Employee diversity and environmental innovation : the roles of gender, nationality, and education
(2025) In Business Strategy and the Environment- Abstract
This paper investigates the roles of employee diversity for environmental innovations in firms. Utilizing firm-level survey data on environmental innovations and employer–employee register data, we construct measures of employee diversity across education, nationality, and gender for over 6500 Swedish firms. We argue, grounded in the Lundvall–Johnson conceptualization of knowledge, that the positive role of employee diversity stems from knowledge diversity. We find empirical support for this, demonstrating that national and educational diversity positively influence the likelihood that a firm has introduced environmental innovations. Finally, we find that a negative role from demographic diversity creating fault lines entails that the... (More)
This paper investigates the roles of employee diversity for environmental innovations in firms. Utilizing firm-level survey data on environmental innovations and employer–employee register data, we construct measures of employee diversity across education, nationality, and gender for over 6500 Swedish firms. We argue, grounded in the Lundvall–Johnson conceptualization of knowledge, that the positive role of employee diversity stems from knowledge diversity. We find empirical support for this, demonstrating that national and educational diversity positively influence the likelihood that a firm has introduced environmental innovations. Finally, we find that a negative role from demographic diversity creating fault lines entails that the positive association between diversity and environmental innovation may diminish at higher levels of diversity due to the emergence of negative fault lines.
(Less)
- author
- Østergaard, Christian Richter ; Holm, Jacob Rubæk and Schubert, Torben LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-06-25
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Educational diversity, Environmental innovation, Gender diversity, National diversity, Sweden
- in
- Business Strategy and the Environment
- pages
- 17 pages
- publisher
- John Wiley & Sons Inc.
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105009344214
- ISSN
- 0964-4733
- DOI
- 10.1002/bse.70047
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4447fa5d-286e-4c03-a10e-d660878a4ac5
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-07 08:13:52
- date last changed
- 2025-08-05 11:32:33
@article{4447fa5d-286e-4c03-a10e-d660878a4ac5,
abstract = {{<p>This paper investigates the roles of employee diversity for environmental innovations in firms. Utilizing firm-level survey data on environmental innovations and employer–employee register data, we construct measures of employee diversity across education, nationality, and gender for over 6500 Swedish firms. We argue, grounded in the Lundvall–Johnson conceptualization of knowledge, that the positive role of employee diversity stems from knowledge diversity. We find empirical support for this, demonstrating that national and educational diversity positively influence the likelihood that a firm has introduced environmental innovations. Finally, we find that a negative role from demographic diversity creating fault lines entails that the positive association between diversity and environmental innovation may diminish at higher levels of diversity due to the emergence of negative fault lines.</p>}},
author = {{Østergaard, Christian Richter and Holm, Jacob Rubæk and Schubert, Torben}},
issn = {{0964-4733}},
keywords = {{Educational diversity; Environmental innovation; Gender diversity; National diversity; Sweden}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
publisher = {{John Wiley & Sons Inc.}},
series = {{Business Strategy and the Environment}},
title = {{Employee diversity and environmental innovation : the roles of gender, nationality, and education}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bse.70047}},
doi = {{10.1002/bse.70047}},
year = {{2025}},
}