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The COVID-19 pandemic may negatively impact the careers of U.S. women faculty in computer science (CS) – a field with few women and high attrition rates among women – due to difficulties balancing increased work and family demands (author citation). Thus, it is important to understand whether supervisors may help to decrease this work-to-life conflict and increase the odds of retaining women faculty. This study examined whether family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) were associated with better retention-related job outcomes (e.g., lower turnover intentions) among women faculty in CS, and whether this association was mediated by lower work-to-life conflict.

A total of 379 CS faculty across the U.S. (54% women, 52% with children at home) were surveyed during the COVID-19 pandemic (Fall 2020-Spring 2021).

Compared to men, women CS faculty reported significantly higher work-to-life conflict, and that higher work-to-life conflict predicted poorer retention-related work outcomes for all faculty. However, for women only, FSSB predicted lower levels of work-to-life conflict, and in turn, better retention-related work outcomes.

Results suggest that emotionally-supportive supervisor behaviors may lower work-to-life conflict during the pandemic, which has important implications for retention-related work outcomes among women faculty in CS.

Research has yet to disentangle how managers can help to retain women CS faculty in light of the increasing and changing work and home demands due to the pandemic. The present study focused on whether FSSB – particularly emotional support – may benefit women CS faculty.

Following Goldberg’s paradigm, this study aims to investigate whether women and men are at risk of differential treatment by HR professionals in recruitment and dismissal processes and focuses on the impact of exogenous factors, such as discrimination and gender norms.

A total of 155 individuals with experience as HR professionals participated in a randomised vignette study. In Task 1, they evaluated three applicants (all three either men or women) for the post of regional sales manager based on the applicant’s competences, hireability, likeability and proposed salary. In Task 2, participants were asked to select one of the six employees for dismissal and provide a rationale for their choice.

In Task 1, female applicants were offered significantly lower salaries than male applicants. In addition, average and low-performing male applicants were assessed as less likeable than identical females. In Task 2, the willingness to dismiss increased when employees with frequent absences were presented as men.

By involving a sample of HR professionals, the study contributes to the literature and practice by highlighting the differential treatment of women and men in the labour market. While women are likely to experience direct discrimination in the form of significantly lower pay offers, men may suffer a backlash due to lower educational attainment and absenteeism. The findings suggest that the labour market situation for women is complex and affected by norms and expectations requiring men to behave in a masculine and career-oriented way.

This paper aims to present a comprehensive theoretical framework that seeks to explore the impact of cultural, legal and social factors within the external environment on the relationship between women on corporate boards and firm performance. By investigating these boundary conditions, the paper aims to shed light on how these pressures influence the aforementioned relationship.

To build the sample of companies, the authors selected companies listed on the stock exchanges of countries that represent a diverse range of institutional contexts. These contexts encompass countries with individualistic cultures, collectivist cultures, environments with mandatory gender quotas, environments without gender quotas, contexts with substantial progress toward gender equality and contexts with limited progress in achieving gender equality. To test the hypotheses, the authors used linear regression analysis as a primary analytical approach. Furthermore, they used the propensity score matching technique to address potential issues of reverse causality and unobserved heterogeneity.

The findings indicate that the positive influence of a critical mass of women on corporate boards on firm performance is contingent upon the institutional context. Specifically, the authors observed that this relationship is strengthened in institutional contexts characterized by an individualistic culture, whereas it is not as pronounced in collectivist cultural contexts. Furthermore, this research provides compelling evidence that the presence of a critical mass of women on boards leads to enhanced firm performance in institutional settings where gender quotas are not binding, as opposed to settings where such quotas are enforced. Lastly, the results demonstrate that the presence of a critical mass of women on boards is associated with improved firm performance in institutional settings characterized by low progress in achieving gender equality. However, the authors did not observe the same effect in institutional contexts that have made significant strides toward gender equality.

This research offers a unique perspective by investigating the relationship between women’s presence on corporate boards and firm performance across different institutional contexts. In this investigation, the authors recognize that gender diversity on corporate boards is not a one-size-fits-all solution and that its effects can be shaped by the unique institutional contexts in which companies operate.

The corporate communications literature recently focused on corporate board gender diversity, specifically looking at two central aspects: gender quotas and equitable target percentages for women on corporate boards. This paper extends the debate by focusing on board gender diversity and critical mass theory.

The paper gives a conceptual viewpoint on the issues raised in the literature on board gender diversity through a critical mass theory lens.

