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Getting to know someone in ten seconds: Social role theory and perceived personality in entrepreneurial pitch videos
... Relevant to pitch funding are an entrepreneur's linguistic styles (Parhankangs & Renko, 2017), confidence levels (Moy, Chan, Septianto, Mathmann, & Torgler, 2024), displays of joy (Jiang, Yin, & Liu, 2019), higher levels of distinctiveness (Taeuscher, Bounchken, & Pesch, 2021), and positive body movements (Clarke, Cornelissen, & Healey, 2019). Also relevant is a willingness to divulge the project as a personal dream (Allison et al., 2017), along with the ability to come across as warm, passionate (Hu & Ma, 2021), trustworthy (Duan, Hsieh, Wang, & Wang, 2020), and narcissistic (Anglin, Wolfe, Short, McKenny, & Pidduck, 2018), and the ability to express oneself analytically, confidently (Kim, Buffart, & Croidieu, 2016), and passionately , by demonstrating the right personality traits , having an entrepreneurial personality (Maurer, Creek, Allison, Bendickson, & Sahaym, 2024), and product creativity , or by showcasing a group identity (Allison et al., 2017). These studies and others (e.g., Mahmood, Luffarelli, & Mukesh, 2019) have demonstrated the significant role that heuristics play in providing subtle cues that funders consider when making funding decisions. ...
... The social psychology evidence for first impressions (for a recent review, see Swider, Harris, & Gong, 2022) and their repercussions are traceable to the primacy effect (e.g., Buda & Zhang, 2000;Haugtvedt & Wegener, 1994;Jones, Goethals, Kennington, & Severance, 1972;Kim & Fesenmaier, 2008) with further elaboration facilitated by confirmation bias and halo effect literature based on perceived visible traits (e.g., Eagly, Ashmore, Makhijani, & Longo, 1991). Despite these advancements, online video pitches have seen a lack of investigation, with recent notable exceptions and immediate perceptions almost altogether absent (e.g., Allison, Warnick, Davis, & Cardon, 2022;Li, Xiao, & Wu, 2021;Maurer et al., 2024;Scheaf et al., 2018;Schraven et al., 2020;Warnick, Davis, Allison, & Anglin, 2021). Given the immediacy of these perceptions and their lasting effects and determining role in decision-making, it is surprising that online funding research has not followed context with similar mass investigations on immediate heuristics (e.g., first impressions and the decision-making consequence). ...
... While the research on crowdfunding to date has been substantial (see, for example, Bouncken, Komorek, & Kraus, 2015;He, Tröbinger, & Murray, 2024), the research on first impressions within the crowdfunding context is extremely limited. However, a recent empirical study examining campaign video clips found that immediate assessments of entrepreneurial personality traits were shown to positively impact crowdfunding success (Maurer et al., 2024). Their findings are built on the premise that crowdfunding backers can effectively use heuristics to guide funding decisions even when information and time are limited (Schraven et al., 2020). ...
... To overcome this considerable information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and investors, therefore "soft" information in the form of linguistic cues in narratives of the campaign page and pitch video can help. While linguistic styles and soft information in crowdfunding pitches have been shown to impact crowdfunding success in terms of the amount collected, failure probability, and the size of the investor pool reached, recent studies highlight a role for entrepreneurs' personalities as factors that impact investors' decision-making in the crowd (e.g., Allison et al. 2024;Isaak et al. 2024;Maurer et al. 2024). ...
... Similarly, the survey study by Nayer, Rosenboim, and Malul (2024) in Israel finds that agreeableness and extraversion positively impact campaign funding success. Third, Maurer, Creek, Allison, Bendickson, and Sahaym (2024) using a social role theory lens find that displays of entrepreneurial personality (Obschonka and Stuetzer 2017) in the first 10 s of crowdfunding video pitches impact campaign success. Fourth, Calic, Asrseneault, and Ghasemaghaei (2021) examine the impact of Machiavellian rhetoric in rewardbased crowdfunding (Fig. 1). ...
... To overcome this considerable information asymmetry between entrepreneurs and investors, therefore "soft" information in the form of linguistic cues in narratives of the campaign page and pitch video can help. While linguistic styles and soft information in crowdfunding pitches have been shown to impact crowdfunding success in terms of the amount collected, failure probability, and the size of the investor pool reached, recent studies highlight a role for entrepreneurs' personalities as factors that impact investors' decision-making in the crowd (e.g., Allison et al. 2024;Isaak et al. 2024;Maurer et al. 2024). ...
