Top Management Team Gender Diversity Research Articles

Top management team gender diversity and green innovation: A contingent curvilinear link

AbstractThe increasing significance of green innovation for firm competitiveness introduces greater risks and uncertain returns, challenging top managers' strategic decisions. The influence of top management team (TMT) characteristics, particularly gender diversity, on green innovation remains unclear. Drawing on gender difference and social identity theories, this study examines the curvilinear relationship between TMT gender diversity and green innovation among 2026 Chinese publicly listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2018. Through the use of fixed‐effects Poisson models to confirm our hypotheses, we uncover an inverted U‐shaped relationship between TMT gender diversity and green innovation. Furthermore, we delve into the contingent roles of individual, corporate, and industry factors affecting this primary relationship. Specifically, our findings reveal that the educational attainment of female executives and the strength of green industry innovation flatten the inverted U‐shaped curve between TMT gender diversity and green innovation, whereas state ownership steepen it. Our study resolves the inconsistencies found in previous research by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and offers empirical insights into the role of women in shaping sustainable development in emerging markets.

Parent firm reputational risk and TMT gender diversity of foreign subsidiaries

In this study, we fill an important gap in the literature by examining the impact of parent firms’ reputational risk on subsidiary top management team gender diversity (TMTGD). Drawing on signalling theory and framing TMTGD as a nonmarket social and political strategy, we hypothesize that foreign subsidiaries use gender diversity in their upper echelons in response to increased parent firms’ reputational risk to signal a commitment to gender equality causes and socio-economic development in host countries. Analyzing data from publicly traded Chinese foreign subsidiaries, we found support for our hypothesis. We also found that the impact of parent reputational risk on subsidiary TMTGD is contingent on subsidiary primary activity, host-country institutional gender parity, and home-host country institutional distance. This study makes important contributions to the international business corpus, especially to reputational risk and nonmarket strategy literature domains.

Women in C-suite: Does Top Management Team gender diversity matter? Evidence from firm investment efficiency.

Women in C-suite: Does Top Management Team gender diversity matter? Evidence from firm investment efficiency.

Institutional ownership and women in the top management team

The business community is interested in the issue of gender representation in the workplace and within the top management team (TMT). One avenue for increasing gender diversity of the TMT is pressure from shareholders. Institutional investors have largely replaced individual shareholders, and some institutions are outspoken about gender issues in the workplace. We appeal to stakeholder theory to develop the hypothesis about the impact of institutional ownership on TMT gender diversity. Empirical results show that institutional ownership is linked to higher proportion of top female executives. Our results also suggest that institutional investors achieve greater gender diversity of the TMT by making corporate boards conform to favored characteristics.

The influence of top management team gender diversity on firm performance during stable periods and economic crises: An instrumental variable analysis

Does a greater representation of women in top management teams (TMTs) contribute to higher firm performance? Although several studies have investigated this question, they have failed to sufficiently account for endogeneity. We address the endogeneity problem by using an instrumental variable (IV) design to estimate the causal effect of women’s representation in TMTs on firm performance. We use a shift-share or Bartik-type instrument, which is well-established in economics but has received little attention in management and leadership research. We analyze the effect of TMT gender diversity on four types of firm performance: profitability, market-based performance, liquidity, and growth. Our sample is based on firms in the S&P 1,500, which we observe over 24 years (1997–2020). Our findings indicate that TMT gender diversity positively affects the profitability, liquidity, and growth of firms but does not impact market-based performance. We also analyze whether the effect of TMT gender diversity was stronger during two economic crises, namely the 2008/2009 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, but our instrumental variable analysis provides no evidence for such an interaction effect. Our results are robust to multiple alternative specifications. This study contributes to research on strategic leadership, specifically regarding the effect of women leaders, as well as the crisis leadership literature.

