This article studies how workforce composition is related to a firm's success in introducing radical innovations. Previous studies have argued that teams composed of individuals with diverse backgrounds are able to perform more information processing and make deeper use of the information, which is important to accomplish complex tasks. We suggest that this argument can be extended to the level of the aggregate workforce of high-technology firms. In particular, we argue that ethnic and higher education diversity within the workforce is associated with superior performance in radical innovation. Using a sample of 3,888 Swedish firms, this article demonstrates that having greater workforce diversity in terms of both ethnic background and educational disciplinary background is positively correlated to the share of a firm's turnover generated by radical innovation. Having more external collaborations does, however, seem to reduce the importance of educational background diversity. The impact of ethnic diversity is not affected by external collaboration. These findings hold after using alternative measures of dependent and independent variables, alternative sample sizes, and alternative estimation techniques. The research findings presented in this article would seem to have immediate and important practical implications. They would suggest that companies may pursue recruitment policies inspired by greater ethnic and disciplinary diversity as a way to boost the innovativeness of the organization. From a managerial perspective, it may be concluded that workforce disciplinary diversity could be potentially replaced by more external links, while ethnic diversity could not

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This paper is an exploratory attempt to understand gender-related differences in the behavior of investors in firms seeking equity financing. Using data from the Swedish equity crowdfunding platform FundedByMe, we find that female investors are less likely to invest in the equity of firms that are younger and high tech and have a higher percentage of equity offerings. This pattern seems consistent with a greater risk aversion in female versus male investors. Furthermore, female investors are more likely to invest in projects in which the proportion of male investors is higher.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify the relationship between organizational capital and the subsets of organizational capital (intellectual capital (IC)) cost and cost stickiness. Design/methodology/approach This study is causal correlational research. The data related to the company’s financial statements were collected using the Rahavard Novin Software and www.rdis.ir. In this study, panel data were run with the use of Eviews 8, in order to test the hypotheses. The ordinary least-squares method is used in this study to estimate the parameters of the model. Findings The results obtained from the study show that there is a significant relationship between organizational capital and cost stickiness. However, there is no significant difference between high and low rank in terms of organizational capital and cost stickiness. In addition, there is a significant difference between IC and cost stickiness. Moreover, there is no significant difference between the components of IC and cost stickiness. Also, IC has an effect on the intensity of the relationship between organizational capital and cost stickiness. Originality/value This study explores the relationship between organizational capital and the subsets of IC and cost stickiness. Independent variables used in this study include organizational capital, IC and its components in the Pulic model, i.e. the efficiency of capital employed, the efficiency of human capital and the efficiency of structural capital.

What has boosted crowdfunding’s growth? In the case of peer-to-peer (P2P) lending, we highlight the role of consumers’ distrust in banks. We offer evidence that distrust in banks likely triggers individuals to supply funding toward crowdfunding and away from bank deposits. We highlight that a distrust mindset promotes questioning default choices and considering alternatives, and fosters comparisons focusing on dissimilarities. Our findings suggest US states whose residents express greater distrust in banks are more likely to fund P2P loans and, conditional on funding, lend higher amounts. This relationship is more pronounced when funding small loans or borrowers with less banking access.