... Similarly, the survey study by Nayer, Rosenboim, and Malul (2024) in Israel finds that agreeableness and extraversion positively impact campaign funding success. Third, Maurer, Creek, Allison, Bendickson, and Sahaym (2024) using a social role theory lens find that displays of entrepreneurial personality (Obschonka and Stuetzer 2017) in the first 10 s of crowdfunding video pitches impact campaign success. Fourth, Calic, Asrseneault, and Ghasemaghaei (2021) examine the impact of Machiavellian rhetoric in rewardbased crowdfunding (Fig. 1). ...
... National culture may also play a critical role and deserves further attention in future research due to its influence across organizational contexts (Gupta & Gupta, 2025). Third, we gathered the data via Amazon MTurk, known for its reliability and widespread use (Maurer et al., 2024;Nusrat & Huang, 2024;Ryoo et al., 2024). Nonetheless, future research could use alternative data, such as company-specific internal data or industry-specific datasets, to provide deeper insights and crossvalidate the findings across different contexts and populations. ...
Growth hacking has emerged as a novel approach for organizations. This trend is accompanied by a rising acknowledgment among business academics and practitioners of growth hacking’s ability to achieve rapid consumer growth and enhanced performance. Despite its frequent mention in contemporary business and marketing dialogues, to the best of our knowledge, there are no measurement instruments to quantitatively assess a firm’s growth hacking capability. This study not only develops a survey instrument to measure growth hacking capability but also proposes and empirically validates the relationship between growth hacking capability and firm performance.
This research explores how individual entrepreneurs' personalities can be mapped through palmistry and fingerprint analysis to understand their decision-making patterns. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, this study identifies the linkages between these biometric characteristics and decision-making methods, such as effectuation and causality. The results show that certain patterns in palmistry, such as hand types (fire, earth, air, and water) and life lines, and fingerprints, such as loop, arch, and whorl patterns, provide significant insights into entrepreneurs' personalities. For example, fire hand types reflect courage and creativity, which encourage innovative decisions, while earth hand types are more conservative, favouring stability and planning. The fingerprint patterns also provide additional insights into the personality dimensions that influence how entrepreneurs deal with business challenges.
Crowdfunding is a relatively nascent, rapidly growing phenomenon whereby individuals or ventures pursue funding from a potentially large number of backers via the Internet. This rapidly emerging literature invites a variety of conceptual lenses and offers significant potential to advance theoretical understanding of important organizational activities, such as how entrepreneurs and organizations are evaluated by external stakeholders or how the crowdfunding process shapes the strategic decisions of emerging organizations. Our integrative review seeks to discover how the extant body of crowdfunding research challenges, extends, and contributes to the theoretical understanding of management and organizational phenomena and how these insights might drive further theoretical advancement. To do so, we inductively identify ten dominant topics that span the crowdfunding landscape across disciplines (268 articles) and synthesize the major findings within each topic based on relevant theoretical concepts. In doing so, we highlight how each topic area has applied and advanced various organizational theories. We then leverage the ten topics to articulate opportunities for future research uncovered by our review that provide potential contributions to theories germane to the management literature and to guide the next decade of crowdfunding research.
The performance of individuals within groups, and of groups as units, is the product of immediate goal structures and personality differences pertinent to those goals among group members. A level-of-analysis approach linked the dimension of agreeableness to situated competitiveness and task performance in group settings. Hypotheses were (a) individual differences in self-rated and other-rated competitiveness are related (inversely) to the Big Five dimension of agreeableness, (b) immediately situated promotive and contrient goal structures influence self-ratings of competitiveness, (c) immediate goal structures differentially activate competitiveness to affect task performance in groups, and (d) agreeableness effects on task performance are partially mediated by competitiveness. Structural equation modeling corroborated hypotheses about the links among agreeableness, competitiveness, and task performance.
Building on recent research demonstrating consensus and accuracy in interpersonal perception based on minimal information, the present studies examined American and Chinese participants’ within- and cross-cultural judgments. In Study 1, the authors used the zero-acquaintance paradigm in the People's Republic of China and found consensus on all personality dimensions. In Study 2, Chinese and American participants judged each other on the basis of photographs, and consensus was found among Americans’ judgments of Chinese and Chinese participants’ judgments of Americans. Further, by correlating target effects based on within-culture zero-acquaintance judgments and cross-cultural photographic judgments, the authors found agreement in the judgments of individuals by members of their own culture and the other culture for both Chinese and Americans.
The pitch is an important part of the entrepreneur–investor relationship. To come to an agreement, entrepreneurs and investors need to trust each other. However, how does trust arise between them, and how does trust evolve during the few minutes of a pitch? With the aim to develop propositions, we build on previous studies in entrepreneurship and venture funding. Therefore, we rely on the main concepts of trust useful to analyze the interpersonal relationship during a pitch: behavioral trust and transformative trust. We discuss the place of formal documents diffused prior to the pitch and the importance of the oral presentation. We conclude by suggesting testable proposition on the evolution of trust during the pitch.
