Deal or no deal: A qualitative study examining how the entrepreneur's gender affects business angels' willingness to invest during the initial interaction

Sammanfattning: Securing external equity financing from business angels (BAs) has been considered to be more difficult for female entrepreneurs in comparison to men and the underlying mechanisms for the disparity have been discussed. Some scholars argue that structural dissimilarities serve as one of the possible explanations, while others argue that female founders experience discrimination. Through a qualitative cross-sectional study, this thesis aims to answer how the entrepreneur's gender affects business angels' willingness to invest during the initial interaction. The sample includes 20 respondents, of whom 9 are entrepreneurs and 11 are business angels. By analyzing the collected data through the theoretical lenses of signaling theory and self-disclosure theory, the study reveals that business angels' interpretations explain more of the suggested gender differences than the actual self-disclosure and signaling by the entrepreneur. An affinity bias and business angels' initial attitude, along with social influences, appear to have an impact on these interpretations. The implications derived from the study therefore suggest that further research should emphasize BAs' interpretation of the entrepreneur's self-disclosure and signals, rather than differences between entrepreneurs.