & Shepherd, Dean A. & Prentice, Catherine, 2020. "Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis for a finer-grained understanding of entrepreneurship," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    25. Ruebottom, Trish, 2013. "The microstructures of rhetorical strategy in social entrepreneurship: Building legitimacy through heroes and villains," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 98-116.
    26. Eddleston, Kimberly A. & Powell, Gary N., 2008. "The role of gender identity in explaining sex differences in business owners' career satisfier preferences," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 23(2), pages 244-256, March.
    27. 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.
    28. Norbert Steigenberger & Hendrik Wilhelm, 2018. "Extending Signaling Theory to Rhetorical Signals: Evidence from Crowdfunding," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 529-546, June.
    29. Wesemann, Henrik & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "A whole new world: Counterintuitive crowdfunding insights for female founders," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    30. Hmieleski, Keith M. & Sheppard, Leah D., 2019. "The Yin and Yang of entrepreneurship: Gender differences in the importance of communal and agentic characteristics for entrepreneurs' subjective well-being and performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 709-730.
    31. Anglin, Aaron H. & Short, Jeremy C. & Drover, Will & Stevenson, Regan M. & McKenny, Aaron F. & Allison, Thomas H., 2018. "The power of positivity? The influence of positive psychological capital language on crowdfunding performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 470-492.
    32. Uma R. Karmarkar & Zakary L. Tormala, 2010. "Believe Me, I Have No Idea What I'm Talking About: The Effects of Source Certainty on Consumer Involvement and Persuasion," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 36(6), pages 1033-1049, April.
    33. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226702766 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Lucas, David S. & Park, U. David, 2023. "The nature and origins of social venture mission: An exploratory study of political ideology and moral foundations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    2. Li, Yuanqing & Sui, Sui & Wu, Sibin, 2022. "The effect of gender fit on crowdfunding success," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    3. McSweeney, Jordan J. & McSweeney, Kevin T. & Webb, Justin W. & Sandoval, Rosalyn G., 2022. "Passion drove me here: Exploring how types of entrepreneurial passion influence different entrepreneurial intentions," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    4. Oo, Pyayt P. & Jiang, Lin & Sahaym, Arvin & Parhankangas, Annaleena & Chan, Richard, 2023. "Actions in words: How entrepreneurs use diversified and changing speech acts to achieve funding success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).

    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. Aaron H. Anglin & Shane W. Reid & Jeremy C. Short, 2023. "More Than One Way to Tell a Story: A Configurational Approach to Storytelling in Crowdfunding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 461-494, March.
    2. Aaron H. Anglin & Christopher Courtney & Thomas H. Allison, 2022. "Venturing for Others, Subject to Role Expectations? A Role Congruity Theory Approach to Social Venture Crowd Funding," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 46(2), pages 421-448, March.
    3. Jin, Xianzhe & Li, Jingnan & Gao, Jijun, 2022. "Joint effect of linguistic style and ethnicity on entrepreneurial fundraising: Evidence from equity crowdfunding," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    4. Oo, Pyayt P. & Jiang, Lin & Sahaym, Arvin & Parhankangas, Annaleena & Chan, Richard, 2023. "Actions in words: How entrepreneurs use diversified and changing speech acts to achieve funding success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    5. Rose, Stefan & Wentzel, Daniel & Hopp, Christian & Kaminski, Jermain, 2021. "Launching for success: The effects of psychological distance and mental simulation on funding decisions and crowdfunding performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(6).
    6. Alex Murray & Suresh Kotha & Greg Fisher, 2020. "Community-Based Resource Mobilization: How Entrepreneurs Acquire Resources from Distributed Non-Professionals via Crowdfunding," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 960-989, July.
    7. 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.
    8. Rose, Stefan & Wentzel, Daniel & Hopp, Christian & Kaminski, Jermain, 2020. "Launching for Success: The Effects of Psychological Distance and Mental Simulation on Funding Decisions and Crowdfunding Performance," SocArXiv fqbwk, Center for Open Science.
    9. Warnick, Benjamin J. & Davis, Blakley C. & Allison, Thomas H. & Anglin, Aaron H., 2021. "Express yourself: Facial expression of happiness, anger, fear, and sadness in funding pitches," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    10. Tajvarpour, Mohammad Hossein & Pujari, Devashish, 2022. "The influence of narrative description on the success of crowdfunding campaigns: The moderating role of quality signals," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 123-138.
    11. David Clingingsmith & Will Drover & Scott Shane, 2023. "Examining the outcomes of entrepreneur pitch training: an exploratory field study," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 947-974, March.
    12. 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.
    13. 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).
    14. Yang Zhao & Xuemei Xie & Liuyong Yang, 2021. "Female entrepreneurs and equity crowdfunding: the consequential roles of lead investors and venture stages," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 1183-1211, September.
    15. Wesemann, Henrik & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "A whole new world: Counterintuitive crowdfunding insights for female founders," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    16. Hassna, Ghazwan, 2022. "Crowdfund smart, not hard – Understanding the role of online funding communities in crowdfunding success," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 18(C).
    17. Seigner, Benedikt David Christian & Milanov, Hana & Lundmark, Erik & Shepherd, Dean A., 2023. "Tweeting like Elon? Provocative language, new-venture status, and audience engagement on social media," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    18. Megan Yuan Li & Charson Cancan Dong & Shige Makino, 2023. "Does a Past Category’s Success Influence Existing Entrepreneurial Fundraising?: A Legitimacy Spillover Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2263-2292, November.
    19. Lin, Tse-Chun & Pursiainen, Vesa, 2022. "Regional social capital and moral hazard in crowdfunding," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(4).
    20. Shane, Scott & Drover, Will & Clingingsmith, David & Cerf, Moran, 2020. "Founder passion, neural engagement and informal investor interest in startup pitches: An fMRI study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4).

    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:jbvent:v:37:y:2022:i:4:s0883902622000350. 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/jbusvent .

    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.