The goal of our research:
While there is substantial research that investors are subject to biases, little is known about how gender and ethnic diversity or the intersectionality of those two dimensions in a new venture team impact investor funding decisions. Given that a sufficient amount of funding is an important ingredient for success, our goal is to create transparency about the role of the team composition in terms of demographic diversity and motivate ongoing discussion on the topic.
Method:
Empirical analysis based on a large secondary dataset on ventures between 1959 and 2015. Integration of an API to determine the ethnicity of founders.
Indicative results:
Our indicative results show that gender diversity and intersectionality, particularly as reflected by the presence of a female Asian NVT member, are significantly negatively related to the absolute amount of new venture funding.
Research group:
Riccarda Joas, Lukas Heidegger, Prof. Theresa Treffers, Prof. Isabell Welpe
Links:
Gender API - Determines the gender of a first name (gender-api.com)