Business Case For Gender Diversity Research Articles

Beyond compliance: the business case for gender diversity on boards and sustainability reporting in India

Beyond compliance: the business case for gender diversity on boards and sustainability reporting in India

Vodafone Ghana – being good by doing good under Patricia Obo-Nai’s leadership

Social implications Case explains how female leaders are more concerned about social issues the industry in which they operate could resolve. Obo-Nia, CEO of Vodafone Ghana, showed concern for resolving the digital divide in Africa and offered a collaborative solution. The case also suggests how female CEOs invest in strategic corporate social responsibility (CSR) that could create a competitive advantage for firms. The case also discusses gender diversity issues in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) field and how Vodafone Ghana’s CEO tried to enhance gender diversity in the telecommunication sector and Vodafone. Obo-Nai did not emphasize gender diversity from a CSR perspective but believed in a business case for gender diversity, as an increase in participation of women in the STEM workforce could help the telecommunication sector innovate faster and resolve the digital divide challenge while also empowering women working from the informal sector. Learning outcomes What is the significance of a digital divide and the societal role of the telecommunication sector; Why female CEOs are more concerned about CSR and how CSR makes not charity but business case; Why female CEOs are more inclined toward collaborative strategies and how stakeholders are involved in collaborative strategies for reducing the digital divide; Exploring various strategies for enhancing gender diversity in the STEM field and the significance of gender diversity in the STEM field. Case overview/synopsis The case is about the challenges faced by Patricia Obo-Nai, the first female CEO of Vodafone Ghana, to bridge the digital divide in Africa while doing so in a profitable manner. Obo-Nai was an engineer by profession and won several awards as she rose to the post of CEO in Vodafone Ghana in 2019. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she took several corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, such as making internet service freely available in certain schools and universities so that education could continue. Obo-Nai also emphasized gender diversity within Vodafone and urged other telecommunication players to focus on gender diversity from a social responsibility perspective because it was essential for innovation. Under Obo-Nai’s leadership, Vodafone itself launched several new products. She called for a multistakeholder collaborative approach to bridge the digital divide and to make 4G internet affordable in Africa. Obo-Nai collaborated with competitors like MTN Ghana to enhance Vodafone Ghana’s roaming services. Complexity academic level This case is intended for undergraduate or graduate-level business and management courses, especially international business and society, CSR and leadership courses. Graduate students in public policy may also find the case compelling. Supplementary materials Teaching notes are available for educators only. Subject codes CCS5: International Business; CCS10: Public Sector Management

Unmasking the politics of policy‐driven change (or not) for gender diversity

AbstractThis article places a critical lens over one part of an empirical study to explore the political reasons for why (or why not) women on boards policies are effective (or not) in Aotearoa New Zealand. Political intersectionality is used as a heuristic tool to link the political agendas of macro level public policies to meso‐level organizational processes and how these (re)shape the micro‐level everyday politics of structural privilege and disadvantage. Interview data from 10 influential male directors show how the political agendas of powerful interest groups can shape the dialog and further embed the status quo by promoting a business case for gender diversity based on the inherent assumption that it incentivizes businesses to function as meritocracies. We argue that power and conflicting political interests must be addressed if diversity‐related interventions are to achieve the desired gender equity and social justice outcomes in a board membership.

Open-up or stay closed: the effect of TMT gender diversity on open innovation

PurposeDespite the importance of top management team (TMT) gender diversity in a firm's strategic decisions and the high degree of innovation activities that several firms have experienced in recent years, little or no research has examined how TMT gender diversity affects a firm's open innovation decision. The authors examine how TMT gender diversity impacts firms' open innovation activities. The authors further examine how this impact is affected by women executives' personal attributes and institutional conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe sample comprised of 62,745 firm-year observations (9,831 firms) from 25 countries from 1990 to 2010. The authors employed the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation technique to estimate the results.FindingsEmploying novel panel data on co-owned patents across 25 economies, the authors find that proportion of women in TMTs has a positive impact on open innovation activities. Moreover, the authors find that women managers' power and institutional gender parity strengthen the association between gender diversity and open innovation.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study indicate that firms committed to optimizing their open innovation policies and practices should include women in TMTs and create such conditions that are supportive for women executives to effectively express their innate inclinations. Importantly, our study supports the business case for gender diversity in top leadership positions by providing a compelling evidence for the positive impact of TMT gender diversity on open innovation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the gender diversity literature by showing how women leaders' values and character become embedded in their companies' strategy and present empirical evidence that having women in TMTs increase the likelihood of conducting open innovation. Further, the authors show how women executives' power and institutional level gender parity provide boundary conditions that moderate the relationship between TMT gender diversity and open innovation.

