The impact of gender composition on team performance and decision-making: Evidence from the field

Jose Apesteguia, Ghazala Azmat and Nagore Iriberri

Economics Working Papers from Department of Economics and Business, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Abstract: We investigate whether the gender composition of teams affect their economic performance. We study a large business game, played in groups of three, where each group takes the role of a general manager. There are two parallel competitions, one involving undergraduates and the other involving MBAs. Our analysis shows that teams formed by three women are significantly outperformed by any other gender combination, both at the undergraduate and MBA levels. Looking across the performance distribution, we find that for undergraduates, three women teams are outperformed throughout, but by as much as 10pp at the bottom and by only 1pp at the top. For MBAs, at the top, the best performing group is two men and one woman. The differences in performance are explained by differences in decision-making. We observe that three women teams are less aggressive in their pricing strategies, invest less in R&D, and invest more in social sustainability initiatives, than any other gender combination teams. Finally, we find support for the hypothesis that it is poor work dynamics among the three women teams that drives the results.

Keywords: Gender; Teams; Performance; Decision-Making. leex (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D03 D21 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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Related works:
Working Paper: The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Performance and Decision-Making: Evidence from the Field (2015)
Journal Article: The Impact of Gender Composition on Team Performance and Decision Making: Evidence from the Field (2012)
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