We examine whether and when female representation in decision-making groups of venture capital firms affects the firms' decision to fund woman-led businesses. By developing an intra- and inter-group categorization framework for group decision-making, we argue that, in the male-dominated venture capital industry, decision-making groups with higher female representation are less likely to fund woman-led businesses. However, this negative effect is mitigated when the decision-making group has more politically neutral members or when members have more shared prior employment affiliations. Using a longitudinal panel dataset of funding decisions by 151 U.S.-based venture capital firms, the empirical analyses support our theoretical predictions. We also enriched and complemented our empirical findings with qualitative evidence.

我们研究了风险投资公司决策团队中的女性代表性是否以及何时影响公司为女性主导的企业提供资金的决定。通过制定群体决策的群体内和群体间分类框架，我们认为，在男性主导的风险投资行业，女性代表性较高的决策群体不太可能资助女性主导的企业。然而，当决策小组有更多政治中立的成员或成员有更多共同的先前就业背景时，这种负面影响就会减轻。使用 151 家美国风险投资公司的融资决策的纵向面板数据集，实证分析支持了我们的理论预测。我们还用定性证据丰富和补充了我们的实证研究结果。