From pitch to Q&A: Why do business angels change their minds ?

Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model, this paper develops and tests a set of hypotheses concerning why business angels change their intentions to invest moving from pitch to Q&A. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 654 real-life angel evaluations of entrepreneurs pitching for money. Our results suggest a change in intentions to invest is less likely to occur when the entrepreneur has a more attractive voice, higher levels of displayed passion and higher levels of perceived coachability. Angels are more likely to change their minds though when they perceive the entrepreneur to be more trustworthy.