IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jobuve/v14y2020ics2352673420300469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The temptation of exaggeration: Exploring the line between preparedness and misrepresentation in entrepreneurial pitches

Author

Listed:
  • Cottle, Griffin W.
  • Anderson, Brian S.

Abstract

The prevalence of exaggeration in entrepreneurial pitches is one of the more striking behaviors that entrepreneurs display in their interactions with prospective investors. By viewing such behavior through the lens of interpersonal persuasion and deception theory, we believe that exaggeration’s impact on investor decision making can be understood by examining its close cognitive relationship to both lying and preparedness. Across three studies we investigate the impact that exaggeration and preparedness have on new venture legitimacy and funding potential, and examine the circumstances in which exaggeration may produce beneficial outcomes. For transparency we posted all data, code and study materials on the Open Science Framework, at https://bit.ly/2XfwYky.

Suggested Citation

  • Cottle, Griffin W. & Anderson, Brian S., 2020. "The temptation of exaggeration: Exploring the line between preparedness and misrepresentation in entrepreneurial pitches," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 14(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jobuve:v:14:y:2020:i:c:s2352673420300469
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352673420300469
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbvi.2020.e00190?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ucbasaran, Deniz & Westhead, Paul & Wright, Mike & Flores, Manuel, 2010. "The nature of entrepreneurial experience, business failure and comparative optimism," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 541-555, November.
    2. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    3. Parhankangas, Annaleena & Ehrlich, Michael, 2014. "How entrepreneurs seduce business angels: An impression management approach," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 543-564.
    4. Scott A. Jeffrey & Moren Lévesque & Andrew L. Maxwell, 2016. "The non-compensatory relationship between risk and return in business angel investment decision making," Venture Capital, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 189-209, July.
    5. Jeffrey M. Pollack & Matthew W. Rutherford & Brian G. Nagy, 2012. "Preparedness and Cognitive Legitimacy as Antecedents of New Venture Funding in Televised Business Pitches," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(5), pages 915-939, September.
    6. Melissa S. Cardon & Cheryl Mitteness & Richard Sudek, 2017. "Motivational Cues and Angel Investing: Interactions among Enthusiasm, Preparedness, and Commitment," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 41(6), pages 1057-1085, November.
    7. Anderson, Brian S, 2018. "Endogeneity and Entrepreneurship Research," OSF Preprints 75tn8, Center for Open Science.
    8. Irene Hueter, 2016. "Latent Instrumental Variables: A Critical Review," Working Papers Series 46, Institute for New Economic Thinking.
    9. Gordon K. Adomdza & Thomas Åstebro & Kevyn Yong, 2016. "Decision biases and entrepreneurial finance," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 47(4), pages 819-834, December.
    10. Brian G. Nagy & Jeffrey M. Pollack & Matthew W. Rutherford & Franz T. Lohrke, 2012. "The Influence of Entrepreneurs’ Credentials and Impression Management Behaviors on Perceptions of New Venture Legitimacy," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(5), pages 941-965, September.
    11. Pollack, Jeffrey M. & Bosse, Douglas A., 2014. "When do investors forgive entrepreneurs for lying?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 741-754.
    12. Sungho Park & Sachin Gupta, 2012. "Handling Endogenous Regressors by Joint Estimation Using Copulas," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(4), pages 567-586, July.
    13. Warnick, Benjamin J. & Murnieks, Charles Y. & McMullen, Jeffery S. & Brooks, Wade T., 2018. "Passion for entrepreneurship or passion for the product? A conjoint analysis of angel and VC decision-making," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 315-332.
    14. Heath, Chip & Tversky, Amos, 1991. "Preference and Belief: Ambiguity and Competence in Choice under Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 5-28, January.
    15. Murnieks, Charles Y. & Cardon, Melissa S. & Sudek, Richard & White, T. Daniel & Brooks, Wade T., 2016. "Drawn to the fire: The role of passion, tenacity and inspirational leadership in angel investing," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 468-484.
    16. Matthew W. Rutherford & Paul F. Buller & J. Michael Stebbins, 2009. "Ethical Considerations of the Legitimacy Lie," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 33(4), pages 949-964, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mojca Svetek, 2023. "The Role of Entrepreneurs’ Perceived Competence and Cooperativeness in Early-Stage Financing," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2047-2076, November.
    2. Sanchez-Ruiz, Paul & Wood, Matthew S. & Long-Ruboyianes, Anna, 2021. "Persuasive or polarizing? The influence of entrepreneurs' use of ingratiation rhetoric on investor funding decisions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).

