Gender Faultline Strength On Boards Of Directors And Strategic Change: The Role Of Environmental Conditions

Drawing on the notion of "fault lines" and the upper echelons perspective, we argue that the gender fault line strength of a board of directors is negatively related to strategic change. More interestingly, while gender fault line strength negatively relates to strategic change under low levels of environmental complexity, environmental dynamism, and environmental munificence, it is positively related to strategic change when environmental complexity, environmental dynamism, and environmental munificence are at high levels. The analyses of panel data of 5781 firm-year observations of 1171 Chinese firms provide support for the hypotheses.