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Gender Diversity is Detrimental to Team Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment

Author

Listed:
  • Bernd Frick

    (Paderborn University)

  • Anica Rose

    (Paderborn University)

  • André Kolle

    (Paderborn University)

Abstract

We contribute to the inconclusive empirical research on the relationship between team gender diversity and team performance by investigating the returns to gender diversity in academia. Using a unique sample with 164 randomly formed student teams, we show that gender heterogeneity adversely affects team performance in a business strategy game. Both all-female and all-male teams outperform gender-heterogeneous teams in terms of financial success. We find evidence for the detrimental gender diversity effect to increase with task complexity. Our findings suggest that all-men and all-women teams do not differ in their strategic management behavior.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernd Frick & Anica Rose & André Kolle, 2017. "Gender Diversity is Detrimental to Team Performance: Evidence from a Field Experiment," Working Papers Dissertations 23, Paderborn University, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:pdn:dispap:23
    as

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    File URL: http://groups.uni-paderborn.de/wp-wiwi/RePEc/pdf/dispap/DP23.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Gender; Diversity; Teams; Performance; Business strategy game;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments

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