The virtuous cycle of diversity
基于资源依赖理论，研究企业如何通过增加董事会多样性来应对负面客户和员工事件等社会绩效问题，并发现这种多样性会促进多样性管理实践的采纳，进而形成良性循环。
Abstract Based on propositions from the resource dependency theory (RDT), we seek to understand how firms respond to social performance problems through diversity. We consider the impact of negative customer and employee incidents as social performance problems because these incidents represent two critical stakeholders, and because of the potential for such problems to cause a wider impact on the affected firms. Using firm‐level longitudinal data across four‐time points and a cross‐lagged panel model (CLPM) to test our hypotheses, as well as a variety of supplemental analyses, we find that social performance problems relate to increases in board diversity. We also find that social performance problems act as a trigger for a virtuous cycle such that increases in board diversity are related to the subsequent adoption of diversity management practices, which are related to subsequently higher levels of board diversity. We contribute to the theory on diversity management by demonstrating how firms seek diversity as a response to social performance problems. Further, we connect board diversity to the adoption of diversity management practices, which are often studied independently, and demonstrate the mutually positive influence they have on each other. We discuss implications for theory and human resource management.