The right touch of pitch assertiveness: Examining entrepreneurs' gender and project category fit in crowdfunding

Jordan J. McSweeney, Kevin T. McSweeney, Justin W. Webb and Cynthia E. Devers

Journal of Business Venturing, 2022, vol. 37, issue 4

Abstract: Scholars have devoted significant attention to the role of entrepreneurs' communication, and gender in crowdfunding. Yet, how female and male entrepreneurs can effectively configure their assertive communication style and the role gender norms within project categories play in shaping crowdfunders' evaluations of entrepreneurs' communication style remains unanswered. To address this, we conduct an exploratory qualitative comparative case analysis (QCA) of 1600 entrepreneurs who pitched their ventures on Kickstarter. From prior research, we identified four distinct kinds of assertive language (certain, power, social, tentative) and explore how female and male entrepreneurs' configurations of assertive language relate to crowdfunding success and failure in male-dominated and female-dominated contexts. We found six pitch assertiveness themes, two associated with success, two associated with failure, and two where success versus failure depends on nuanced considerations of the entrepreneur's gender and the gendering of the context. Our study extends our understanding of communication and gender in crowdfunding.

Keywords: Crowdfunding; Gender; Pitch language; Qualitative comparative analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0883902622000350
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbvent:v:37:y:2022:i:4:s0883902622000350

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusvent.2022.106223

Access Statistics for this article

Journal of Business Venturing is currently edited by S. Venkataraman

More articles in Journal of Business Venturing from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().