Abstract/Summary

This paper addresses what boards of directors could do to enhance resilience in a crisis. We argue that board diversity could be important for firms to handle a crisis. Meanwhile, a board’s involvement in a crisis management plan could be critical in utilizing diversity to bounce back. We have applied an information processing perspective to investigate how board cognitive diversity and board gender diversity impact on board involvement in the crisis management plan. Survey data of 271 responses collected between April and June 2020 from the US are used in the structural equation modeling analysis. The results show that, on the one hand, board cognitive diversity is a desirable feature, significantly improving a board’s contribution to a crisis management plan, which strengthens a firm’s resilience. On the other hand, board gender diversity poses a negative impact on resilience. The paper concludes with discussions and future research proposals.