Role of Board Diversity in Enhancing Corporate Innovation Performance

Abstract

The current study discusses the influence of board diversity in improving corporate innovation performance in the context of Indian corporate environment. Board diversity has become a significant corporate governance mechanism that helps in influencing strategic decision making, organizational creativity and innovation capability in the past few years. Based on Resource Dependency Theory and Upper Echelons Theory, this paper examines the effects of four dimensions of board diversity: gender diversity, age diversity, educational diversity, functional diversity and board independence on corporate innovation performance. The mediation of strategic decision quality and moderation of board independence between board diversity and innovation performance are also investigated. The study used a quantitative research design and the primary data was gathered from 310 respondents who were board members, senior managers and corporate professionals from various industries in Indian companies. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used in the data analysis using SmartPLS software. Results indicate board diversity has a significant and positive effect on corporate innovation performance. Board independence and educational diversity were the strongest influences on board innovation outcomes among the diversity dimensions. The research also revealed that strategic decision quality plays a significant role as a mediator in the link between board diversity and innovation performance and that board independence positively moderates this link. The study's findings add to the body of literature by offering empirical evidence from Indian Corporate context wherein there are limited studies which have examined multidimensional board diversity and innovation performance in a comprehensive manner. The findings indicate the strategic role of diversity and independence of the boards for innovation-oriented governance systems and long-term organizational competitiveness. The findings also have implications for corporate managers, policy makers, and regulatory bodies involving improving diversity based governance reforms to improve innovation performance of Indian firms.

Received: 2026-05-06 | Revised: 2026-08-21 | Accepted: 2026-10-16 | Online Available: 2026-10-16

Declarations

Ethics and Guidelines: The study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The ethical approval specifically covers the research procedures and data collection activities conducted for this study.

Consent to participate: Written informed consent was obtained from all participants prior to data collection. Consent was obtained using a standardized written form, signed by each participant before participation in the survey.

Consent to publish: The authors have provided consent to publish.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Data availability statement: Data will be made available on reasonable request from the corresponding author.

Funding: This research received no external funding.

Clinical Trial Number: Not Applicable.

Declaration of using generative AI: During the preparation of this work the author(s) used ChatGPT in order to correct the grammatical errors. After using this tool/service, the author(s) reviewed and edited the content as needed and take full responsibility for the content of the published article.

Author Contributions: M.B.A.: Conceptualization, methodology, writing—original draft preparation, writing—review and editing. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.