The power of inclusion: Does leadership gender diversity promote corporate and green innovation?

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of leadership gender diversity on both corporate and green innovation. Based on a sample of French-listed companies, the results show that board gender diversity enhances both types of innovation. This finding suggests that women on boards focus on both firm’s competitive advantage and sustainability while engaging in innovative activities. These results are more prevalent for female independent directors and in the voluntary approach of appointing women on boards. The results also show that gender diversity among executives, particularly the Chief financial officer (CFO) position, is associated with an increase in corporate and green innovation. This result suggests that companies should consider top management gender diversity to break the glass ceiling phenomenon which means actively recruiting and promoting women to leadership positions as part of their overall innovation strategy.