Following the 2022 European Union (EU) directive, all EU member states will have to attain a 40% women representation on large corporate boards to achieve board gender diversity and what has been termed a “critical mass”. However, the literature indicates that gender diversity benefits may not be achieved if a critical mass is not composed of independent women directors who create a voice that produces a collective action. The authors highlight why a critical mass may not be achieved. The inconsistency in prior research linking corporate board gender diversity to economic performance may result from the critical mass of women directors not reflecting an independent collective action. However, as gender-diverse boards evolve, the authors argue that women will not just be seen as female directors but will be accepted on equal terms with their male counterparts and have an equal voice; gender will no longer be an issue and critical mass theory may then become irrelevant.

From a corporate communications perspective, this study will focus the minds of human resources (HR) professionals on the importance of the composition of women on corporate boards if the HR professionals wish to obtain the full potential benefits of board gender diversity. Theoretically, this study highlights the importance of critical mass and collective action when researching the economic benefits of corporate board gender diversity. Investment analysts may wish to look more closely at the structure of corporate boards and not just the numbers.

This paper gives a conceptual viewpoint on the critical mass theory and corporate board gender diversity, identifying that it is not just the numbers that are important but also the issue of minority independence and collective action, and this is, therefore, unique in this respect. Future research should identify if a critical mass (not just numbers) of women on corporate boards has been achieved. Only then that the linkage, based on critical mass theory, between board gender diversity and corporate performance/profitability can be made. Knowing whether board sizes are being increased to accommodate the added female directors would be also interesting, or will the new female directors replace existing male directors? However, the most important research question, once gender diversity has been achieved, could be: Is critical mass theory relevant with respect to board gender diversity?

The paper focusses on the intrapersonal vs environmental barriers to women's career advancement to the top leadership positions in the information and communication technology (ICT) business and envisages the individual, organisational as well as societal practices for overcoming such barriers in the given sector.

The study relies on the qualitative research method of expert interviews with top-level women managers in the leading ICT companies in Lithuania. The study allowed identifying and structuring the key barriers to women's careers and three-level practices for overcoming them.

The research has shown that the key intrapersonal barriers are related to the lack of self-confidence and perceived glass ceiling. The main environmental barriers are male domination and socially gendered professions. The practices for overcoming women's career barriers can be categorised into three levels – individual, organisational and societal. The study has shown that the most important individual practices are the ability to continuously self-educate and self-affirmation. On the organisational level, the following key practices can be applied: mentorship and inclusive company culture. The societal practices for improving women's career advancement in ICT are mainly represented by the visibility of successful leaders as role models and initiatives increasing awareness for an inclusive society.

The research limitations are largely related to the research sample selected for the qualitative research (interviews). The respondents are already established in the top leadership positions, so may only have a retrospective view on the obstacles to the respondents' careers. A larger sample could provide a more generalisable data, whilst a larger number of interview participants for preselected categories, like company category or tenure in a position, would provide insights on the different stages of career growth and company's influence for the individual's growth. The authors encourage extending research to other sectoral and national contexts.

The research sets out the key barriers that can be overcome with the help of individual, organisational and societal practices. This provides a comprehensive list of practices that can be adopted by the organisations (in the ICT and beyond), as well as the policy makers on the societal level.

Addressing the issues of gender balance and women's career advancement in one of the fastest growing industries (ICT) has profound social implications. Qualitative research has shown how the barriers can be overcome at different levels of the social system.

The paper marks one of the first attempts to introduce a three-level approach to addressing the intrapersonal and environmental barriers to the advancement of women's careers with a particular focus on the ICT sectoral context.

Literature around the careers of female academics is targeted mainly toward identifying and examining career progression inhibitors, while the drivers appear largely unexplored. This paper aims to contribute to contemporary knowledge by identifying drivers to the career progression of female academics in Australia. With COVID-19 currently impacting the careers of female academics this knowledge can assist universities and human resource (HR) professionals in developing policies and practices to better facilitate female academic career progression.

Empirically this paper draws on a qualitative study of 18 male and 29 female academics, as well as nine senior university stakeholders. The authors employed semi-structured interviews and a novel methodology, Draw, Write, Reflect.

In line with attribution theory, senior stakeholders mainly identified organisational efforts, including leadership, gender equity endeavours, recruitment and promotion approaches, as well as a construct known as “relative to opportunity considerations”, as drivers of female academics’ career progression. Female academics, however, largely attributed their career progression to personal factors, such as family support, informal mentoring, and determination and persistence.

The findings have implications for universities and HR practices seeking to facilitate female academic career progression. Implementation of the drivers identified may enhance female academics’ abilities to progress their careers.

By focussing on the drivers of, rather than the barriers to, female academic careers, the research is novel in its identification of a previously unexplored mismatch between organisational attribution and individual attribution of career progression drivers thereby advancing knowledge of gender differences in academic careers.

Data sharing is increasingly being recognized as an essential component of scholarly research and publishing. Sharing data improves results and propels research and discovery forward. Given the importance of data sharing, the purpose of the study is to unveil the present scenario of research data repositories (RDR) and sheds light on strategies and tactics followed by different countries for efficient organization and optimal use of scientific literature.

