IDLab seminar: gender gap in investment and the "green" legitimacy of business

On February 20, 2026, the International Laboratory of Intangible-driven Economy (IDLab) hosted a scientific seminar featuring two research presentations. Petr Parshakov presented findings from a study on gender discrimination in investment seeking, while Iuliia Naidenova discussed whether companies leverage the disclosure of "green" intellectual capital in ESG reporting to restore their reputation following scandals.

The head of the laboratory, Petr Parshakov, presented the findings of a study on gender discrimination in investment seeking. The research was conducted in collaboration with Iuliia Naidenova, Cornel Nesseler (University of Stavanger, Norway), and Valeria Fedorova. To understand how an entrepreneur's gender influences investors' decisions, the authors analyzed hundreds of startup pitches from the popular TV show Shark Tank. The researchers focused not only on whether participants secured approval from investors but also on the final amount of investment raised.

The analysis revealed that the likelihood of securing a deal does not systematically depend on the entrepreneur's gender. However, female founders attract significantly smaller amounts of funding compared to their male counterparts. As part of the study, the researchers extracted vocal characteristics of the presenters—such as volume, speech rate, and pauses—from 1,398 pitch recordings. It turned out that even after controlling for these parameters, signs of discrimination persisted. Moving forward, the authors plan to expand their analysis of presenters' characteristics to more accurately distinguish the influence of individual presentation styles from investor bias.

The second presentation at the seminar was delivered by Iuliia Naidenova, Deputy Head of the Laboratory. Her research focused on how companies leverage reporting on "green" intellectual capital in response to reputational crises. The study, conducted in collaboration with Petr Parshakov and Elena Rapoport as part of the project "The Role of Intellectual Resources for the Internationalization of Companies from Emerging Economies under Exogenous Shocks" (implemented under the Joint Basic Research Program "International Academic Cooperation"), is based on an analysis of ESG reports from 444 large U.S. companies over the period 2015–2021. Using NLP methods, the authors identified mentions related to "green" intellectual capital within the ESG reports and then applied econometric modeling to assess how ESG-related scandals influence the intensity of such disclosures.

The study demonstrated that after facing ESG-related scandals, companies often begin to disclose more information about their "green" competencies: environmental technologies, qualified personnel in the field of sustainable development, and partnerships with environmental organizations. According to the authors, this may be linked to attempts to restore reputation and rebuild trust in the eyes of investors, clients, and regulators.