Barriers, Challenges, and Benefits: Gender Diversity in Technology-Based New Venture Team Innovation

Abstract

This paper introduces the early phase of research designed to unpack the phenomenon of gender diversity in technology new venture teams including its barriers, potential benefits, and challenges. We present some preliminary case study findings from 13 interviews with team members from three technology new ventures in Indonesia. This research setting allows us to investigate a unique cultural context in a developing country. The present study addresses a significant research gap by elucidating various viewpoints of new ventures towards gender diversity within the same institutional context, thereby enabling a nuanced understanding of their ability to leverage the potential benefits of gender-diverse teams for innovation. Specifically, our findings reveal that new ventures have different abilities to navigate the barriers and challenges associated with gender diversity. This study identified three distinct barriers, namely the acquisition of gender-balanced applicants, the mitigation of gender-specific bias, and the effective management of dynamics team composition. In addition to the potential benefits of having a gender-diverse team, such as enhanced collaboration, balanced thinking, and inter-group competition, our research has identified three significant challenges. These include the need to overcome cultural and social norms that hinder gender diversity, effectively managing diversity management practices, and improving employee engagement and a sense of belonging. The initial results of our study offer some practical and theoretical implications for enhancing the potential of new ventures to leverage the advantages of gender-diverse teams to promote innovation. These we aim to study further as the doctoral investigation advances further through more extensive case study analysis.