Vague Language, Founding Team Human Capital, and Resource Acquisition
研究模糊语言在创业融资中的作用，发现投资者通常不喜欢模糊语言，但当创始团队具备有效使用语言的人力资本时，模糊语言反而能吸引投资者兴趣。
Investors look to the language a firm uses for information that may not be available otherwise, especially in entrepreneurial settings. One aspect of language that is garnering greater attention in the management and other business literatures is vagueness. Vague language is often viewed negatively by audiences because of its association with greater uncertainty and potential to obscure negative information. However, some work in linguistics implies that the use of vague language can have positive impacts if the speaker understands the needs of the audience. This study explores the use of vague language and its relationship with investor interest as well as how it interacts with the skills of the entrepreneurial founding team. We hypothesize that, in general, investors are less interested in firms that use vague language, but the positive impacts of vague language become apparent when firm founders have human capital endowments associated with the effective use of language. Analyses based on data from a major start-up pitch competition provide evidence to support these hypotheses. Post hoc analyses explore potential mechanisms. Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2022.16367 .