Gender and quality signals: How does gender influence the effectiveness of signals in crowdfunding?

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ABSTRACT

Combining signaling theory and gender role congruity theory, this study examines if the quality signals of entrepreneurs and their ventures are perceived differently because of their gender, which, in turn, affects the crowdfunding performance. In a sample of 14,729 campaigns in Kickstarter, this study shows that gender determines the effectiveness of signals in enhancing funding performance, but not uniformly to the disadvantage of women. While females are rewarded less with the signals of competence and qualification, they benefit more from the signal of social ties. This study offers implications for evaluating entrepreneurial projects and strategies for crafting an effective pitch.

KEYWORDS:

• Entrepreneurship
• crowdfunding
• gender
• signaling theory
• gender role congruity theory

Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank Dr. George Mangalaraj for his assistance in data collection.

Notes

¹ Kickstarter team identifies projects that stand out with “a super crisp project page with a clear description, captivating images or video, a thorough plan for completion, an excited community, and of course, a lot of creativity.” Projects selected as “Projects We Love” are appointed with a badge on the project profile and are featured on the site and weekly newsletter. Kickstarter states that Projects We Love are “not paid endorsements, and like any other project, they retain complete creative independence.” Kickstarter offers general criteria on how to be featured as Projects We Love, such as proposing strong and clearly expressed ideas; starting with simple and essential information on project page; illustrating the specifics using media; and showing rewards and offering concrete examples to get backers involved (Kickstarter, 2020).

² The data on the number of friends was collected in 2019 for the campaigns launched in 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This work is partially supported by an RISE grant from the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina.