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Purpose Successful developers need to manage a large number of cooperation partners and find innovative solutions for specific tasks, as each real estate project is somehow unique. Thus, the question arises as to whether intelligent group formation for real estate development calls for more or rather less diverse project groups. Design/methodology/approach This paper aims to test the impact of group diversity on overall group performance with a unique data set. The authors collected the results of 150 project assignments from real estate executive education students at the IREBS Real Estate Academy from 2010 until 2016. Findings The authors find that group results were impacted positively for groups with disparity in work experience and ability. Differences in sex and age did not yield any measurable impact, neither positive nor negative. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the relationship between work group diversity and group performance was tested for real estate educational projects. The authors believe that the results are highly relevant for all university work, for which teams have to cooperate on complex rather than basic assignments and problems. Moreover, they are the first to develop a framework that combines diversity theories with a clear distinction between three diversity concepts.

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