How women CEOs’ financial knowledge and firm homophily affect venture performance

Abstract

We examine the impact of female-led venture firms’ knowledge of alternative forms of financial capital and its effect on their financial performance as compared to male-led ventures.We contend that women chief executive officers (CEOs) leading such ventures faced unique historical and stereotypical challenges that impeded their financial knowledge and subsequent firm performance. We utilize liberal and social feminism frameworks, complemented with homophily theory to illustrate how female CEOs can overcome these challenges by increasing the percentage of women in the ownership structure of female-led venture firms.