The influence of boardroom gender diversity on business innovation strategies intensity, scalability and firms' performance: New evidence from the United States

Scaling innovation strategies has become a central challenge for firms operating in rapidly evolving technological and competitive environments. While corporate governance structures play a critical role in shaping strategic decision-making, limited attention has been paid to how board composition influences firms' capacity to intensify and scale innovation strategies and translate them into sustainable performance outcomes. This study examines how boardroom gender diversity influences the intensity and scalability of business innovation strategies through the enabling role of financial flexibility. Drawing on the Resource-Based View (RBV) and dynamic capabilities perspectives, we argue that gender-diverse boards enhance governance quality and improve strategic resource allocation, thereby strengthening firms' financial flexibility. Greater financial flexibility enables firms to intensify innovation investments, scale innovation activities across organizational processes, and more effectively convert these initiatives into improved firm performance. In this way, boardroom gender diversity functions not only as a governance attribute but also as a strategic mechanism that supports scalable innovation and long-term value creation. The empirical analysis uses panel data on U.S.-listed firms from the BoardEx–WRDS database over a 13-year period, comprising 70,630 firm-year observations. The results indicate that higher female representation on corporate boards is positively associated with financial flexibility, greater innovation strategy intensity and scalability, and enhanced firm performance. These relationships remain robust across alternative model specifications and performance measures. Overall, the study advances the governance and innovation literature by demonstrating how boardroom gender diversity enables firms to scale innovation strategies and build long-term value within contemporary corporate governance systems.