A balancing act: Independent and interdependent effects of board of directors and top management team gender composition on innovation

Abstract

The demographic composition of a firm's Board of Directors (BoD) and Top Management Team (TMT) has important consequences for organizational processes and outcomes. However, researchers have focused on the independent effects of diversity in these strategic leadership groups (SLGs), foregoing how it affects their interactions. We adopt a strategic leadership system perspective to account for tasks that a firm's BoD and TMT perform independently, as well as shared tasks performed at their interface. Focusing on the innovation process as a context for strategic decision-making and implementation, we hypothesize inverted u-shaped associations for independent effects of BoD and TMT gender compositions on innovation inputs and TMT gender composition on outcomes. To account for interactions at their interface, we also propose moderating effects between BoD and TMT gender compositions on their relationships with innovation input and outcomes. We find support for our hypotheses within a panel of highly innovative U.S. firms between 2005 and 2018. These findings have important implications for strategic leadership and diversity researchers and may provide guidance on balancing the gender composition of SLGs at firms that pursue innovation.