Group Gender Composition and Economic Decision-Making

Karine Lamiraud and Radu Vranceanu

No WP1515, ESSEC Working Papers from ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School

Abstract: This paper analyses data collected in 2012 and 2013 at the ESSEC Business School from Kallystée, a proprietary mass-attendance business game. Company boards are simulated by groups of five students selected at random. We manipulate the gender composition of the management teams to allow for all possible gender combinations. We show that all-men and mixed teams with four women perform significantly better than all-women teams. However, when controlling for the average tolerance to risk of the teams, the performance advantage of all-men teams vanishes, while the “residual” economic performance of mixed-gender teams with a majority of women is still positive and strong. Further analysis of “actual” risk-taking behavior shows that in these mixed-gender teams a “risk shift” mechanism is at play, as they take risks beyond what their total tolerance to risk as a group would suggest.

Keywords: group decision; gender studies; risk-taking; business game; performance; governance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D71 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 26 pages
Date: 2015-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm and nep-exp
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Group Gender Composition and Economic Decision-Making (2017)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ebg:essewp:dr-15015

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