Nevertheless, she persisted: Gender, rejection, and perseverance in venture financing

Abstract

We study gender differences in entrepreneurial ventures’ reactions to failed effort in resource seeking. We examine a premier innovation grant program in China where funding is allocated based on firm merit as measured by evaluation scores. Although male- and female-led ventures are not significantly different from each other in winning any round of grant, male-led ventures are twice as likely to reapply for grants after their initial grant-seeking efforts are rejected. This result holds even after controlling for evaluation scores and score variances across evaluators in the initial round of grant application. In addition, female-led ventures are more sensitive to external evaluations than are male-led ventures in reapplication decisions. While low-score female-led ventures rarely reapply after their initial effort is rejected, low-score male-led ventures are only slightly less likely to reapply than high-score male-led ventures. We also find gender difference in overcoming rejections; female-led ventures are more likely to wait before reapplying until they have reached certain performance milestones than are male-led ventures. We consider several mechanisms, pointing to gender differences in attributing initial failures to ability and confidence as likely explanations.

Speaker Biography

Yanbo Wang is an associate professor of strategy and innovation at the University of Hong Kong. He studies technology-based entrepreneurship, with a focus on the impact of formal and informal institutions on startup firms’ strategic choices, organizational forms and financial performance. His current projects map the entrepreneurial landscape in China and examine the design and (lack of) effect of state innovation subsidy programs in the country. Professor Yanbo Wang is a senior editor at Organization Science; he also serves on the editorial boards of Administrative Science Quarterly, Strategic Management Journal, and Research Policy. He has published in leading strategy journals as well as in Science. He received his Ph.D. from MIT Sloan and LLB from Peking University. Before joining the University of Hong Kong, Professor Yanbo Wang was on the faculty at Boston University, Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business and the National University of Singapore.