Eliciting R&D from Underrepresented Innovators

Last registered on January 19, 2024
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Eliciting R&D from Underrepresented Innovators
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0012499
Initial registration date
November 13, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
January 19, 2024, 2:25 PM EST

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Jason Sandvik
Affiliation
University of Arizona
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Jasmijn Bol
PI Affiliation
Tulane University
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Lisa LaViers
PI Affiliation
Tulane University
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2023-11-14
End date
2023-12-21
Keywords
Behavior, Finance & Microfinance, Firms & Productivity, Gender, Health
Additional Keywords
Venture Capital, Innovation, Research and Development
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
There is generally an underrepresentation of women and non-white innovators in the therapeutics and medical technology innovation space. Similarly, venture capitalists (VCs)—who are some of the key contributors of financial capital for therapeutics and medical technology research and development—are disproportionately overrepresented by white men. We will conduct a natural field experiment to see whether the demographic composition of potential VC funders influences the demographic composition of the scientists who submit their therapeutics and medical technology ideas to a VC pitch contest. We will also examine whether the qualitative framing around the ideas change depending on the demographic composition of the potential VC funders who will evaluate the ideas.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Bol, Jasmijn, Lisa LaViers and Jason Sandvik. 2024. "Eliciting R&D from Underrepresented Innovators." AEA RCT Registry. January 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.12499-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
SmartHealth Catalyzer (the organization that is hosting the pitch contest) will send promotional fliers to the tech-transfer offices of major research institutions in the Midwest. The fliers will notify innovators about the contest, and it will provide them with a link to follow to submit their ideas to the contest. There will be two different versions of the flyer, which vary only in the images, names, and affiliations of the example venture capitalists who will evaluate the ideas. One flyer will show images of two white men, along with their names and affiliations, and the other flyer with show an image of two individuals who are either non-white or non-male, along with their names and affiliations. All the other information on the flyer will be identical. The materials are all being distributed by SmartHealth Catalyzer, though our research team did help in their design, to ensure the only variable information was the images and information about the evaluators. Also, our research team performed the randomization to determine which institutions would receive the non-diverse flyer and which would receive the diverse flyer.
Intervention Start Date
2023-11-14
Intervention End Date
2023-12-21

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Number of submitted ideas; Diversity of the teams that submit ideas; Level of diversity-focus in the qualitative framing of the ideas
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Number of submitted ideas (captured by the raw count of ideas within each treatment cell and by raw idea counts weighted by the grant funding levels of the submitting institutions); Diversity of the teams that submit ideas (captured by the presence of non-white and non-male team members, and by the fraction of non-white and non-male team members); Level of diversity-focus in the qualitative framing of the ideas (captured by the fraction of words used in the framing that related to diversity, e.g., "diverse," "inclusion," "race").

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Overall quality of the idea
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Overall quality of the idea (as estimated by expert reviewers on the SmartHealth Catalyzer team who will rate each idea based on details such as its commercial viability, novelty, etc.). These experts will be blind as to which treatment cell the idea comes from.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Half of the participating institutions will receive a flyer with white male VC evaluators listed as among the experts who will assess each idea. The other half of the participating institutions will receive a flyer with non-white and\or non-male VC evaluators listed as among the experts who will assess each idea. The link on the flyer will take participants to a Google Form, where they will be able to submit the details about their experiment.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer, with randomization made conditional on having geographic balance and grant funding balance across the treatment cells.
Randomization Unit
Research institution
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
50 research institutions
Sample size: planned number of observations
200 submitted ideas
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 100 submitted ideas in each treatment arm (4 per institution)
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
University of Arizona Human Subjects Protection Program
IRB Approval Date
2022-10-05
IRB Approval Number
STUDY00001907
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials