Progress or pinkwashing: who benefits from digital women-focused capital funds?

Abstract

This paper examines the positioning of gender within women-focused capital funds (WFCFs) to consider the extent to which these digitally enabled sources of finance reflect the tenets of entrepreneurial feminism. Content analysis of 27 funds situated in Canada and the USA informs about fund mandates, rationales, types of capital, and anticipated outcomes. Our findings reveal that a minority of WFCFs examined sought to enhance equity and counter structural barriers associated with women entrepreneurs' access to financial capital. Alternatively, the majority of WFCFs were positioned as vehicles to facilitate individual wealth creation. Eligibility ranged from multiple gender identities of the business owner to "women-led" businesses-defined as at least one woman executive, board or steering committee member. The latter of these criteria has the effect of diverting attention away from firms that are launched by women entrepreneurs. Pinkwashing was more likely to occur when WFCFs were created as add-ons to mainstream programs and services, rather than as a central element of the organization's mission of supporting women and non-binary femmes. The findings support arguments that technology can both challenge or reinforce structural constraints that impede women entrepreneurs in the digital era.

How women in the UAE enact entrepreneurial identities to build legitimacy

“…Prior research has highlighted some of the strategies used by entrepreneurs to secure and manage this legitimacy. These include providing evidence of sales or finance (Orser et al, 2020;Tornikoski and Newbert, 2007), attaining certification (Rao, 2008), impression management (Nagy et al, 2016;Rutherford et al, 2009), storytelling (Garud et al, 2014;Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001), or building social capital by highlighting associations with key figures or networks (Alsos and Ljunggren, 2017). However, the identity of the entrepreneurial actor can also act as proxy for the nascent venture (Fisher et al, 2017;Nelson et al, 2016;Überbacher, Error!…”

“…Consequently, they must be different but not appear radical and establish an identity that is both unique and familiar (Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001); in short, they must frame the unknown in a believable way (Middleton, 2013) and, ‘engineer consent, using powers of persuasion and influence to overcome the scepticism and resistance of guardians of the status quo’ (Dees and Starr, 1992: 96). Prior research has highlighted some of the strategies used by entrepreneurs to secure and manage this legitimacy; these include providing evidence of sales or finance (Orser et al, 2020; Tornikoski and Newbert, 2007), attaining certification (Rao, 2008), impression management (Nagy et al, 2016; Rutherford et al, 2009), storytelling (Garud et al, 2014; Lounsbury and Glynn, 2001) or building social capital by highlighting associations with key figures or networks (Alsos and Ljunggren, 2017). However, the identity of the entrepreneurial actor can also act as proxy for the nascent venture (Fisher et al, 2017; Überbacher, 2014), with the construction of an appropriate identity seen by some to be central to the process of securing legitimacy (Fisher et al, 2017; Greene et al, 2013; Swail and Marlow, 2018).…”

Digital identities of female founders and crowdfunding performance: an exploration based on the LDA topic model

“…Amidst advances in enabling digital technologies, the boom of crowdfunding offers potential opportunities to facilitate substantive changes in female entrepreneurial finance in at least two important ways. On the one hand, digital crowdfunding provides an efficient alternative channel of obtaining external capital by allowing women entrepreneurs to raise funds from the public directly through the internet (Mollick, 2014; Orser et al , 2020), where female participation is growing. For example, in 2018, female fundraisers accounted for more than 50% of fundraisers in reward-based crowdfunding in the Americas (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, 2020).…”

“…For example, the applications of certain digital tools (e.g. crowdfunding platforms and social media) enable female entrepreneurs to connect with other women and backers in ways that were not possible previously and augment the backers’ perception of trustworthiness toward women in terms of accomplishing their campaign promises (Greenberg and Mollick, 2017; Johnson et al , 2018; Orser et al , 2020). Thus, it is essential to focus on female entrepreneurs engaged in crowdfunding and help them better benefit from crowdfunding.…”

What do female and male entrepreneurs value in business accelerators?

“…Despite the significant growth of female venturing in recent years and its relevance to the economy, a large number of studies claim that women still face greater barriers to start and grow their businesses. For example, women were shown to start their ventures with less money, to face significant barriers in obtaining the financing, to be less likely to hire employees, to start their ventures in less profitable industries and to have lower financial knowledge and industry experience (Malmström et al , 2017, 2020; Orser et al , 2020; Coleman and Robb, 2009; Mijid, 2015; Wu and Chua, 2012). We expect these gender differences in entrepreneurial experiences to influence values placed on various business accelerators’ services by women-led ventures, the topic addressed in this paper.…”