Studies with more diverse teams of authors get more citations

Diverse research is more impactful in the business management field, with female influence growing stronger in the past decade, finds a new study from the University of Surrey.  

The study analysed all articles published in the last 10 years (January 2012 to December 2022) in the influential Journal of Management Studies.  

The empirical analysis examined three key aspects of teams’ diversity:  

• Internationality (how international is mix of authors),  

• Interdisciplinarity (how many different fields of study they come from),  

• Gender (the balance of males and females). 

Professor Sorin Krammer, lead author of the study and Professor of Strategy and International Business at the University of Surrey, said: 

“As new technologies such as cloud computing, blockchain, or the internet of things have deeply transformed our society in the past decade, it is heartening to see this change reflected also through our research. The world is becoming more diverse – and so is the world of business management research. Our findings reveal that articles written by teams with a wide variety of backgrounds, expertise, and genders tend to receive more citations. However, more work needs to be done to better understand when and why these benefits of diversity are fully realised.” 

The study has been published in the Journal of Management Studies.