628: Charismatic Signaling in Entrepreneurial Pitching: An Experimental Approach (14438)

Entrepreneurial pitching is a key moment for entrepreneurs, which enables them to showcase their business ideas, secure venture funding, and expand their network. We investigate whether charismatic signaling helps entrepreneurs pass into the next round of a pitching competition (Study 1) and whether entrepreneur charisma increases financing to the project and willingness to meet the entrepreneurial team (Study 2). In Study 1 we used field data from a startup competition “Thinking Digital” held in 2015. The sample consisted of 70 entrepreneurial pitches in the semi-final and final stages of the competition. In Study 2, 233 participants were randomly assigned to watch a 3-minute video of an entrepreneur pitching a business using charismatic signaling or not. The results of Study 1 show that verbal charismatic signaling had a positive effect on startups being chosen in the semi-final round of the competition. Nonverbal charismatic signaling (i.e., gestures, open body posture, animated facial expressions, eye contact, and vocal variations) did not increase the likelihood of entrepreneurs being selected in the final round of the competition. The results of Study 2 show that charismatic signaling increases the belief of participants that the entrepreneur will attract financing for the venture and that more strength is attributed to the entrepreneurial team, the force in sales, and entrepreneur leadership. The findings of Study 1 suggest that using charisma can help entrepreneurs attract meetings with potential investors. Findings of Study 2 reveal participants’ beliefs that charismatic entrepreneurs will attract more financing for the venture, and that the key strengths of the venture are the entrepreneur leadership, the entrepreneurial team, and the sales force.

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