How Experience and Network Ties Affect the Influence of Demographic Minorities on Corporate Boards

Abstract

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Women Directors on Corporate Boards: From Tokenism to Critical Mass

“…Indeed, when the majority of group members share a particular background, for instance, the influence exerted by a director with a different background can lead board members to change or expand the criteria used for evaluating strategic alternatives (Hitt and Tyler, 1991). This pattern of results may suggest that minority directors (as women) have the potential to contribute to board decision-making by providing unique perspectives on strategic issues and by prompting divergent thinking among the majority group (Westphal and Milton, 2000). According to this perspective, reaching a critical number of women directors is desirable because it not only affects the nature of group interactions but also increases the diversity of viewpoints within a group.…”

Gender Diversity in Corporate Governance and Top Management

“…An agency-theoretic rationale for these findings would go as follows: women (like external stakeholders, ethnic minorities, and foreigners) often bring a fresh perspective on complex issues, and this can help correct informational biases in strategy formulation and problem solving (Dewatripont et al, 1999;Westphal and Milton, 2000).…”

Top management team’s intellectual capital and firm performance

“…While much of the research on TMTs has used secondary databases such as Duns (Cohen & Bailey, 1997) (Pegels et al, 2000;Westphal & Milton, 2000). Primary data have been obtained from personal interviews with the top managers involved in the reference sample.…”