Board diversity and corporate innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms
研究了中国上市公司董事会多样性（包括人口统计特征和认知特征）与企业创新的关系，发现认知多样性（尤其是教育背景和专业知识）正向促进创新，且高管人才引进和激励是重要渠道。
Abstract This study examines the association between board diversity, measured in both demographic characteristics (i.e., gender and age) and cognitive characteristics (i.e., educational background, expertise, tenure and breadth of board experience), and corporate innovation. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms and fixed‐effect models, we find that cognitive diversity, especially in attributes of educational background and expertise, is positively associated with corporate innovation. This is predominantly due to the incremental diversity added by executive directors and depends on demographic diversity. We further find that hi‐tech talent introduction and incentive are two channels through which board diversity affects corporate innovation. The results are robust to the use of alternative measures of corporate innovation, two stage‐least square models by employing two demand‐based instrumental variables for board diversity, and normalized diversity indexes.