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Accent Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising

Luca Farè & Silvio Vismara

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice2026https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587261430328article
FT50AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

What the paper says

Accent is a powerful, yet still socially acceptable, basis of discrimination that shapes interpersonal evaluations and access to opportunities, potentially disadvantaging entrepreneurs seeking funding. Bridging role congruity theory with sociolinguistic literature, we hypothesize that entrepreneurs whose regional accents align with the stereotypical entrepreneur are more likely to secure funding. We test this hypothesis in entrepreneurial pitching contexts using an observational study and two pre-registered experiments that manipulate entrepreneurs’ accents in pitch videos through a professional voice actor and AI. Across the UK, Italy, and the United States, the results support our hypothesis, providing robust evidence of accent-based discrimination in entrepreneurial fundraising.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587261430328

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@article{luca2026,
  title        = {{Accent Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising}},
  author       = {Luca Farè & Silvio Vismara},
  journal      = {Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/10422587261430328},
}

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Accent Discrimination in Entrepreneurial Fundraising

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.