Does leadership gender diversity drive corporate social responsibility and organizational outcomes? The role of organization size

Corporate scandals, environmental damages, and employment conditions have highlighted the importance of corporate social responsibility (CSR). However, little is known about (1) the simultaneous effects of board and top management team (TMT) gender diversity on CSR, (2) the mediating role of CSR between leadership (board/TM) gender diversity and organizational outcomes, and (3) the above-noted effects vary between large versus small organizations. Drawn from social role theory, we test our hypotheses using multisource time-lagged data from 248 organizations. The results indicate that both board and TMT gender diversity are positively associated with CSR. Moreover, CSR had a positive effect on both perceived organizational performance and employee productivity, with CSR also mediating the relationship between board gender diversity and perceived organizational performance. The findings also show the moderating effect of organization size on the CSR–organizational outcomes relationship. Our results refine (differential effects of gender diversity on CSR depending on the role), extend (some unprecedented effects were found for perceived organizational performance and employee productivity), and qualify (effects were significant for large organizations) social role theory. Our research addresses the above-noted knowledge gaps and informs the contextual leadership gender diversity practice for improved CSR and organizational outcomes. JEL Classification: M12, M14

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.

Top management team gender diversity and the financial performance of Vietnamese SMEs: family and non-family owned firms

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the gender diversity of top management teams (TMTs) on the financial performance (FP) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. This paper also examines the moderating effect of family control on this relationship.Design/methodology/approachUsing a sample of SMEs in Vietnam, this paper uses descriptive statistics and balance panel regression with random effect to analyse 5,160 firm-year observations of family- and non-family-owned SMEs between 2011 and 2015.FindingsThe findings demonstrate that gender diversity in TMTs shows a negative relationship with the FP of family-controlled SMEs and no significant impact on FP of non-family SMEs. This study also illustrates a positive curvilinear relationship between the female manager rate in TMTs and firms’ FP in family SMEs.Research limitations/implicationsThis research study is limited to data from Vietnamese SMEs. Future studies could investigate these relationships with larger firms and in a broader geographical context.Originality/valueThis study provides a better understanding of the impact of TMT gender diversity on FP in Vietnamese SMEs while considering the moderating effect of family control. The findings support some theories relating to managerial gender diversity and the effect of family control on this diversity in family SMEs.

Women in top management teams and their impact on innovation

In this study, we integrate insights from the literature on top management team (TMT) composition, gender diversity, and cumulative innovation, and examine how TMT gender diversity (or women in TMTs) impacts firm innovation. We analyze a panel of U.S. firms over the period 2005–2019, exploiting U.S. state-level variation in support policies protecting the rights of female workers. We find that greater TMT gender diversity increases the number of innovations but decreases their impact. Furthermore, greater TMT gender diversity narrows the breadth of search (search becomes more local). We illuminate the multifaceted innovation outcomes of gender-diverse TMTs and highlight the risk-reducing effects of female TMT members in innovation contexts. Our study provides opportune innovation insights that are much needed in the current era, with the increasing presence of female executives in TMTs.

Enhancing innovation through gender diversity: a two-country study of top management teams

PurposeBuilding on upper echelons theory, the authors advance the literature on the influence of diversity on innovation by studying the link between top management team (TMT) gender diversity and innovation performance and the link's boundary conditions.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyze survey data from 390 manufacturing establishments in Germany and India through an ordinary least square (OLS) regression analysis.FindingsTMT gender diversity is positively related to innovation performance. The influence of gender diversity on innovation performance is not strengthened by team level attributes, including cognitive proficiency and openness to external information. In contrast, TMT gender diversity enhances innovation performance more strongly in Germany than in India, indicating the relevance of country-level cultural norms for leveraging gender diversity.Research limitations/implications The authors' study is built on data from two countries only, based on TMTs in the manufacturing sector and cross-sectional. Future studies may address these limitations by considering more countries, examining TMTs in the service sector and applying experimental or longitudinal research designs.Practical implicationsExecutives should establish gender diverse TMTs to enhance innovation performance and leverage diverse views of male and female managers effectively. Managers located in countries with strongly hierarchical cultural norms should promote egalitarian values at the organizational level to increase the effectiveness of gender diverse TMTs.Originality/valueThis is the first study which examines the moderating effect of country-level cultural norms on the relationship between TMT gender diversity and innovation performance.

