The role of social capital and gender in linking financial suppliers and entrepreneurial firms: A framework for future research

<title/> Equity capital fuels growth companies and yields high returns for investors. The process of equity investment and ultimate harvesting of innovative companies has created significant wealth among fund investors, venture capitalists, angels and new entrepreneurs. Extensive research investigates all phases of the venture capital investment process, industry characteristics and returns to investors. Surprisingly absent from current research are studies including women, on both the supply (equity provider) and demand (equity seeker) sides. Women make significant contributions to the US economy in the workforce and as business owners, yet research about women as recipients of equity capital and providers of equity is extremely scarce. This raises a question--are women being left out of the wealth creation process? Our paper addresses this question by exploring women's role in supply and demand of equity capital. We utilize a social capital perspective to develop a conceptual framework and focus our analysis on early stage and angel investment. The paper concludes with directions for future research.