The Paradox of Minority Conformity: Same-gender Referencing among Female Financial Analysts

Abstract

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings includes abstracts of all papers and symposia presented at the annual conference, plus 6-page abridged versions of the “Best Papers” accepted for inclusion in the program (approximately 10%). Papers published in the Proceedings are abridged because presenting papers at their full length could preclude subsequent journal publication. Please contact the author(s) directly for the full papers. The Paradox of Minority Conformity: Same-gender Referencing among Female Financial AnalystsSusie Choe and Sun Hyun ParkSusie Choe Seoul National U. and Sun Hyun Park Seoul National U.Published Online:1 Aug 2019https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2019.16601abstractAboutSections ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AbstractThis paper examines minority actors’ conformity behavior. We focus on the influence of minority token status, or ""skewed proportions"" of demographic distribution in a group as contextual factors of conformity. Through my analyses of financial analysts’ earnings forecasts, we find that minority actors, specifically female analysts, tend to conform to the consensus forecast of the entire analyst population due to their minority status. More interestingly, we also find that female analysts tend to conform, rather than deviate, to other female counterparts due to self-stereotyping. To examine the influence of culture as another contextual factor, we further conduct a cross-country difference between individualist vs. collectivist cultures. This same-gender conformity for female analysts, paradoxically, was greater in the U.S than in China. Extending prior socio-psychological research on culture, we argue that this same-gender conformity is contextually derived–an outcome of minority status which arises from the skewed gender distribution and cultural stereotypes towards gender role in the professional society.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 2019, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 1 August 2019 Published in print 1 August 2019 InformationCopyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.KeywordsAOM Annual Meeting Proceedings 2019AOM Boston 2019