Exploring the Impact of Gender Dynamics in Equity Crowdfunding: A Social Role Theory Perspective

Insufficient resources and support for female entrepreneurs create obstacles that hinder their chances of success, resulting in a noticeable underrepresentation of women in the economy. A key challenge entrepreneurs face is financing their ventures, for which equity crowdfunding presents an alternative with relatively low entry barriers. While early studies have shown that gender-related factors can influence crowdfunding success, little is known about the impact of female team members and all-female teams in venture financing via crowdfunding. This study explores this question through the lens of social role theory, using a quantitative regression analysis of equity crowdfunding projects. Overall, our results suggest a disadvantage for teams with more female entrepreneurs (both for teams with at least one female team member and all-female teams) regarding financing success via equity crowdfunding. However, the negative moderation effects of the target offering amount and previous work experience differ between the number of female team members and entirely female teams. We found a significant interaction between female team members and their campaign’s target offering, leading to lower amounts raised by mixed-gender campaigns than by all-male projects. A female founder’s work experience also influenced the success of female crowdfunding projects, as all-female campaigns received significantly less equity funding than all-male or mixed-gender teams. Further, our findings align with recent findings on the gender funding gap in equity crowdfunding. This study contributes research on equity crowdfunding by female entrepreneurs.