The impact of gender diversity in foreign subsidiaries’ innovation outputs
Authors: Fernández Juan 
Published: May 2015

Purpose

– This paper aims to examine the effect of R&D teams’ gender diversity on different innovation outputs. The paper argues that some innovations are best positioned to capitalize on the benefits of gender diversity because of the greater relevance of market insight and personal interactions. Moreover, it argues that gender diversity is not a source of innovation for foreign firms because of the subsidiaries’ role in the multinational group, the tacit nature of gender policies and the institutional distance between multinationals’ home and host countries.

Design/methodology/approach

– Drawing from data of the Spanish Survey of Technological Innovation Panel de Innovación Tecnológica (PITEC), this study uses multivariable probit models that allow for systematic correlations among the different innovation outcomes to determine the impact of R&D workforce gender diversity on the likelihood of introducing different innovation outputs.

Findings

– Allowing for systematic correlations among different innovation outcomes, results indicate that the relationship between gender diversity and product and process innovation has the shape of an inverted-U, while there is a positive linear association with service innovation. Moreover, gender diversity produces a greater impact on product innovation than on process innovation. Results also indicate that while gender diversity fosters every innovation outcome of domestic firms, it only contributes to foreign firms’ services innovation in a positive non-linear way.

Research limitations/implications

– Because of the availability of data, this paper has focused on how firms’ multinationality and group affiliation influence the relationship between gender diversity and innovation; however, other firms’ differences might also play a role on the effectiveness of the R&D workforce’s gender diversity. Firms differ on strategies, structures and capabilities (Nelson, 1991), and these differences may condition the potential of gender diversity. Therefore, this paper opens future research lines.

Practical implications

– Innovative firms should be concerned with human resource management practices for gender diversity regardless of their innovation output strategy. However, managers should not consider forming teams with equal proportions of men and women. Those firms aiming at introducing innovations that involve interactions among internal and external agents and those that require a better interface with the marketplace will benefit more from gender diversity than those firms pursuing innovations related to the solution of technical problems. Finally, the paper shows that foreign subsidiaries have problems with the implementation of gender policies, especially when it comes to service and process innovation activities.

Originality/value

– This paper contributes by examining the influence of two contextual factors that may affect the relationship between gender diversity and innovation. First, it examines how gender diversity affects the likelihood of introducing different innovation outputs (product, service and process) as the different tasks required by each innovation represent different contexts that may affect the effectiveness of gender diversity. Second, the paper analyzes whether the influence of R&D workforce’s gender diversity on innovation outputs is different for domestic and foreign firms as foreign firms’ national culture, organizational culture, strategy and HR practices differ from those of domestic firms.