[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/socarx/g6wjn.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Biased sampling of early users and the direction of startup innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Cao, Ruiqing
  • Koning, Rembrand

    (Harvard Business School)

  • Nanda, Ramana
Abstract
Using data from a prominent online platform for launching new digital products, we document that the composition of the platform's `beta testers' on the day a new product is launched has a systematic and persistent impact on success. Specifically, we use word embedding methods to classify products launched on this platform as more or less focused on the needs of female customers, and show that female-focused products launched on a typical day—when nine-in-ten users on the platform are men—experience 40% less growth and are 5 percentage points less likely to have an any users a year after launch. Using exogenous variation driven by the platform's daily newsletter, we find that that the product gender gap shrinks on days when women are more likely to engage with the platform. Conversely, entrepreneurs who happen to launch a female-focused product on an especially male-dominated day reduce their product development efforts by roughly 30% and are 4 percentage points less likely to raise venture funding. Overall, our findings suggest that sample bias can systematically corrupt signals of a startup's market potential, bias entrepreneurial strategy, and so lead to a dearth of innovations aimed at consumers who are underrepresented among early-users.

Suggested Citation

  • Cao, Ruiqing & Koning, Rembrand & Nanda, Ramana, 2020. "Biased sampling of early users and the direction of startup innovation," SocArXiv g6wjn, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:g6wjn
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/g6wjn
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5fa98e48d1894f017b68b3b3/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/g6wjn?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharique Hasan & John-Paul Ferguson & Rembrand Koning, 2015. "The Lives and Deaths of Jobs: Technical Interdependence and Survival in a Job Structure," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(6), pages 1665-1681, December.
    2. Howell, Sabrina T. & Nanda, Ramana, 2024. "Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(6), pages 2733-2761, September.
    3. Anja Lambrecht & Catherine Tucker, 2019. "Algorithmic Bias? An Empirical Study of Apparent Gender-Based Discrimination in the Display of STEM Career Ads," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(7), pages 2966-2981, July.
    4. Erin L. Scott & Pian Shu, 2017. "Gender Gap in High-Growth Ventures: Evidence from a University Venture Mentoring Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 107(5), pages 308-311, May.
    5. Ewens, Michael & Townsend, Richard R., 2020. "Are early stage investors biased against women?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(3), pages 653-677.
    6. Sameer B. Srivastava & Amir Goldberg & V. Govind Manian & Christopher Potts, 2018. "Enculturation Trajectories: Language, Cultural Adaptation, and Individual Outcomes in Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(3), pages 1348-1364, March.
    7. Arnaldo Camuffo & Alessandro Cordova & Alfonso Gambardella & Chiara Spina, 2020. "A Scientific Approach to Entrepreneurial Decision Making: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(2), pages 564-586, February.
    8. Calder-Wang, Sophie & Gompers, Paul A., 2021. "And the children shall lead: Gender diversity and performance in venture capital," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(1), pages 1-22.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pavlova, Elitsa & Gvetadze, Salome, 2023. "Female access to finance: A survey of literature," EIF Working Paper Series 2022/87, European Investment Fund (EIF).
    2. Thomas Hellmann & Ilona Mostipan & Nir Vulkan, 2019. "Be Careful What You Ask For: Fundraising Strategies in Equity Crowdfunding," NBER Working Papers 26275, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Gonzalez-Uribe, Juanita & Hmaddi, Ouafaa, 2022. "The multi-dimensional impacts of business accelerators: what does the research tell us?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115461, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Ewens, Michael, 2022. "Race and Gender in Entrepreneurial Finance," SocArXiv djf8z, Center for Open Science.
    5. Ye Zhang, 2020. "Discrimination in the Venture Capital Industry: Evidence from Field Experiments," Papers 2010.16084, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2022.
    6. Josh Lerner & Ramana Nanda, 2020. "Venture Capital's Role in Financing Innovation: What We Know and How Much We Still Need to Learn," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(3), pages 237-261, Summer.
    7. Andrea Bellucci & Gianluca Gucciardi & Rossella Locatelli & Cristiana Schena, 2022. "Gender Gap in Business Angel financing," Mo.Fi.R. Working Papers 175, Money and Finance Research group (Mo.Fi.R.) - Univ. Politecnica Marche - Dept. Economic and Social Sciences.
    8. Zandberg, Jonathan, 2021. "Family comes first: Reproductive health and the gender gap in entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(3), pages 838-864.
    9. Xiyang Hu & Yan Huang & Beibei Li & Tian Lu, 2022. "Uncovering the Source of Machine Bias," Papers 2201.03092, arXiv.org.
    10. Howell, Sabrina T. & Nanda, Ramana, 2024. "Networking Frictions in Venture Capital, and the Gender Gap in Entrepreneurship," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 59(6), pages 2733-2761, September.
    11. Jorge Guzman & Jean Joohyun Oh & Ananya Sen, 2020. "What Motivates Innovative Entrepreneurs? Evidence from a Global Field Experiment," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(10), pages 4808-4819, October.
    12. Xu, Lei & Ou, Amy Y. & Park, Haemin Dennis & Jiang, Han, 2024. "Breaking barriers or maintaining status quo? Female representation in decision-making group of venture capital firms and the funding of woman-led businesses," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 39(1).
    13. Lien Denoo & Anneleen Van Boxstael & Andrea Belz, 2024. "Help, I need somebody! Business and technology advisors in emerging science-based ventures at American universities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 49(5), pages 1567-1605, October.
    14. Hao, Xuejing & Hu, Feng & Li, Zhu, 2024. "Entrepreneur-investor gender match effects in startup funding: Evidence from an entrepreneurial-themed reality TV show in China," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 93(PA), pages 811-832.
    15. Ranasinghe, Ashantha, 2024. "Gender specific distortions, entrepreneurship and misallocation," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    16. J. Michelle Brock & Ralph De Haas, 2023. "Discriminatory Lending: Evidence from Bankers in the Lab," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 15(2), pages 31-68, April.
    17. Wesemann, Henrik & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "A whole new world: Counterintuitive crowdfunding insights for female founders," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 15(C).
    18. Gambardella, Alfonso & Camuffo, Arnaldo & Spina, Chiara, 2020. "Small Changes with Big Impact: Experimental Evidence of a Scientific Approach to the Decision-Making of Entrepreneurial Firms," CEPR Discussion Papers 14909, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Ajay Agrawal & Joshua S. Gans & Scott Stern, 2021. "Enabling Entrepreneurial Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(9), pages 5510-5524, September.
    20. Klockmann, Victor & von Schenk, Alicia & Villeval, Marie Claire, 2022. "Artificial intelligence, ethics, and intergenerational responsibility," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 284-317.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:g6wjn. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://arabixiv.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.