The voice is often the only continuous channel of expression in pitch videos. We isolate the influence of entrepreneurs' vocal expressions on funding by examining how valence (positivity/negativity) and arousal (activation) shape funders' perceptions of passion and preparedness. We show that an entrepreneur's high-arousal vocal expressions, whether positive or negative, increase perceptions of their passion. Entrepreneurs are perceived as more prepared when the valence and arousal of their vocal expressions are congruent. We test our hypotheses in the context of rewards-based crowdfunding, using both an experiment and a speech affect analysis of real-world crowdfunding pitches.
Scant attention has been paid to the differences in fundraising for social versus commercial ventures. We adopt a role congruity theory perspective to argue that because women and people of color are more congruent with role expectations attributed to social entrepreneurs, they experience better fundraising performance when raising crowdfunded capital for social ventures compared to commercial ventures. We then argue entrepreneur race heightens fundraising differences for men and women. Results indicate women experience better funding performance when funding a social versus commercial venture—an effect that is larger for women of color. Men of color experience worse performance when funding a social venture. We find no differences for White men.
We build upon theory from evolutionary psychology and emotional expression, including basic emotion theory and the dual threshold model of anger in organizations, to extend knowledge about the influence of facial expressions of emotion in entrepreneurial fundraising. First, we conduct a qualitative analysis to understand the objects of entrepreneurs' facial expressions of four basic emotions in their pitches: happiness, anger, fear, and sadness. This provides a base for our theorizing that the frequency of entrepreneurs' facial expression of each of these emotions exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with funding. We also argue that the frequency of changes in entrepreneurs' facial expressions is positively related to funding. We test our predictions with a sample of 489 funding pitches using computer-aided facial expression analysis. Results support inverted U-shaped relationships of the frequency of facial expression of happiness, anger, and fear with funding, but show a negative relationship of sadness with funding. Results further support that the frequency of change in entrepreneurs' facial expressions promotes funding.
Crowdfunding has quickly gained popularity in recent years, providing an additional way for entrepreneurial individuals and organizations (creators) to attract funds for their projects. Scholars have been interested in predicting the success of crowdfunding campaigns, by relating campaign characteristics to the actual success of these campaigns. We take one step back by studying the cognitive processes of the crowd. This paper uses an experimental approach to establish whether participants’ predictions on the success of crowdfunding campaigns based on first impressions are as positive and as accurate as those derived from more thorough analyses. We employ a two-study replication design, in which individuals estimate the success of crowdfunding campaigns in two conditions: with limited time and with unlimited time. The results show that prediction accuracy in both conditions is equal, yet shorter time availability results in assessments that are more negative. We discuss implications for creators and for funders.
This study examines the stereotypes associated with academic entrepreneurs (AEs) and their negotiation counterparts’ consequential collaborative behavior. A pilot study of in-depth interviews with 10 AEs showed that AEs considered their affiliations’ academic reputation and industrial experience important in influencing their business counterparts’ perceptions about them, which were characterized by two stereotype dimensions: warmth and competence. These constructs were integrated with stereotype content model literature and earlier research on AEs to develop a conceptual model about how stereotypes associated with AEs influence their counterparts’ collaborative behavior in negotiations. We tested this model by conducting an experiment using 192 small- and medium-sized enterprise CEOs and executives as subjects. The results showed that AEs’ academic reputation positively predicted their perceived competence, whereas AEs’ industry experience negatively influenced their perceived warmth and positively influenced their perceived competence. Furthermore, both competence and warmth perceptions were found to contribute to negotiation counterparts’ collaborative behavior.
This paper introduces a neural network and natural language processing approach to predict the outcome of crowdfunding startup pitches using text, speech, and video metadata in 20,188 crowdfunding campaigns. Our study emphasizes the need to understand crowdfunding from an investor’s perspective. Linguistic styles in crowdfunding campaigns that aim to trigger excitement or are aimed at inclusiveness are better predictors of campaign success than firm-level determinants. At the contrary, higher uncertainty perceptions about the state of product development may substantially reduce evaluations of new products and reduce purchasing intentions among potential funders. Our findings emphasize that positive psychological language is salient in environments where objective information is scarce and where investment preferences are taste based. Employing enthusiastic language or showing the product in action may capture an individual’s attention. Using all technology and design-related crowdfunding campaigns launched on Kickstarter, our study underscores the need to align potential consumers’ expectations with the visualization and presentation of the crowdfunding campaign.
