Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
submittedVersion
Publication Date
2-2024
Abstract
Despite a growing interest in understanding how board diversity shapes firms’ innovation, findings about the impact of board diversity have remained mixed. In this paper, we conceptualize board diversity as two forms – deep-level and surface-level – and find that these two forms of board diversity have opposing effects on a firm's innovation. We also theorize how formal and informal social structures can strengthen the positive effect of deep-level diversity yet simultaneously weaken the negative impact of surface-level diversity. We test our hypotheses with a panel of 42,432 firm-year observations from 2000 to 2019. Our paper contributes to the literature on boards and innovation by highlighting and differentiating the mechanisms through which board diversity affects innovation, as well as showing how formal and informal structures can moderate the effects of board diversity.
Keywords
board diversity, firm innovation, social structure
Discipline
Organizational Behavior and Theory | Strategic Management Policy | Technology and Innovation
Research Areas
Strategy and Organisation
Publication
Journal of Management Studies
ISSN
0022-2380
Identifier
10.1111/joms.13040
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
CHEN, Guoli; HSU, Po-Hsuan; LEE, Yen Teik; and MACK, Daniel Z..
How deep-level and surface-level board diversity, formal and informal social structures affect innovation. (2024). Journal of Management Studies.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7466
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.13040
Included in
Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons, Strategic Management Policy Commons, Technology and Innovation Commons