1. Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship.
- Author
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Howell, Sabrina T. and Nanda, Ramana
- Subjects
BUSINESS students ,INVESTORS ,NEW business enterprises ,VENTURE capital companies ,WOMEN business students ,CONTESTS ,GENDER differences (Psychology) ,BUSINESS networks - Abstract
We find that male participants in Harvard Business School's New Venture Competition who were randomly exposed to more venture capital (VC) investors on their panel were substantially more likely to start a VC-backed startup post-graduation, indicating that access to investors impacts fundraising independent of the quality of ideas. However, female participants experience no benefit from exposure to male or female venture capitalists (VCs), which appears related to a reduced propensity to reach out to VCs to whom they were exposed. Our results therefore also demonstrate gender-based differences in the degree to which increased exposure to investors can address networking frictions in venture capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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