SIGNALING DIVERSITY DEBT: STARTUP GENDER COMPOSITION AND THE GENDER GAP IN JOINERS' INTEREST

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Engel, Yuval; Lewis, Trey; Cardon, Melissa S.; Hentschel, Tanja
• 署名单位: University of Amsterdam; Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville; University of Amsterdam
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2021.1197
• 发表日期: 2023
• 页码: 1469-1500
• 关键词: relational demography; women; entrepreneurship; sex; CONSEQUENCES; segregation; stereotypes; attraction; inclusion; CHOICE

摘要

Women are underrepresented in startups, but research on joiners-nonfounder employees attracted to startup work-offers limited explanations for why such underrepresentation occurs and how it persists. We argue that, even among joiners, women are less interested than men in applying for startup jobs and that this gender gap is associated with differential reactions to information about the gender composition of prospective employers. We analyze unique field data obtained from a job-matching mobile-application platform for startups, finding the hypothesized gender gap and showing that women, but not men, are sensitive to information about organizational gender composition, especially for startups signaling diversity debt-that is, no or only a token representation of women. A preregistered experiment further reveals that women's identity threat concerns mediate these effects. Gender disparities in startups are reproduced in a vicious cycle as existing underrepresentation deters women from applying. Our findings have implications for research and practice concerning joiners, the underrepresentation of women in entrepreneurship, and startups' ability to shape the gender composition of their applicant pools.