A series of studies explored how sadness impacts the accuracy of social judgments. In Study 1, induced sadness led to reduced accuracy in judgments of teacher effectiveness from brief samples of nonverbal behavior (thin slices). In Study 2, sad participants showed reduced accuracy in judging relationship type from thin slices as well as diminished judgmental efficiency. Study 3 revealed that higher Beck Depression Inventory scores were associated with diminished accuracy on the Profile of Nonverbal Sensitivity. Finally, Study 4 tested the possibility that sadness impairs accuracy by promoting a more deliberative information-processing style. As expected, accuracy was higher among participants in a sad mood condition who completed the judgment task while simultaneously performing a distracting cognitive load task.
This study draws upon the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion (ELM) to develop and test a model of persuasive influence in crowdfunding. To test our hypothesized relationships, we drew upon a sample of 383 ventures taken directly from Kickstarter, coupled with a decision experiment conducted in a simulated crowdfunding context. Results suggest that issue-relevant information, such as entrepreneurs' education, matters most when funders possess greater ability and motivation to make careful evaluations. In contrast, cues, such as adopting a group identity, have their strongest influence among inexperienced, first-time funders, and when requested funding amounts are smaller.
Understanding the psychological nature and development of the individual entrepreneur is at the core of contemporary entrepreneurship research. Since the individual functions as a totality of his or her single characteristics (involving the interplay of biological, psychosocial, and context-related levels), a person-oriented approach focusing on intraindividual dynamics seems to be particularly fruitful to infer realistic implications for practice such as entrepreneurship education and promotion. Applying a person-oriented perspective, this paper integrates existing psychological approaches to entrepreneurship and presents a new, person-oriented model of entrepreneurship, the Entrepreneurial Personality System (EPS). In the empirical part, this model guided us to bridge two separate research streams dealing with entrepreneurial personality: research on broad traits like the Big Five and research on specific traits like risk-taking, self-efficacy, and internal locus of control. We examine a gravity effect of broad traits, as assumed in the EPS framework, by analyzing large personality data sets from three countries. The results reveal a consistent gravity effect of an intraindividual entrepreneurial Big Five profile on the more malleable psychological factors. Implications for entrepreneurship research and practice are discussed.
Despite increased interest in examining the factors that influence crowdfunding success, the effects of community context have been relatively unexamined. We address this void by examining the role of cultural context in crowdfunding success. Our unique data set of crowdfunding projects to “save the local theater” are homogenous in their goal, allowing us to test whether crowdfunding campaigns in certain communities lead to better funding outcomes than others. Theoretically, our results suggest the need for further integration of community and cultural constructs into models of venture funding, as such variables may have more relevance than previously believed.
It is well understood that information cues associated with an investment opportunity generally impact one's willingness to participate in that opportunity. What is less well understood, however, is how different types of information cues affect individuals differently, and whether this effect is contingent on the decision maker's individual attributes. Through a three-study experimental design involving a simulated crowdfunding portal, this research examined the effects of venture quality information and social information on participants’ willingness to invest in a new venture. We hypothesised that participants’ responsiveness to these information cues was contingent on their regulatory focus. Our results were generally supported, although some counterintuitive findings emerged regarding prevention-focused individuals. From a practical standpoint, our results suggest potential concerns regarding the general enthusiasm for crowdfunding, as well as some mitigating factors.
Building consumer trust is important for new or unknown Internet businesses seeking to extend their customer reach globally. This study explores the question: Should website designers take into account the cultural characteristics of prospective customers to increase trust, given that different trust-building web strategies have different cost implications? In this study, we focused on two theoretically grounded practical web strategies of customer endorsement, which evokes unit grouping, and portal affiliation, which evokes reputation categorization, and compared them across two research sites: Australia (individualistic culture) and Hong Kong (collectivistic culture). The results of the laboratory experiment we conducted, on the website of an online bookstore, revealed that the impact of peer customer endorsements on trust perceptions was stronger for subjects in Hong Kong than Australia and that portal (Yahoo) affiliation was effective only in the Australian site. A follow-up study was conducted as a conceptual replication, and provided additional insights on me effects of customer endorsement versus firm affiliation on trust-building. Together, these findings highlight the need to consider cultural differences when identifying the mix of web strategies to employ in Internet store websites.
Previous research on entrepreneurship as well as goal, social-cognitive, and leadership theories has guided hypotheses regarding the relationship between entrepreneurial traits and skill (passion, tenacity, and new resource skill) and situationally specific motivation (communicated vision, self-efficacy, and goals) to subsequent venture growth. Data from 229 entrepreneur-chief executive officers and 106 associates in a single industry were obtained in a 6-year longitudinal study. Structural equation modeling revealed a web of relationships that impact venture growth. Goals, self-efficacy, and communicated vision had direct effects on venture growth, and these factors mediated the effects of passion, tenacity, and new resource skill on subsequent growth. Furthermore, communicated vision and self-efficacy were related to goals, and tenacity was related to new resource skill.
