Identity, Diversity, and Team Performance: Evidence from U.S. Mutual Funds

Richard B. Evans (), Melissa Porras Prado (), A. Emanuele Rizzo () and Rafael Zambrana ()
Additional contact information
Richard B. Evans: Darden School of Business, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Melissa Porras Prado: Nova School of Business and Economics, 2775-405 Carcavelos, Portugal
A. Emanuele Rizzo: Nova School of Business and Economics, 2775-405 Carcavelos, Portugal
Rafael Zambrana: Mendoza College of Business, Notre Dame University, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556

Management Science, 2025, vol. 71, issue 4, 3026-3051

Abstract: We examine team diversity and performance in the asset management industry through the lens of identity. Focusing on political ideology as the relevant dimension of identity, we find that diverse teams outperform homogeneous teams. The mechanism involves both improved decision making due to more diverse perspectives and increased monitoring by heterogeneous team members. The benefits of ideological diversity are undone when political polarization is higher, consistent with increased intrateam conflict. In examining why less diverse teams are prevalent in asset management, we find entrenched managers prefer homogeneous teams, and the local labor market supply of ideologically diverse managers is constrained.

Keywords: mutual fund; teams; dispersion in beliefs; identity; diversity; labor incentives; political ideology; campaign contributions; polarization; PACs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.00544 (application/pdf)

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:inm:ormnsc:v:71:y:2025:i:4:p:3026-3051

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Management Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().