How Employees’ Perceptions of Gender Equality Affect Firm Innovation: Evidence from Online Textual Reviews

This study empirically investigates the influence of employees’ subjective perceptions of gender equality in the workplace on firm innovation. By utilizing a dataset comprising 716,541 online reviews from the global job platform Glassdoor, we construct a novel perceived gender equality index through textual analysis and the Word2Vec machine learning algorithm. Initial findings reveal a strong positive relationship between employees’ perceptions of gender equality and firm innovation, underscoring the critical role of perceived equality in the workplace. Through mediation analyses, we investigate the psychological mechanisms driving this influence, identifying employee satisfaction and mental health as key mediators. Moreover, this positive relationship is especially prominent in firms characterized by high levels of organizational complexity and market competition. Our research enriches the existing literature by offering a novel measurement approach and illuminating the gender equality–innovation nexus, with significant implications for firms’ strategic endeavors towards genuine gender equality.