Search results

Unlike the earlier research that examines gender impact at the individual level, the purpose of this paper is to examine whether and how gender composition of virtual communities (VCs) interact with identity-related needs, namely identification and identity confirmation in affecting VC participation.

Drawing on the theories and previous research of social identity and organizational identification, the study developed and tested a new research model through an online survey involving three male dominant VCs and one female-dominant VC.

The results show that identification and identity confirmation are two independent antecedents for VC participation. Identification is a significant and stable determinant for members’ VC participation regardless of gender composition, but the effect of identity confirmation on VC participation is only significant for those in a female-dominant VC.

The results of the study represent the first attempt to empirically examine the dual identity processes for VC participation. The results also imply that gender composition shapes, to some extent, VC members’ communication strategies, contents, and social interaction norms. Gender composition also affects the expectations for VC participation in terms of identification and identity confirmation.

The results of the study offer practical value for VC design and management, marketing through social media, as well as online education such as virtual team learning and teaching.

This study extends and advances the existing research in several ways. To the best of the authors knowledge, the study is the first of its kind to address the interplays among identification, identity confirmation, and VC participation from a gender composition perspective.

The purpose of the paper is to examine the gender composition and structure of the board of directors in not‐for‐profit organisations and their relation to firm‐level entrepreneurship.

Data were collected through a survey sent to Swedish riding schools. The paper focuses on not‐for‐profit associations and the analysis is based on 60 respondents. The data were analysed by multivariate methods.

The overall gender composition of boards had no influence on firm‐level entrepreneurship. However, a high proportion of women in powerful positions were found to have a positive influence on one of the study's two dimensions of firm‐level entrepreneurship, i.e. strategic opportunism. No influence concerning gender in powerful positions was found on risk taking, the other dimension of firm‐level entrepreneurship.

The attention to gender composition not only focuses on the board at large, but also highlights the specific positions of the chairperson, secretary and treasurer in the board structure. Another valuable insight concerns firm‐level entrepreneurship, here treated as a two‐dimensional concept, consisting of strategic opportunism and risk taking, which finds support in the analysis. Further, the empirical data were collected from an industry that includes a high proportion of women on the boards, i.e. the Swedish riding school industry. The study contributes to the debate concerning the gender composition on the board of directors where a high proportion of women in powerful positions is positively related with strategic opportunism.

The purpose of this study is to estimate the effects of gender composition in the workplace on employee job satisfaction and commitment.

The data were collected on both the organizational and employee levels at three different points in time in organizations with more than 70 employees. Multi-level mixed-effects ordered logistics regressions were used to account for the multi-level nature of the data and the ordered nature of the dependent variables.

Employees in gender-balanced workplaces show higher levels of job satisfaction and commitment than those in female-dominated or male-dominated workplaces. The relationship is also based on the gender of the individual, as men show a significantly lower level of both job satisfaction and commitment when working in male-dominated workplaces than others, while for women, the effect is only significant for commitment.

Aiming for a balance in the gender composition of the workplace may improve employee attitudes, especially for men. The results also indicate that further research is warranted into why job satisfaction and commitment are significantly lower among men in male-dominated workplaces.

The relationship between gender and job satisfaction and commitment is well established, but less is known about the effects of gender composition on job satisfaction and commitment. Previous papers have focused on job satisfaction. This paper extends prior studies by estimating the effects of gender composition on both job satisfaction and commitment using multi-level regressions on a rich dataset.

The purpose of this article is to address and gain a more complete understanding of the effects on performance attributable to the gender composition of teams.

The authors examined gender as a team composition variable that influences performance on a computer‐based task, and we investigated task framing (masculine/feminine) and competition (isolated/dyad) as explanatory factors in the gender composition‐performance relationship. Whereas previous research combines matched gender dyads in analyses, we distinguished male/male from female/female dyads to isolate the effects on performance and examine competition effects.

Distinguishing between male/male and female/female dyads revealed only male/male dyads had superior performance. Task framing was not supported as an explanation for the observed performance differences, but competition was. Contrasting the gender effect in competitive conditions relative to isolated conditions revealed a gender difference in performance between competitive conditions only.

Given competition's clear role in the gender composition‐performance relationship, a more rigorous examination and manipulation of competition is needed beyond the comparison of isolated and dyadic conditions.

Previous research suggests to organizations/practitioners that matching teams by gender will result in optimal performance. Based on our findings, such an implementation would be to the detriment of female teams in the organization, and associated legal issues could arise.

The authors found the superior performance of matched teams to be attributable to the matching of male/male teams and the associated competitive context, and not attributable to matched teams in general. The results should be considered as a caution for both the academic and applied domain alike.

Across different research fields, it is increasingly acknowledged that gender is not a binary variable and goes beyond the male–female dichotomy. At the same time, gender is a prominent social cue that affects evaluations and interactions among individuals. Thus, gender can impact social processes on many levels in complex ways. Meetings provide arenas where key social processes unfold that are relevant to the organization. Understanding which role gender takes in this context is therefore central to organizations as well as meeting research. This chapter provides a critical review of research to date on social influence in meetings, specifically zooming in on the role of gender. The authors conducted a multi-step systematic literature review and identified 43 studies across a wide area of disciplines (e.g., psychology, communication, and management). The authors put special emphasis on the methodologies employed across this work since a comprehensive understanding of the applied methods is core for a synthesis of research results. Through the analysis, the authors pinpoint six variables – individual gender, sex role orientation, gender composition, gender salience, contextual factors such as task type and organizational settings, and the construction of gender as a social concept – that are directly related to gender and which represent factors that are critical for the role of gender in the meeting context. Thereby, this chapter aims to provide a roadmap for researchers and practitioners interested in the role of gender during workplace meetings. The authors conclude by highlighting methodological and managerial recommendations and suggest avenues for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess whether the gender composition of the board of directors affects the sensitivity to gender issues in defining university strategies and therefore strategic plans.