    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. Vasilis Theoharakis & Seraphim Voliotis & Jeffrey M. Pollack, 2021. "Going Down the Slippery Slope of Legitimacy Lies in Early-Stage Ventures: The Role of Moral Disengagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 673-690, September.
    2. Mojca Svetek, 2023. "The Role of Entrepreneurs’ Perceived Competence and Cooperativeness in Early-Stage Financing," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(6), pages 2047-2076, November.
    3. Schwarte, Ying & Song, Yue & Hunt, Richard A. & Lohrke, Franz T., 2023. "Passion as process: Three perspectives on entrepreneurial passion and an integrated path forward," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    4. Lin Jiang & Dezhi Yin & Dong Liu & Richard Johnson, 2023. "The More Enthusiastic, the Better? Unveiling a Negative Pathway From Entrepreneurs’ Displayed Enthusiasm to Funders’ Funding Intentions," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1356-1388, July.
    5. Allison, Thomas H. & Warnick, Benjamin J. & Davis, Blakley C. & Cardon, Melissa S., 2022. "Can you hear me now? Engendering passion and preparedness perceptions with vocal expressions in crowdfunding pitches," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3).
    6. Oo, Pyayt P. & Jiang, Lin & Sahaym, Arvin & Parhankangas, Annaleena & Chan, Richard, 2023. "Actions in words: How entrepreneurs use diversified and changing speech acts to achieve funding success," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).
    7. James M. Bloodgood & Jeffrey S. Hornsby & Matthew Rutherford & Richard G. McFarland, 2017. "The role of network density and betweenness centrality in diffusing new venture legitimacy: an epidemiological approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 525-552, June.
    8. Fisher, Greg & Kuratko, Donald F. & Bloodgood, James M. & Hornsby, Jeffrey S., 2017. "Legitimate to whom? The challenge of audience diversity and new venture legitimacy," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 52-71.
    9. Collewaert, Veroniek & Vanacker, Tom & Anseel, Frederik & Bourgois, Dries, 2021. "The sandwich game: Founder-CEOs and forecasting as impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    10. Daniel Blaseg & Lars Hornuf, 2024. "Playing the Business Angel: The Impact of Well-Known Business Angels on Venture Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 48(1), pages 171-204, January.
    11. Shane, Scott & Drover, Will & Clingingsmith, David & Cerf, Moran, 2020. "Founder passion, neural engagement and informal investor interest in startup pitches: An fMRI study," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(4).
    12. Benson, David F. & Brau, James C. & Cicon, James & Ferris, Stephen P., 2015. "Strategically camouflaged corporate governance in IPOs: Entrepreneurial masking and impression management," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 30(6), pages 839-864.
    13. Warnick, Benjamin J. & Davis, Blakley C. & Allison, Thomas H. & Anglin, Aaron H., 2021. "Express yourself: Facial expression of happiness, anger, fear, and sadness in funding pitches," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    14. Sanchez-Ruiz, Paul & Wood, Matthew S. & Long-Ruboyianes, Anna, 2021. "Persuasive or polarizing? The influence of entrepreneurs' use of ingratiation rhetoric on investor funding decisions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(4).
    15. James M. Bloodgood & Jeffrey S. Hornsby & Matthew Rutherford & Richard G. McFarland, 0. "The role of network density and betweenness centrality in diffusing new venture legitimacy: an epidemiological approach," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-28.
    16. Lefebvre, Vincent & Certhoux, Gilles & Radu-Lefebvre, Miruna, 2022. "Sustaining trust to cross the Valley of Death: A retrospective study of business angels’ investment and reinvestment decisions," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    17. Wood, Matthew S. & Long, Anna & Artz, Kendall, 2020. "Angel investor network pitch meetings: The pull and push of peer opinion," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 63(4), pages 507-518.
    18. Allison, Thomas H. & Davis, Blakley C. & Webb, Justin W. & Short, Jeremy C., 2017. "Persuasion in crowdfunding: An elaboration likelihood model of crowdfunding performance," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 707-725.
    19. Lukas Maier & Christian V. Baccarella & Jörn H. Block & Timm F. Wagner & Kai-Ingo Voigt, 2023. "The Legitimization Effect of Crowdfunding Success: A Consumer Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(4), pages 1389-1420, July.
    20. Pollack, Jeffrey M. & Bosse, Douglas A., 2014. "When do investors forgive entrepreneurs for lying?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 741-754.

    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:eee:jobuve:v:14:y:2020:i:c:s2352673420300469. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-business-venturing-insights .

    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.