Women leaders and corporate social performance: do critical mass, CEO managerial ability and corporate governance matter?

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the impact of top management team (TMT)'s gender diversity on corporate social performance (CSP). It sheds light on inconsistent results in literature by testing the moderator effects of chief executive officer (CEO) managerial ability and corporate governance (CG) on such impact.Design/methodology/approachA dynamic panel estimator is applied to an international sample of 8640 firm‐year observations from 2013 to 2017.FindingsThe author finds reliable evidence that the critical mass of at least three women leaders has a positive impact on the firm's CSP. Obtained results suggest, moreover, the deterrence effects of CEO managerial ability and CG tools (board independence, board gender diversity, the presence of a corporate social responsibility committee and family control) on the women leaders' contribution to the firm's CSP level. These results remain consistent with alternative measures for women leaders and CEO managerial ability. However, findings are lost when women achieve the CEO position, the chairperson position or both positions, which imply that men and women leadership styles are closely similar rather than different. Furthermore, women leaders' effect on CSP seems dependent (do not) on the country (industry) which a firm belongs to.Practical implicationsFrom a practical standpoint, the study highlights the importance of fostering the achievement of a critical mass of women leaders and the combination of CEO managerial ability – educational/professional backgrounds – and CG attributes to improve the firm's CSP. The study has important implications for investors and regulators. If investors wish to increase CSP, they should ask for more gender diversified TMTs. Furthermore, this study supports regulators in their efforts to increase senior women's quotas by providing empirical evidence of better social outcomes under leader gender diversity. The study’s evidence is also useful for companies in setting the criteria to identify CEOs who can support their strategic decisions.Originality/valueBy studying the impact female leaders have on CSP under CEO managerial ability and CG as moderators, this study is the first to display complementarities and substitutions between CEO's managerial ability and selected CG attributes in the promotion of CSP by female senior executives. Furthermore, it fills the void on how TMT's gender diversity impact CSP. In fact, while it is conventionally considered that women are more likely to engage in socially responsible activities, sensitive findings of this study shed light on the brighter side of female executives when they achieve the CEO, the chairperson position or both positions.

Top management team gender diversity and firm risk-taking in the hospitality industry

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the link between top management team (TMT) gender diversity and firm risk-taking in hospitality companies. The study also links female leadership to risk-taking. Finally, this study examines the moderating effects of TMT incentive pay and TMT age on the relationship between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses an unbalanced data set of 81 hospitality firms and 888 firm-year observations over the period of 1992–2020. The study uses fixed-effects regression estimation for primary analyses and addresses potential endogeneity concerns via two-stage least square regression with firm fixed-effects instrumental variable regression. Risk-taking is measured by total firm risk (i.e. the annualized volatility of daily stock returns). Main results are supported with alternative measures of firm risk and estimation methods.FindingsThe study finds that increasing TMT gender diversity leads to a reduction in firm risk-taking in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the study finds that hospitality firms led by a female CEO experience lower firm risk compared to firms led by a male CEO. Finally, the study finds evidence that the relationship between TMT gender diversity and firm risk is contingent on the level of incentive pay awarded to TMT members and the age of TMT members. Increasing incentive pay and aging executive teams decrease the risk reduction effect of TMT gender diversity.Practical implicationsThe findings of this study recommend that firm risk-taking in the hospitality industry is related to gender diversity in TMTs. Hence, the board of directors should pay attention to gender composition for executive positions for risk management. Moreover, the results also suggest that care should be exercised when using incentive pay to align the interests of managers and shareholders. Finally, the board of directors needs to consider both gender diversity and age of the TMT members for TMT composition to manage executives’ risk-taking behavior.Originality/valueThis study fills a research gap in the hospitality literature by providing empirical evidence for the link between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking. Additionally, the study introduces incentive pay and age of TMT as contingency factors for the link between TMT gender diversity and firm risk-taking.

