Entrepreneur Signal Differences And Financing Acquisition

Male entrepreneurs are known to raise higher levels of funding than their female counterparts,but the underlying mechanism for this funding disparity remains contested.Drawing upon signaling theory and stereotypical theory,we propose that the gap originates with a gender and appearance bias in the understanding that investors treat to entrepreneurs' signals.An empirical research conducted on a total of 384 samples of entrepreneurial reality shows during 2014 through 2017 reveals that investors tend to value the human capital of male entrepreneurs and the appearance capital of female entrepreneurs and that although both human capital and appearance capital are beneficial to the funding result.This distinction in the understanding of entrepreneurs' signals results in divergent funding outcomes for entrepreneurs whereby those released gender-matched signals raise significantly higher amounts of funding than those released mismatched signals.In addition,we find that the overseas experience of investor significantly moderate the relationship between appearance capital and funding success positively.Our conclusion call on investors to pay attention to invisible stereotypes when making decisions.As we offer evidence regarding tactics that can be employed to diminish the gender disadvantage in funding outcomes,this study has practical as well as theoretical implications for entrepreneurship.