The data for the study is collected from registry of RDR (re3data registry) (re3data.org), which covers RDR from different academic disciplines and provides filtration options “Search” and “Browse” to access the repositories. Using these filtration options, the researchers collected metadata of repositories i.e. country wise contribution, content-type data, repository language interface, software usage, metadata standards and data access type. Furthermore, the data was exported to Google Sheets for analysis and visualization.

The re3data registry holds a rich and diverse collection of data repositories from the majority of countries all over the world. It is revealed that English is the dominant language, and the most widely used software for the creation of data repositories are “DataVerse”, followed by “Dspace” and “MySQL”. The most frequently used metadata standards are “Dublin Core” and “Datacite metadata schema”. The majority of repositories are open, with more than half of the repositories being “disciplinary” in nature, and the most significant data sources include “scientific and statistical data” followed by “standard office documents”.

The main limitation of the study is that the findings are based on the data collected through a single registry of repositories, and only a few characteristic features were investigated.

The study will benefit all countries with a small number of data repositories or no repositories at all, with tools and techniques used by the top repositories to ensure long-term storage and accessibility to research data. In addition to this, the study provides a global overview of RDR and its characteristic features.

This study offers a structured literature review (SLR) on female digital entrepreneurship (DE). This is done by providing insights into the recent developments of the topic, reviewing and critiquing previous studies in the literature, and pinpointing areas for future potential studies.

A comprehensive SLR was conducted on 18 papers published between 2017 and 2022 by discipline, time, methodologies, context, topic, and theoretical emphasis. The authors employed the three phases of critical research – insight, critique, and transformative redefinition – to conduct the literature review.

The literature on female DE is inadequate, fragmented, and divergent in terms of less practice-based insights. Furthermore, most female DE research is published in nonspecialized journals. The examination of the impact of gender and cross-country comparative studies is scarce. Existing literature lacks epistemological and methodological diversity. The lack of theoretical connections across the various research areas on female entrepreneurship may be the reason why this area of study has proven difficult for scholars. Few authors exhibit high specialization in the topic, whereas most authors contribute to either DE or female entrepreneurship.

This SLR research aims to provide an overview of the female DE field by identifying the current trend of research and recognizing future research directions and to improve readers’ knowledge of this research branch.

This review has classified the field's main topics and found that the influence of context (institutional and social) is the most investigated issue. Further, it presents a potential for practitioners' contribution to the field as coauthors and outlines needed studies.

This study provides a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary, updated review and research agenda that supplements rather than substitutes the existing literature reviews on female entrepreneurship. Moreover, this study makes a significant contribution by presenting the stages of development in female DE research within the context of the overall literature on female entrepreneurship.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) programs are traditionally delivered in-person and full-time (40 h per week) for 10 weeks during the summer. However, this type of format has the potential to limit broader student participation. This study aims to compare learning assessment data between a traditional NSF REU (10 weeks of summer, full-time, in-person) to an alternative NSF REU delivered virtually, part-time and over 10 months as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

A retrospective pre-then-post survey was completed to assess perceived learning gains for each REU program. Three learning gains categories were assessed: entrepreneurial competencies, career goals and research skill development. T-tests were used to evaluate a difference in means between pre and post.

Findings show the greatest quantity of learning gains within the alternative program delivery. Moreover, a larger quantity of learning gains was perceived within the first semester of the alternative program delivery compared to the second semester.

The authors propose the NSF should be intentional about trying new approaches to REU programs delivery, including duration and format, as a way to broaden participation in engineering.

This study is original in that it is the first of its kind to assess an alternative REU program delivery (allowed only because of the COVID-19 pandemic) in comparison to traditional REU program delivery.

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted organizations, bringing in unforeseen situations and highlighting the need for organizational leaders to develop a capacity for resilience, i.e. the ability to recuperate, exhibit agility and rebound. Hence, this paper aims to explore leaders’ views on what resilience capabilities are needed to manage themselves, the team and the organization.

This qualitative research study uses an in-depth interview tool and adopts a reflexive thematic analysis. The capabilities approach and resilience theory framework were applied to view resilience capabilities. The sample comprises 19 middle and senior leaders, both men and women, from the information technology Industry in India.

This study unravelled different capabilities to manage individuals, teams and organizations. The three key themes of resilience capabilities observed were as follows: self-leadership capabilities – where leaders focussed on capabilities that developed themselves; people leadership capabilities – which focussed on leading people and the team; and organisation-focussed leadership capabilities – which focussed on the macro level.

The findings of the study benefit organizations, leaders, human resource professionals, talent management strategists and academic leadership scholars to identify, train, conceive and deliver resilience capabilities.