Sofia Bapna (University of Minnesota)
Male Investors and Female-Oriented Ventures: Experimental Evidence on Pitch Strategies in Equity Crowdfunding
Wednesday, Jun 18, 12:00, | Download .ics

in person, no registr. requ. 
4.02
(Pohligstraße 1, 50969 Cologne)

The vast majority of investors are male, posing a challenge for companies offering female-oriented products to secure capital; male investors might be less interested in investing in products they will not personally use or may not fully understand. To address this funding gap, we conduct a randomized field experiment in equity crowdfunding, testing the effectiveness of three alternative pitch strategies that may resonate with men. The first pitch strategy (merits) serves as a benchmark, following a standard investment approach that emphasizes the potential financial return. The second pitch strategy (women and merits) retains this investment-focused messaging but supplements it with information about the product’s benefits for the women in the investors’ lives. The third pitch strategy (environment and merits) similarly maintains the investment focus while supplementing that message with information about the product’s environmental sustainability benefits. While female investors’ interest remains consistent across all three conditions, we find an unexpected negative effect among male investors exposed to the women and merits pitch—they are significantly less likely to express investment interest compared to those who received the merits pitch or the environment and merits pitch. We contribute by identifying which pitch strategies are most effective in engaging male investors for female-oriented ventures. Furthermore, we show that, while prior research has found that exposure to women in men’s personal lives can influence their decision-making in ways that promote gender-inclusive outcomes, invoking these relationships does not always have the same effect.