%0 Journal Article
%T Betting on the Coachable Entrepreneur: Signaling and Social Exchange in Entrepreneurial Pitches
%A Chaim Letwin
%A M. Nesij Huvaj
%A Michael P. Ciuchta
%A Regan Stevenson
%A Sean McMahon
%J Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice
%@ 1540-6520
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/1042258717725520
%X Given that stakeholders often commit more than capital to a startup, they commonly stress how important it is for entrepreneurs to be ¡°coachable.¡± To date, however, coachability has received little attention in entrepreneurship research. We address this gap by first establishing the entrepreneurial coachability construct and validating a measurement scale. Then, drawing on social exchange and signaling theories, we develop and test a novel framework in which coachability influences a potential investor¡¯s willingness to invest. We find that entrepreneurial coachability functions as a viable signal in a pitch setting, but this impact is conditional on the investor¡¯s prior coaching experience
%K coachability
%K new venture finance
%K social exchange theory
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1042258717725520