Abstract:
Past research has found mixed effect and this study offers an alternative explanation for these mixed results. Based on the integrative perspective, combining both positive and negative research traditions in diversity research, we hypothesized heterogeneous effects of diversity on innovation performance. We distinguish different effects of diversity on the different stages of innovation based on the nature of the stages. Variance-increasing processes benefit from the diverse resources, while variance-decreasing processes are hampered by the negative effects on team dynamics. In the methodology section we pay special attention to matching conceptualization and operationalization of diversity. Using survey data, using multiple regression analyses, we set out to test these hypotheses. We found no significant heterogeneous effects of diversity, although the most probable explanation for these inconclusive findings is the data. Overall, there is a compelling theoretical argument to suspect heterogeneous effects. However, the empirical testing of the hypotheses was inconclusive.
