Our goal is to be the entry point to resources that promote entrepreneurship. Organizations partner with EntryPoint to foster an inclusive culture, build connections, and advance research and messaging for education, outreach and advocacy purposes. We are frequently asked about the business case for building a diverse, equitable, inclusive entrepreneurial ecosystem – so we decided to start aggregating academic resources.
If you know of a study we may have missed, please e-mail a link to the original research to Info@EntryPointMI.com.
The Leaky Tech Pipeline
The Leaky Tech Pipeline framework and website are meant to increase understanding of the causes of disparities in the technology ecosystem, raise awareness about effective strategies and stages for intervention, and drive the development and implementation of comprehensive solutions.
Delivering through Diversity, January 2018 study by McKinsey & Company
Delivering through Diversity both tackles the business case and provides a perspective on how to take action on I&D to impact growth and business performance. This latest research reaffirms the global relevance of the correlation between diversity (defined here as a greater proportion of women and ethnically/culturally diverse individuals) in the leadership of large companies and financial outperformance.
How Diversity Can Drive Innovation, December 2013, Harvard Business Review
Research provides compelling evidence that diversity unlocks innovation and drives market growth. The full study can be found here.
Why Diverse Teams are Smarter, November 2016, Harvard Business Review
In recent years a body of research has revealed another, more nuanced benefit of workplace diversity: nonhomogenous teams are simply smarter. Working with people who are different from you may challenge your brain to overcome its stale ways of thinking and sharpen its performance.
How Diversity Makes Us Smarter, October 2014, Scientific American
Being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and harder-working
Diversity + Inclusion = Better Decision Making At Work, September 2017, Forbes
Help Your Employees Be Themselves at Work, November 2014, Harvard Business Review
Research has shown that hiding our true identities can cripple professional performance. For instance, closeted LGBT employees feel much more isolated at work than their openly gay peers, and 52% of closeted employees feel their careers have stagnated, compared to just over a third of their out colleagues. But this isn’t just an issue for LGBT professionals.
The Top 10 Economic Facts of Diversity in the Workplace, July 2012, Center for American Progress
A diverse workforce is integral to a strong economy. A diverse workforce combines workers from different backgrounds and experiences that together breed a more creative, innovative, and productive workforce. And businesses have learned that they can draw upon our nation’s diversity to strengthen their bottom line. In this way, diversity is a key ingredient to growing a strong and inclusive economy that’s built to last. Review 10 economic benefits of workplace diversity.
Does Diversity Pay? Race, Gender, and the Business Case for Diversity, April 2009, American Sociological Review
The value-in-diversity perspective argues that a diverse workforce, relative to a homogeneous one, is generally beneficial for business, including but not limited to corporate profits and earnings. This is in contrast to other accounts that view diversity as either nonconsequential to business success or actually detrimental by creating conflict, undermining cohesion, and thus decreasing productivity. Using data from the 1996 to 1997 National Organizations Survey, a national sample of for-profit business organizations, this article tests eight hypotheses derived from the value-in-diversity thesis. The results support seven of these hypotheses: racial diversity is associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, greater market share, and greater relative profits. Gender diversity is associated with increased sales revenue, more customers, and greater relative profits.
10 Year Project, 2015, First Round Capital
Venture capital firm, First Round Capital, reviewed 10 years worth of proprietary investing data — since they’ve been capturing data about their founding teams since their first investment in January 2005. After diving into the data and testing various assumptions, First Round Capital surfaced “10 Lessons” that they wanted to share with the whole industry.