The Effect of Top Management Team Gender Diversity on Climate Change Management: An International Study

The aim of this research was to assess the effect of top management team gender diversity on firms’ effective commitment to climate change management from two new perspectives: a more detailed analysis of gender diversity in corporate management and an international analysis of the phenomenon. Broadening climate change management assessment through selected CDP qualitative metrics for governance, risk management and strategy provides a more in-depth view of climate change managerial practices. Even though a growing body of academic literature highlights the potential positive impact of gender diversity, this empirical research based on a sample of 836 firms from 16 developed countries provides mainly inconclusive results. These results may be explained first by a still insufficient and below critical mass, percentage of women within top management teams; and second, by a selection bias, as only the best performers disclose their climate change management data. This also calls for companies to improve their gender diversity among the top management team, and for regulators to further extend compulsory climate change management reporting.

The impact of TMT gender diversity on corporate environmental strategy in emerging economies

Drawing on upper echelon theory, we examine how top management team (TMT) gender diversity impacts the adoption of environmental standards in emerging countries. We further examine how this impact is affected by women executives’ personal attributes as well as organizational and institutional conditions. Using panel data from 490 firms in three highly polluted emerging countries (China, India and Pakistan) and employing Probit instrumental variable regressions, we find that the proportion of women in TMTs is positively related to the likelihood of ISO 14001 certification and renewal. Additionally, we find that high institutional gender parity, women executives’ power and CSR committees strengthen this relationship. Our findings, which demonstrate a systematic translation of women’s values into environmental strategy, make important contributions to literature and practice.

The performance impact of gender diversity in the top management team and board of directors: A multiteam systems approach

AbstractGiven the mixed evidence that having both women and men in the top management team (TMT) or in the board of directors (BOD) has a significant influence on organizational innovation, we resolve this issue by conceptualizing TMT–BOD gender diversity as part of a multiteam system, that has joint effects which impact organizational innovation. Evidence from the study of both Chinese firms and UK firms confirm our conceptualization by showing an interaction effect between TMT gender diversity and BOD gender diversity such that innovation is greatest when both are high. The positive TMT–BOD gender diversity interaction effect on innovation improves subsequent firm performance particularly in dynamic environments. The findings refine current thinking by going beyond research that tests intra‐team TMT or BOD diversity independently and instead considers inter‐team diversity across both leadership teams within the strategic leadership upper echelons. In sum, findings show that high levels of TMT and BOD gender diversity result in more organizational innovation, which ultimately improves firm performance. We offer implications for women's inclusion in leadership as well as for research on the upper echelons.

What’s It Like Inside the Hive? Managerial Discretion Drives TMT Gender Diversity of Women-Led Firms

Do women promote other women? We investigate this question through the lens of gender role theory and managerial discretion. While the trickle-down effect suggests that women in positions of power are likely to promote other women, the queen bee phenomenon indicates that senior women distance themselves from other women. We argue these two conflicting perspectives have developed because (a) much of the literature has considered the influence of board gender representation on top management team (TMT) gender representation, ignoring the role of the CEO, and (b) an important tenet of the queen bee phenomenon has been overlooked in that women who perceive an ability to challenge traditional gender norms are less likely to engage in queen bee behavior. Thus, we suggest women CEOs, who are in a unique position of both importance and isolation, are less likely to promote other women to the TMT due to the gendered context in which they are employed, but as the CEO’s capacity to enact change (i.e., managerial discretion) increases, so too does their ability to challenge traditional gender norms. More specifically, we hypothesize and find that while the presence of women CEOs negatively relates to the proportion of women on the TMT, this relationship is weakened by CEO power, lack of board vigilance, and environmental munificence. Post hoc analyses demonstrated that while a trickle-down effect occurs from the board to the TMT, these mechanisms may not exist at the CEO-TMT interface, highlighting the importance of considering the role of CEO discretion in enhancing executive gender diversity.