This article examines how verbal authenticity influences person perception. Our work combines human judgments and natural language processing to suggest verbal authenticity is a positive predictor of interpersonal interest (Study 1: 294 dyadic conversations), engagement with speeches (Study 2: 2,655 TED talks), entrepreneurial success (Study 3: 478 Shark Tank pitches), and social media engagements (Studies 4a–c; N = 387,039 Tweets). We find that communicating authenticity is associated with increased interest in and perceived connection to another person, more comments and views for TED talks, receiving a financial investment from investors, and more social media likes and retweets. Our work is among the first to evaluate how authenticity relates to person perception and manifests naturally using verbal data.
While previous studies have demonstrated the importance of personality traits in the decision to pursue a career in entrepreneurship, more empirical evidence is needed to explain the mechanism through which entrepreneurial intention (EI) is strengthened. Accordingly, espousing a gender-based perspective, the current paper identifies characteristics that positively affect EI in a sample of 531 students in France. A fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis is performed yielding four alternate combinations that are likely to lead to high EI, of which two are gender specific. The inherent findings advance previous studies by offering entrepreneurship educators in France and similar contexts a new understanding of entrepreneurial intention from a gender perspective. Similarly, the results offer first-hand evidence to inform university students’ career choices.
Although resilience is assumed to play a crucial role in entrepreneurship, the factors leading to entrepreneurial resilience in the tourism sector remain relatively unknown. To address this issue, this study adopts a novel configuration approach to assess psychological traits that are likely to result in resilient entrepreneurial behaviour in the tourism sector. It approaches this by conceptualising personality traits through the big five model which is widely espoused in the psychology discipline. Then, using fuzzy-set analysis, a sample of 180 bazaar owner/managers in Egypt is investigated from which three distinct profiles likely to exhibit high levels of entrepreneurial resilience are determined. The findings of this paper advance scholars’ theoretical understanding and offer intelligence to policymakers and training institutions in the Egyptian tourism sector. Particularly, they help bazaar owner/managers reflect on their predispositions as a means for increasing resilience.
Despite the importance of warmth and competence for social evaluation processes, we do not have a clear understanding of their relevance in entrepreneurial resource acquisition contexts. We examine the effects of cursory impressions of 350 Kickstarter crowdfunding entrepreneurs’ warmth and competence on the performance of their campaigns. Drawing from the stereotype content model and expectancy violation theory, we propose and find support for a model in which different forms of trust mediate the relationships between warmth and competence and crowdfunding performance, with the strength of these pathways differing as a function of entrepreneur gender. Specifically, we show that the crowdfunding performance of women entrepreneurs is uniquely benefited by perceptions of competence and the cognition-based trust that ensues, relative to the performance of men entrepreneurs.
Research on financial resource acquisition has indicated negative consequences for entrepreneurs that act feminine when trying to attract investors. Yet, does this remain true in crowdfunding, where there is a more diverse population of backers? To explore this, we take a gender role congruity perspective to see if gender roles align with crowdfunding success. More specifically, 2,071 entrepreneurs from Kickstarter were rated based on feminine (agreeableness and humility) and masculine (assertiveness and emotional stability) characteristics, and these characteristics were compared to whether or not the entrepreneur met the campaign goal. The results suggest that gender role congruity is a factor for successful crowdfunding, in that, for the most part, female entrepreneurs are rewarded for being more feminine and male entrepreneurs are rewarded for being more masculine. Only assertiveness was expected for both male and female entrepreneurs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed from these findings.
Project funding performance which determines the rise and fall of the crowdfunding platform, is largely governed by the subjective behavior of investors. Leveraging the perspective of attribute substitution theory, we focus on two factors that affect the subjective funding behaviors of investors: emotional language in the project description and risky funding choices of prior investors. According to the same theory, we classify the projects as either hedonic or utilitarian, identifying whether the association between the factors and funding success of projects vary for hedonic vs. utilitarian projects. Using Kickstarter data, our analysis shows a positive association between the risk-seeking investor ratio and project success for hedonic projects. In addition, it identifies a positive association between the extent to which arousal words are used in project descriptions and project success for all projects. Thus, both positive associations are stronger for hedonic projects than for utilitarian projects. Our findings suggest that investors in crowdfunding contexts do not always make rational decisions in funding projects. This has implications for how a project is positioned within the crowdfunding solicitation marketplace.