The authors conducted an ordinary least square regression to test the relationship between gender sensitivity approach and board composition in Italian state universities (ISUs). The authors measured the gender sensitivity approach of each university by an index (gender sensitivity approach index) determined based on content analysis. Gender board composition is, instead, analyzed by heterogeneity (homogeneity) index (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index) of the board.

The finding suggests that, if the board has a certain level of heterogeneity, then university strategic plan (USP) is a more gender-sensitive approach.

The study analyses only the 2018 USPs of ISUs and considers the presence of women within the board, and not their actual role and their position in the university hierarchy.

The practical implication of this study is that if universities want to guarantee gender equality, they should open their boards more widely to women.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first work that analyzes the relationships between board composition and sensitivity to gender issues within the USPs. The paper therefore contributes to the literature on governance in the public sector, particularly in universities. Moreover, it stimulates the accounting debate on gender issue and highlights that gender issues cannot be taken up by decision-making bodies that are not heterogeneous enough.

This study develops a social psychological model to account for women’s gender‐typed occupational mobility. The model delineates that occupational gender composition affects women’s psychological experience (experience of sex discrimination, self‐efficacy, and gender role ideology), and that this psychological experience, in turn, contributes to their mobility between male‐dominated and female‐dominated occupations. Using the National Longitudinal Surveys (NLS) of Young Women data, the study finds that occupational gender composition affects women’s report of experience of sex discrimination but not self‐efficacy or gender role ideology. Self‐efficacy contributes to women’s gender‐typed occupational mobility, but experience of sex discrimination and gender role ideology do not. The direction for future research is discussed.

This paper aims to examine the association between gender composition of joint auditor pairs and the quality of reported financial information. More specifically, the authors attempt to assess whether and how these gender compositions affect the client firms’ earnings management behavior.

The authors utilized the unique institutional setting of Taiwan, where joint auditors are required by law. They studied the effect of gender in joint auditor pairs on accrual earnings management and real earnings management to achieve financial reporting objectives.

Empirical results indicate that engaging a woman as the lead auditor can constrain accrual earnings management, regardless of whether the joint auditor is male or female. The authors also found that all-male signing auditor pairs with industry expertise can significantly reduce accrual earnings management. The authors also documented that all-female signing auditor pairs and auditor industry expertise could drive clients to engage in real earnings management activities as an alternative to accrual earnings management.

The empirical results demonstrate that gender indeed plays a role in the quality of client’s reported financial information. Female auditors in a lead position and male auditors with industry expertise tend to be more successful in delivering better-quality audits.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the difference in the effect on external marketing effectiveness of gender similar boards and gender dissimilar boards in the agro-manufacturing industry in Zimbabwe.

Based on a multi-item construct of external marketing effectiveness, data were gathered from 56 agro-manufacturing firms. The significant differences in the effect of marketing activities designed by male, gender-diverse and female boards on the level of external marketing effectiveness of the firms were examined using MANOVA.

The results suggest significant differences on the levels of external marketing effectiveness between all female boards and all male and gender-diverse boards. Female boards indicated high levels of external marketing effectiveness on customer-perceived value, loyalty, satisfaction, brand performance and symbolic meaning. The study concludes that marketing effectiveness will only be achieved by firms that develop relevant marketing strategies for the female consumer market.

The sample for this research was drawn from agro-manufacturing firms in Zimbabwe. Therefore, the applicability of these findings to other countries should be done with caution. In addition, the sample for the research was rather small, with only a few female boards. If conducted with a larger sample, the results could be different. The developed scale to measure external marketing effectiveness may require to be tested by other researchers in different settings to confirm its applicability in measuring the construct in multiple settings.

Prior research shows that corporate board effectiveness has tended to be measured in terms of corporate financial performance. This research measures board effectiveness from the extent to which its gender composition has an effect on the ability of manufacturing firms to serve emerging needs of female consumers.

Mentoring relationships have been proposed as a potential intervention to alleviate gender disparities in scholarly output. Yet, previous research has not provided a systematic understanding of the relationship between mentoring and scholarly output. The authors propose that individuals with a proactive personality are especially suited to leverage mentoring relationships to enhance scholarly outcomes. Structural features of mentoring relationships – gender composition, mentor supervisory status, and mentoring relationship length – provide cues that encourage the expression of proactive personality and result in higher scholarly impact.

Data were collected via surveys from faculty members in a US university and were matched with objective scholarly impact data. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used for hypothesis testing.

The impact of proactive personality on scholarly impact was more positive for women protégés with women mentors than for all other mentor-protégé pairings. Results also showed support for two hypothesized three-way interactions with mentor status and mentoring relationship length.

This research provides insights into the contexts where mentorship makes the most difference in protégés' scholarly achievement. Gender composition of mentoring dyads and mentor status are important boundary conditions that impact the effect of proactive personality on scholarly output.