Women on the edge of a breakthrough? A stereotype threat theory of women’s angel investing

Abstract

<jats:p> The extent to which women participate in the angel investment market has become an important topic of research and policy interest. Based on UK survey data, we demonstrate that there are systematic but not unequivocal differences between women and men investors on a number of key investor and investment characteristics. We also report indicative evidence that members of women-only networks do differ from women who join mixed networks. Drawing on these results, we develop a stereotype threat theory perspective on women’s angel investing which highlights the cues, consequences, outcomes and responses to stereotype threat. Specifically, we theorise that stereotype threat influences women’s widely reported lower participation in the angel investment market. In addition, stereotype threat theory helps explain both women’s overall active involvement in the angel investment market and their participation in women-only investor networks. We conclude that there is a case for women-only angel networks and training programmes to mitigate the performance and participation consequences of stereotype threat. </jats:p>

Business Angel Investment as an Informal Learning Process: Does Experience Matter?

“…Two types of learning experience can be identified within this group of informal learners (Table 2): learning from the investment opportunity is typically associated with negative learning outcomes (e.g. long times to exit, people not being trustworthy, greedy entrepreneurs), supporting prior research on investors’ risk perceptions (Harrison and Mason, 2017); learning about being an angel is where participants learned more about the skills required to be an angel investor (e.g. patience, assertiveness, scepticism).…”

Mapping the knowledge domain of financial decision making: A scientometric and bibliometric study

“…The review revealed that empirical evidence was not sufficient in supporting such conclusion and that the cultural and contextual influences also contribute to the gender differences in risk-taking behavior. Harrison et al (2020) also found that this kind of stereotype threat exerts negative influences on women investors, depressing their investment performance.…”

“…Cluster #4 is labeled as gender difference, which means that the investigation of the effects of gender on FDM have attracted researchers’ attention. This cluster includes 28 articles and the top three most cited papers are Yordanova and Alexandrova-Boshnakova (2011) , Nelson (2015) , Harrison et al (2020) . Yordanova and Alexandrova-Boshnakova (2011) administered a survey to 382 Bulgarian owner-managers of business to explore the gender differences in these businesses owners’ decision making under risk.…”

“…Prior studies have also investigated the effects of individual differences on FDM. Factors documented to have an impact on the FDM processes and/or outcomes are age (Weierich et al, 2011), gender (Yordanova and Alexandrova-Boshnakova, 2011;Nelson, 2015;Harrison et al, 2020), risk attitudes (Ranganathan, 2021), feelings (Tsai and Young, 2010;Garbinsky et al, 2014;Cui and Cho, 2019), health and personality (Johnston et al, 2016), households' choice portfolios (Kim et al, 2016), investment awareness and intention (Gutsche et al, 2021), environmental and organizational factors (Kaufmann et al, 2012), as well as national culture (Petersen et al, 2015). Neural evidence of individual differences on FDM process has also been documented.…”

Developing a vulnerability-based conceptual model for managing risk in non-profit projects: a multicase study in a European country

“…Risk factors are an extremely common project feature previously analysed in many business areas, such as audits, sales or credit. In the for-profit sector, risk management is regularly applied during investment projects, for instance, through the use of due diligence mechanisms prior to investing in order to detect vulnerabilities that could contribute to future damaging contingencies (Harrison & Mason, 2017). The field of risk management has also gained increasing importance in public sector management (Bracci, Tallaki, Gobbo & Papi, 2021).…”