A Rivalry-Based Theory of Gender Diversity

John Mawdsley, Lionel Paolella and Rodolphe Durand
Additional contact information
John Mawdsley: HEC Paris
Lionel Paolella: University of Cambridge- Judge Business School
Rodolphe Durand: HEC Paris

No 1460, HEC Research Papers Series from HEC Paris

Abstract: We offer a rivalry-based perspective of gender diversity as a form of competitive action. We theorize that a firm adjusts its senior-level female representation when they identify business opportunities that may be seized by demonstrating alignment to gender parity expectations. Examining US corporate law firms and potential buyers of their services, we theorize and find that when the buyers of rivals of the focal firm increase their gender diversity, the focal firm responds by increasing its female partner representation. Reinforcing the strategic approach to managing gender diversity, we also show that a focal firm reduces its gender-related response to rivals’ buyers as the opportunity to attract those buyers decreases, and when the focal firm can use racial diversity as a credible substitute for gender diversity.

Keywords: Gender diversity; Competitive positioning; Rivalry; Strategic human capital; Buyer-supplier relationships; Professional service firms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 54 pages
Date: 2022-10-24
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-bec, nep-gen, nep-hrm and nep-mac
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4247950 Full text (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:heccah:1460

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in HEC Research Papers Series from HEC Paris HEC Paris, 78351 Jouy-en-Josas cedex, France. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Antoine Haldemann ().