Gender Bias through Recategorization of Financial Analysts

• In Event: 4.02 Financial Analyst and Investor Reaction

Abstract

This study examines the effect of role-incongruent behavior on performance evaluations involving ambiguous information. Using an experiment with professional investors, we find that research analysts, a male-dominated position, are evaluated more negatively when they display a lack of persistence. However, this effect only holds when the analyst is female, a category descriptively associated with a lack of persistence. We analyze professional participants’ free responses, and also conduct a supplemental experiment with EMBA students, to provide additional evidence that our effects are driven by categorization. Finally, we conduct semi-structured interviews with experienced asset managers, which provide additional support for our findings and illustrate the characteristics of research analysts, the use of subjective measures in their performance evaluations, and the resulting implications for gender bias in promotion outcomes. Our results collectively suggest that categorization of role-incongruent behavior may present a channel for bias in performance evaluation. Our findings contribute to the managerial accounting literature on subjective measures in performance evaluation and the literature on gender bias in male-dominated fields.

Authors

• Robert J Bloomfield, Cornell University

• Kristina Rennekamp, Cornell University

• Blake Steenhoven, Cornell University

• Scott Stewart, Cornell University