Gender diversity in senior management, strategic change, and firm performance: Examining the mediating nature of strategic change in high tech firms

Abstract

Only recently have enough women joined senior leadership positions in high tech firms for research on senior management gender diversity in high tech industries to be possible. We propose that senior management gender diversity fosters strategic change in high tech firms, especially under conditions where alliance formation intensity and top management team (TMT) educational background diversity are high, because the breadth of opportunity and knowledge associated with these conditions facilitates implementation of new ideas. Results show that both inter-organizational strategic alliance formation intensity and TMT educational background diversity positively moderate the relationship between senior management gender diversity and strategic change. We also find support for a moderated mediation model whereby a gender-diverse senior management positively impacts strategic change, which ultimately improves firm performance when the firm exhibits high alliance formation intensity and has a TMT that is diverse across educational background.