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Is there an implicit quota on women in top management? A large‐sample statistical analysis
Author(s) -
Dezső Cristian L.,
Ross David Gaddis,
Uribe Jose
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/smj.2461
Subject(s) - extant taxon , sample (material) , face (sociological concept) , position (finance) , upper echelons , management strategy , strategic management , business , sociology , marketing , economics , operations management , business administration , social science , finance , chemistry , chromatography , evolutionary biology , biology
This article advances strategic management by developing a data‐driven simulation method to analyze how the characteristics of a group influence the characteristics of the group's components. We apply our method to the underrepresentation of women in the top management of S&P 1,500 firms. Although extant research suggests that the presence of women in top management could be self‐reinforcing, we theorize and provide strong evidence that women face an implicit quota, whereby a firm's leadership makes an effort to have a small number of women in top management, but makes less effort to have, or even resists having, larger numbers of women. In consequence, the presence of a woman on a top management team reduces the likelihood that another woman occupies a position on that team . Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.