Reflections on women’s progress into leadership in the UK and suggested areas for future research

PurposeThe paper provides an invited “Viewpoint” from Professor Susan Vinnicombe, along with contributions from Professor Sharon Mavin, on women leaders’ progress on UK company boards and suggests areas for future research.Design/methodology/approachDraws on data from the annual UK The Female FTSE Board Report (2021) and The Hidden Truth Report (2022), tracking gender diversity on UK company boards. Professor Vinnicombe outlines reflections on progress, and jointly the authors highlight suggested areas for future women-in-leadership research.FindingsThe authors argue against the continued use of the business case for gender diversity and suggest a research agenda for future women-in-leadership research concerning: gender-aware Chairs of Boards and Chief Executive Officers and men allies; access and appointment to senior board roles; and bias in senior appointments. We suggest a return to examining barriers to women’s progress in middle management, the role of middle managers/leaders and the uptake and impact of established flexible ways of work at executive levels. New research is possible into how women leaders in top positions have a positive influence on gender diversity yet are discriminated against by various publics. The authors recommend further intersectional research as a priority for women-in-leadership research to enable further theorizing and feminist progress.Originality/valueProfessor Sue Vinnicombe has dedicated her academic career to questioning barriers to women’s progress in management/leadership and actively influencing organisational practice. Sue was influential in the field before her first co-authored papers were published in Women in Management Review (our predecessor) in 2001 and 2002. Professor Sharon Mavin is a previous co-editor of Gender in Management: an international journal. Her first papers were published in Women in Management Review in 1999 and 2001. Sharon is co-editor of the Special Issue, women-in-leadership research and feminist futures: new agendas for feminist research and impact on gender equality.

How Does the Stock Market Value Female Directors? International Evidence

We analyze investors’ perception and long-term effects of board gender diversity on firms’ stock market performance in an international setting. Our results, controlling for the endogenous nature of board compositions, indicate that female board representation neither improves nor reduces firms’ long-term stock performance. Hence, we argue that it is imperative to go beyond the conventional thinking in terms of the business case for gender diversity and broaden the perspective also to incorporate societal and ethical aspects in the strive to board gender equality. Even more so, as our results show that it does not entail reduced shareholder value, which the literature on mandatory gender quotas commonly seems to suggest.

Rationales of gender diversity management policies and practices in India: an exploratory empirical study in the Indian IT/ITeS industry

PurposeThe Indian context is marked with weak anti-discrimination laws and patchy implementation of protection of civil rights of women at workplaces. The purpose of this paper is to unearth the rationales of the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in India, in the absence of laws and regulations.Design/methodology/approachInspiration is drawn from previous studies on diversity management in other national contexts, and a survey methodology was adopted. The lead researcher administered the questionnaires personally to all respondents to ensure that the understanding of the questions is uniform across respondents as gender diversity management is a relatively new concept in India.FindingsSize of the organisation (number of full-time employees), the influence of external organisations and perceived enhanced organisational flexibility were found to explain the adoption of gender diversity management policies and practices in the Indian IT/ITeS industry. Findings also indicate that Indian subsidiaries of foreign multinationals tend to adopt more gender diversity management policies and practices as compared to Indian-owned organisations.Research implicationsThis study provides evidence that organisations do not always enact structures or behaviours in the pursuit of normative rationality and also consider the economic value of them, establishing an organisational agency in adopting legitimated norms or practices. The study also shows that gender diversity management policies and practices are not only dependent on the enactment of laws but also are adopted because of the economic benefit perceived.Originality/valueDiversity management policies and practices have been mostly studied in national contexts with anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action programs and have been claimed to be a successor of equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies. In the absence of stringent laws to reduce or eliminate discrimination against women employees in Indian workplaces, this study contributes to the literature by determining whether the business case for gender diversity drives the adoption of gender diversity management in the Indian context.

Board Gender Diversity and its Effects on Capital Markets: New International Evidence

We analyze investors’ perception and long-term effects of board gender diversity on firms’ stock market performance in an international setting. Our results, controlling for the endogenous nature of board compositions, indicate that female board representation neither improves nor reduces firms’ long-term stock performance. Hence, we argue that it is imperative to go beyond the conventional thinking in terms of the business case for gender diversity and broaden the perspective also in order to incorporate societal and ethical aspects in the strive to board gender equality. Even more so, as our results show that it does not entail reduced shareholder value, which the literature on mandatory gender quotas commonly seems to suggest.

