Gender Gap in Artificial Intelligence and its impact on performance: evidence from Italian digitalised companies

This paper deepens the reasons behind the significant gender gap registered in the AI sector, as highlighted by the WEF, and the domino effect it may have on digitalised industries. The study focussed on the Italian context, since Italy is one of the most inclusive nations in term of gender equality in the tech sector (WEF, 2018). Based on prior literature, the present work expects that the presence of women could have a positive impact on Italian firm’s performance only when the share of female directors goes beyond 17%-20% (Kanter, 1997; Joecks et al., 2013; Ferrari et al., 2016; Consob, 2018). Furthermore, Consob (2018) demonstrated that the gender quotas strongly increased the number of independent directors on board of Italian listed companies as women are more frequently appointed as independent. Therefore, Terjesen et al. (2016) suggested that independent directors do not enhance firm performance unless the board is gender diversified, because the lack of women increases doubts from stakeholders regarding the board’s independence. This perception could affect market firm’s performance since a board with a gender imbalance is a signal for stakeholders of unethical behaviour of the firm. Based on prior literature, this paper aims to further explore the link between the increase of independent directors (caused by the appointment of women on board) and performance