While a number of previous studies have examined how the demographic diversity of corporate board members influences firm performance and diversity policies, we know little about its effects on employee attitudes. Drawing on organizational support and social exchange theories, we propose that firms with demographically diverse boards are more likely to adopt progressive management programs valued by employees and that such corporate-level practices, in turn, promote higher levels of employee satisfaction. We analyze data from 420 companies across many industries to examine the effects of corporate board diversity on employee satisfaction, and find the relationship to be mediated by the implementation of specific corporate practices. Firms with diverse boards are more likely to adopt programs that signal organizational support for employees and benevolence, and these programs foster more positive satisfaction levels.

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This study develops and tests theory about different forms of absorptive capacity that support radical, differentiation and imitation product development strategies. Absorptive capacity theory provides a generalized explanation for how firms exploit their embeddedness in relationships with buyers and suppliers. We develop and test theory that relates combinations of four components of absorptive capacity (R&D capability, product development capability, cooperative embeddedness, and competitive embeddedness) to success rates in three product development strategies. We used data from the American pharmaceutical industry to estimate generalized linear mixed models. Our results confirm known relationships between R&D capability, alliance network position, and the development of radically new products, but reveal different sets of factors that influence differentiation and imitation. We describe a previously undetected influence of competitive embeddedness on the development of radically new products, a contrasting absorptive capacity structure for generic product development, and a mixed structure for differentiated product development.

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