Beyond the Numbers: Substantive Gender Diversity in Boardrooms

The push for gender diversity on public companies' boards has been gaining traction. Advocacy groups, institutional investors, regulators and companies themselves have all recognized the need for more diverse boards. However, gender parity is still absent from most public companies' boards, and a significant number of companies still have no women on their boards. Current public and academic discourse has focused on the number of women serving on the board and their percentage compared to men as the litmus test for gender diversity. However, academic studies and the public push for more diversity have mostly failed to account for another important measure of board gender diversity - the actual role and clout that female directors have within the boardroom. This is what the Article terms as substantive gender diversity. Substantive gender diversity matters. It is at the core of both the social cause and the business case for gender diversity on boards. This Article explores this substantive component of board gender diversity through empirical data relating to the role that men and women play on corporate boards. The Article finds statistically significant differences between the roles of female and male directors. Building on these findings, the Article asserts that regulators, investors and companies must focus not only on increasing the number of women on boards but also on ensuring that female directors enjoy similar parity once elected. The Article then proposes a shift towards a Substantive Gender Diversity Disclosure regime, which would measure and report the substantive aspect of gender diversity in boardrooms.

Gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from Dutch and Danish boardrooms

Drawing on the business case for gender diversity, this article examines whether board gender diversity has a positive effect on firm performance, based on evidence from the Netherlands and Denmark. We use empirical data on 186 listed firms observed in 2007. Almost 40% have at least one woman in the boardroom. Within boards, the average share of women is only 5.4%. To investigate the impact of board gender diversity, two-stage least-squares estimation is applied, using Tobin’s Q as a measure of performance. Our findings indicate that on the basis of this data-set, there is no relation between board diversity and firm performance.

The Business Case for Gender Diversity: Examining the Role of Human Resource Management Investments

Integrating opposing theoretical perspectives from the past literature, the authors hypothesize and test a U‐shaped curvilinear relationship between gender diversity and workforce productivity. They further propose that the curvilinear effects vary depending on the levels of an organization's human resource management (HRM) investments in pay, benefit, training, and communication; that is, the patterns are more salient when HRM investments are high rather than low. To enhance understanding of how HRM investments have impact on diverse employees, the authors also examine the moderating influence of organizational identification of diverse members that can exert proximal influence on the diversity‐productivity relationship. As predicted, results reveal that high levels of HRM investments influence the gender diversity–workforce productivity association to form a U‐shaped curvilinear relationship. Organizational identification also yields the same moderating patterns. Research and practical implications are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The Bottom Line: Corporate Performance and Gender Diversity in the C-Suite (2004-2008)

This report makes the bottom-line business case for gender diversity in the C-Suite (2004-2008). The companies are Fortune 500. The performance measures are ROS, ROIC, and ROE. The results are similar to those published by Catalyst Inc for gender diversity in Corporate Boards, using the same companies and years.

Gender diversity and innovative performance

This paper aims to empirically assess the impact of gender diversity on innovative performance, specifically research and development (R&D) in companies, in exploring the business case for gender diversity. The study's originality lies in isolating the specific effect of gender diversity on innovative performance from the effects of other forms of diversity, particularly in terms of age, nationality, status and seniority. The results show that the innovative performance of both individuals and teams would be increased by more gender balance at the team level. Another finding is that women are over-represented in some domains and on projects that are not designed to be major contributors to the performance of the activity under study, which has a measurable cost in terms of performance. Two factors of success for businesses and science are allowing more women to take an active part in core R&D and developing appropriate diversity management strategies within research teams.

Delivering gender diversity: beyond the business case

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study of the development and implementation of a diversity strategy to recruit, retain and promote more women to partnership positions at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a global network of professional services firms. At PricewaterhouseCoopers gender diversity is a business issue, not a gender issue. The business case for gender diversity is undeniable and numerous studies underline the impact of women on the profitability of the organization. With women now representing half the workforce, the strategy now focuses on providing an environment that allows women to progress and to be successful in positions of leadership. This paper looks at the context and approach undertaken by the firm in addressing this issue, and the future implications in the context of both the firm's existing approach and the wider labor market and business environment.Design/methodology/approach – This paper examines the global context and drivers for the firm's gender policy de...