Drawing on image-based versus concept-based rhetoric research, we test whether concept-based rhetoric—evoking rational, logical, and concrete thinking—could be less useful than image-based rhetoric—evoking more primal, imaginative, and irrational imagery—in driving crowdfunding performance. We further examine how these forms of narrative rhetoric might serve to moderate the relationship between narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance. Based on a sample of 75,636 Kickstarter projects, image-based rhetoric is positively related to crowdfunding performance, and concept-based language suppressed the relationship between narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance. Our findings have implications for understanding how narrative elements interact to influence crowdfunding outcomes.
This article extends and elaborates the perspective on entrepreneurship articulated by Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Venkataraman (1997) by explaining in more detail the role of opportunities in the entrepreneurial process. In particular, the article explains the importance of examining entrepreneurship through a disequilibrium framework that focuses on the characteristics and existence of entrepreneurial opportunities. In addition, the article describes several typologies of opportunities and their implications for understanding entrepreneurship.
Entrepreneurs and investors often deem substantive content to be particularly important as they evaluate the potential value of business propositions. Yet across 12 studies and 1,855 participants using live entrepreneurial pitch competitions, silent videos—but not sound recordings, video-with-sound recordings, or pitch transcriptions—best allowed both experts and novices to identify the original investors' selections of winning entrepreneurial pitches. These results suggest that people’s judgment may be highly influenced by visual information. Further, people do not seem to fully recognize how much visual information factors into their decisions, such that they neglect the more substantive metrics that they explicitly cite and value as core to their decisions. The findings highlight the power of dynamic visual cues—including gestures, facial expressions, and body language—and demonstrate that visible passion can dominate the content of business propositions in entrepreneurial pitch competitions.
Currently, entrepreneurship is of great importance to economic growth and reduced unemployment. Since entrepreneurial behaviour is multidimensional, interest in understanding the roles of individual variables has increased significantly. The present study uses the theoretical and empirical framework of entrepreneurship research to explain the existence of the psychological profile of an entrepreneur, the impact of the psychological variables of personality on behaviour and entrepreneurial intention, and the relationship between personality traits and other specific traits frequently related to entrepreneurship. A sample of 337 participants composed of real entrepreneurs (n = 83) and university students (n = 254) with high scores in entrepreneurial intention were evaluated in personality (Big Five) and other specific traits: ambiguity tolerance, emotional intelligence and coping and problem solving. The results showed that both groups share the same profile in these variables once adjustments were made for the effects of sex and age. A target profile and a preliminary evaluation of its best possible accuracy are provided.
The present study investigated misrepresentation on MTurk, with a specific interest in the prevalence of mis-representation even with recommended best practices for improving data quality in MTurk studies in place. We examined two forms of misrepresentation: claiming false experience with a fictional "bogus" item, and a shift between a prescreen and main study in two indicators (i.e., age and hiring experience). Results indicated that depending on the indicator and the threshold for defining misrepresentation, 2.2% to 28% of participants misrepresented their qualifications, even after utilizing other best practices to ensure data quality. Further, it was demonstrated that those who misrepresented their age were lower in honesty-humility than those who did not misrepresent their age. Further recommendations for researchers are discussed.
Communication is a key determining factor of success in crowdfunding environments. In this paper, we examine the link between language used by founders and the contribution behavior of funders. Particularly, we investigate how verbal cues – money saliency and sustainability intention – in the communication text can affect the size of the contributing crowd and amount raised in the context of Kickstarter. Given the nature of crowdfunding environments (intrinsically motivated stakeholders) and Kickstarter's rewards-based structure, we hypothesize that there is a potential crowding-out effect in which an increased level of money saliency leads to decreased funding contributions and engagement. However, this effect should be weaker among projects that have non-selfish aims or intentions. Our analysis on close to 80,000 Kickstarter campaigns confirms that there is indeed a price to pay for using monetary-related terms in project descriptions but not among projects identified as sustainability oriented.
The purpose of this study is to cast new light on possible gender biases in implicit theories people hold about various forms of entrepreneurial activity. Using social role theory, we delve into sex-role stereotypes associated with high- and low-growth entrepreneurship and commercial and social entrepreneurship. Predictions were tested with an experimental design using both a between-subject design to capture group-level stereotypes and a within-subject design to capture individual-level stereotypes. Findings reveal that commercial and high-growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to men than to women and higher on agency than communality. Conversely, low-growth entrepreneurs are perceived as more similar to women than men, and higher on communality than agency. Social entrepreneurs are uniquely perceived as similar to
both men and women, though they are also considered higher on agency than communality.