The emergence of TMT learning goal orientation: contextual effects of TMT demographic diversity on TMT cognitive processes

This study examines the contingent influence of top management team (TMT) compositional diversity on the emergence of TMT learning climate. Based on a sample of 61 TMTs in Vietnam, the results show that TMT functional diversity exerts a positive moderating effect on the mediating process between TMT cognitive diversity and TMT learning goal orientation (LGO), providing confirmatory evidence for the positive effect of functional diversity on TMT dynamics. Nonetheless, neither TMT gender diversity nor educational diversity exhibits significant moderating impact on the development of TMT learning dynamics, suggesting that while social categorizations are conducive for the evolution of team climate in Western contexts, other compositional attributes such as relationship-based representations may be more prominent in East Asian culture. We contribute to the team learning literature by offering an integrated picture on how the interplay of TMT cognitive and demographic diversities determines executive members’ divergent attitude and then team learning proclivity.

The Performance Impact of Gender Diversity in the Top Management Team and Board of Directors: A Multiteam Systems Approach

Given the mixed evidence that having both women and men in the top management team (TMT) or in the board of directors (BOD) has a significant influence on organizational innovation, we resolve this issue by conceptualizing TMT-BOD gender diversity as part of a multiteam system, that has joint effects which impact organizational innovation. Evidence from the study of both Chinese firms and United Kingdom firms confirm our conceptualization by showing an interaction effect between TMT gender diversity and BOD gender diversity such that innovation is greatest when both are high. The positive TMT-BOD gender diversity interaction effect on innovation improves subsequent firm performance, particularly in dynamic environments. The findings refine current thinking by going beyond research that tests intra-team TMT or BOD diversity independently and instead considers inter-team diversity across both leadership teams within the strategic leadership upper echelons. In sum, findings show that high levels of TMT and BOD gender diversity result in more organizational innovation, which ultimately improves firm performance. We offer implications for women’s inclusion in leadership as well as for research on the upper echelons.

Perceived TMT transformational leadership and a service recovery culture: the moderating role of gender diversity

PurposeThis is an exploratory study with the purpose of empirically testing and advancing knowledge on the relationship between top management team (TMT) leadership styles and a service recovery culture. A further test explores a contingency perspective, examining if gender diversity on the TMT shapes this relationship.Design/methodology/approachWe examine the perceived TMT transformational leadership style, as well as the moderating effect of TMT gender diversity. Relying on both survey and archival data, our hypotheses are tested with a sample of 234 public firms based in the United States. Moderated hierarchical regression analysis is used as the statistical approach.FindingsResults suggest that perceived TMT transformational leadership is positively associated with a service recovery culture. When accounting for TMT gender diversity, the relationship between perceived TMT transformational leadership and a service recovery culture is positively moderated.Research limitations/implicationsThe study represents a sample of for-profit public firms operating in the United States and should not be taken as a general population sample. The findings could vary relative to other countries, private companies and non-profit organizations.Originality/valueThis is the first known study to explore the relationship between TMT leadership styles, TMT gender diversity and a service recovery culture. The study extends findings with the respect to the impact of TMT leadership and gender diversity on organizational development, as well as offers new insights into the antecedents of a service recovery culture.

Upper Echelons, Gender Diversity, and Environmental Strategy in Emerging Economies

Drawing on upper echelon theory, we examine how top management team (TMT) gender diversity impacts ISO 14001 certification in emerging countries. We further examine how this impact is affected by women executives’ personal attributes as well as organizational and institutional conditions. Using panel data from 490 firms in three highly polluted emerging countries (China, India and Pakistan) and employing Probit instrumental variable regressions, we find that the proportion of women in TMTs is positively related to the likelihood of ISO 14001 certification and renewal. Additionally, we find that high institutional gender parity, women executives’ power and CSR committees strengthen the relationship between TMT gender diversity and ISO 14001 adoption. Our findings, which demonstrate a systematic translation of women’s values into environmental strategy, make important contributions to literature and practice.