Gender bias against women in entrepreneurial finance is turned on its head in the context of reward-based crowdfunding, according to new research published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Specifically, female crowdfunding entrepreneurs can actually profit from using more innovation language when launching campaigns in male-typed categories, which implies that women may have more freedom to resist traditional gender stereotypes in the case of reward-based crowdfunding.
August 8, 2022
Gender bias against women in entrepreneurial finance is turned on its head in the context of reward-based crowdfunding, according to new research published in the Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal. Specifically, female crowdfunding entrepreneurs can actually profit from using more innovation language when launching campaigns in male-typed categories, which implies that women may have more freedom to resist traditional gender stereotypes in the case of reward-based crowdfunding.
The research team of Benedikt David Christian Seigner and Hana Milanov of Technical University of Munich, Germany, along with Aaron F. McKenny of Indiana University, contributes to a stream of research that investigates reward-based crowdfunding—in which backers receive rewards such as future products or services for their investment—as a favorable context for female entrepreneurs. The research helps to nuance the findings of a 2017 PricewaterhouseCoopers report that showed female entrepreneurs on nine leading crowdfunding platforms succeeded at a 32% higher rate in acquiring funding than men.