Interestingly, female, but not male respondents, perceive some overlap between the feminine
gender role and high-growth and commercial entrepreneurship. Notably, those higher on modern
sexism perceive less overlap between entrepreneurship and femininity. Taken together, our
results suggest that commercial high-growth entrepreneurship is most strongly male-typed,
which is likely to be problematic for women (and non-traditional men) wanting to start growthoriented
ventures. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
Authors: Vishal K. Gupta, Alice M. Wieland, and Daniel B. Turban
Full text available here: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902618301484
Abstract: Visual cues are pervasive on crowdfunding platforms. However, whether and how low validity visual cues can impact the behavior of backers remains largely unknown. In this article, we propose a disfluency-based heuristic framework for understanding the influence of low validity visual cues on equity crowdfunding platforms. Drawing on processing fluency theory and visual heuristics, we propose that backers often automatically process visual cues, and that the subjective experience of ease/difficulty with which backers perceptually process low validity visual cues serves as a heuristic and informs their perceptions of early-stage entrepreneurial ventures. We test our propositions focusing on logos (low validity visual cues that are particularly salient and ubiquitous on equity crowdfunding platforms) and logo complexity (a fundamental characteristic of logo design and established antecedent of processing disfluency). We contend that logo complexity can be interpreted by backers as a signal of venture innovativeness because more (vs. less) complex logos are more difficult to process, and thus, feel less familiar and more unique, original, and novel to backers. Since backers often value innovativeness, we further contend that logo complexity can positively impact backers' funding decisions. We find support for our framework and propositions using a multimethod approach comprising three studies: one survey, one field study, and one experiment. Theoretical contributions and managerial implications are also discussed.
We review the extensive literature since 2000 on the personality traits of entrepreneurs. We first consider baseline personality traits like the Big-5 model, self-efficacy and innovativeness, locus of control, and the need for achievement. We then consider risk attitudes and goals and aspirations of entrepreneurs. Within each area, we separate studies by the type of entrepreneurial behavior considered: entry into entrepreneurship, performance outcomes, and exit from entrepreneurship. This literature shows common results and many points of disagreement, reflective of the heterogeneous nature of entrepreneurship. We label studies by the type of entrepreneurial population studied (e.g., Main Street vs.Those backed by venture capital) to identify interesting and irreducible parts of this heterogeneity, while also identifying places where we anticipate future large-scale research and the growing depth of the field are likely to clarify matters. There are many areas, like how firm performance connects to entrepreneurial personality, that are woefully understudied and ripe for major advances if the appropriate cross-disciplinary ingredients are assembled.
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.
Drawing from clinical and organizational narcissism research, we develop a novel measure of narcissistic rhetoric, investigating its prevalence in a sample of 1863 crowdfunding campaigns. An experiment using 1800 observations further validates our measure and confirms our hypothesized inverted-U relationship between narcissistic rhetoric and crowdfunding performance. Leveraging social role theory, we explore sex, sexual orientation, and race as potential moderators of this relationship. Moderation tests reveal LGBTQ entrepreneurs generally yield greater performance when using narcissistic rhetoric than heterosexuals while racial minorities underperform Caucasians using narcissistic rhetoric. Our findings suggest successful crowdfunding campaigns must balance narcissistic rhetoric with entrepreneurs’ perceived social roles.
This paper analyzes the substantially growing markets for crowdfunding, in which retail investors lend to borrowers without financial intermediaries. Critics suggest that these markets allow sophisticated investors to take advantage of unsophisticated investors. The growth and viability of these markets critically depend on the underlying incentives. We provide evidence of perverse incentives in crowdfunding that are not fully recognized by the market. In particular, we look at group leader bids in the presence of origination fees and find that these bids are (wrongly) perceived as a signal of good loan quality, resulting in lower interest rates. Yet these loans actually have higher default rates. These adverse incentives are overcome only with sufficient skin in the game and when there are no origination fees. The results from the analysis in this paper provide more general implications for crowdfunding, its structure, and its regulation.
This study draws upon affective events theory, research regarding funders' perceptions, and research regarding expectation alignment between products and their presenters to develop and test an indirect effects model of crowdfunding resource allocation decisions. To test our hypothesized relationships, we drew upon a sample of 102 participants who each assessed ten different product pitches made by ten different entrepreneurs. Results from the study indicate that perceived product creativity is positively related to crowdfunding performance, both directly and indirectly, via positive affective reactions of prospective funders. Moreover, we find the indirect effect of product creativity is contingent upon the extent to which funders perceive an entrepreneur to be passionate, such that perceived entrepreneurial passion increases the positive nature of the indirect effect. Implications for future theory development, empirical research and implications for practitioners are discussed as well.
Finance studies on information cascades, usually in an initial public offering setting, typically differentiate between institutional and retail investors, as this is the only information available to potential backers. Information available through equity crowdfunding platforms includes details on individual investors as they may disclose information about themselves by linking their profile to social networks or websites. Using a sample of 132 equity offerings on Crowdcube in 2014, we show that information cascades among individual investors play a crucial role in crowdfunding campaigns. Investors with a public profile increase the appeal of the offer among early investors, who in turn attract late investors.
Derived from two theoretical concepts - situation strength and trait activation - we develop and test an interactionist model governing the degree to which five-factor model personality traits are related to job performance. One concept - situation strength - was hypothesized to predict the validities of all of the "Big Five" traits, while the effects of the other - trait activation - were hypothesized to be specific to each trait. Based on this interactionist model, personality-performance correlations were located in the literature, and occupationally homogeneous jobs were coded according to their theoretically relevant contextual properties. Results revealed that all five traits were more predictive of performance for jobs in which the process by which the work was done represented weak situations (e.g., work was unstructured, employee had discretion to make decisions). Many of the traits also predicted performance in job contexts that activated specific traits (e.g., extraversion better predicted performance in jobs requiring social skills, agreeableness was less positively related to performance in competitive contexts, openness was more strongly related to performance in jobs with strong innovation/ creativity requirements). Overall, the study's findings supported our interactionist model in which the situation exerts both general and specific effects on the degree to which personality predicts job performance.
The resource-based view proposes that reputation is a resource leading to competitive advantage. Past research tested this by using Fortune ratings to measure reputation, but these ratings are theoretically weak. This paper integrates mass communication theory into past research to develop a concept called media reputation, defined as the overall evaluation of a firm presented in the media. Theoretical and empirical analyses indicate that media reputation is a resource that increases the performance of commercial banks.
The fundamental problems for research in social judgment theory (SJT) are to understand and improve achievement and agreement. Descriptions of judgment must contribute to the solution of these problems. This chapter explores the learning from studies of policy capturing about those factors that affect achievement and agreement. The typical policy capturing study does not vary any characteristics of the task, but presents the same task in the same form to all subjects in the study. Policy capturing is used as a general term for studies that analyze judgments made on the basis of multidimensional stimuli by means of a linear model. Policy capturing implies that the subjects have some policy that can be captured, and that the conditions under which the subjects are asked to make their judgments are related to the conditions under which they normally do so. A task may be nonrepresentative in at least two different ways—namely, (1) with respect to the format of the information provided to the subjects, and (2) with respect to the formal statistical properties of the task.
Although humor represents a critical advertising technique around the world, previous research has investigated only single point, retrospectively measured antecedents of perceived humor. Drawing on recent research indicating that moment-to-moment (MTM) responses have a significant effect on ad evaluations, we perform a MTM analysis of humor in television advertising. Results indicate that a dynamic transformation of surprise into humor lies at the heart of humor and that key features of the MTM surprise and MTM humor traces drive overall perceptions of humor. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and outline promising directions for future research.
Canadian venture capitalists are surveyed to investigate the criteria they use to evaluate venture proposals and how these criteria change over time. The criteria were taken from a US survey of venture-capital firms, and the results are compared and contrasted with the original US responses. The responses are compared to study differences and similarities between responses from various regions of Canada. The similarities of responses are quite striking, although several differences are apparent, such as the difference in emphasis on high technology between countries. A second Canadian sample was taken four years later and the responses had moved upward on all dimensions, much closer to the US responses. High-technology investments are not nearly as popular with venture capitalists in Canada as in the US, and high technology is even viewed as a negative criterion in many areas of Canada.
Two studies examined the validity of impressions based on static facial appearance. In Study 1, the content of previously unacquainted classmates' impressions of one another was assessed during the 1st, 5th, and 9th weeks of the semester. These impressions were compared with ratings of facial photographs of the participants that were provided by a separate group of unacquainted judges. Impressions based on facial appearance alone predicted impressions provided by classmates after up to 9 weeks of acquaintance. Study 2 revealed correspondences between self ratings provided by stimulus persons, and ratings of their faces provided by unacquainted judges. Mechanisms by which these links may develop are discussed.
Now fully revealed by the fire and candlelight, I was amazed more than ever to behold the transformation of Heathcliff. His countenance was much older in expression and decision of feature than Mr. Linton's; it looked intelligent and retained no marks of former degradation. A half civilized ferocity lurked yet in the depressed brows and eyes full of black fire, but it was subdued.
Despite crowdfunding's increasing popularity as a vehicle for financing early-stage ventures, we still know relatively little about the mechanisms that drive individuals to pledge and invest via such online platforms. We explored the extent to which financial or nonfinancial motivations determine the decision to invest for equity or to pledge. In addition, we also looked at whether having invested for equity can crowd out individuals' motivation to keep a pledge into the same project. Our results show that nonfinancial motives play no significant role. Furthermore, we find that having invested for equity is a positive predictor of keeping a pledge.