Rice leadership expert comments on Facebook COO’s study on women in corporate America

EXPERT ALERT

David Ruth
713-348-6327
david@rice.edu

Jeff Falk
713-348-6775
jfalk@rice.edu

Rice leadership expert comments on Facebook COO’s study on women in corporate America

HOUSTON – (Oct. 1, 2015) – Sheryl Sandberg, the chief operating officer of Facebook Inc. and founder of LeanIn.org, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Wednesday that despite modest improvements since 2012, women remain underrepresented at every corporate level. Her op-ed was based on a new study on women in corporate America.

YAN "ANTHEA" ZHANG

“And it turns out the drop-off in senior ranks is not mainly due to attrition,” Sandberg wrote. “Women, on average, are not leaving these companies at higher rates than men. Rather, they face more barriers to advancement and are less likely to reach senior leadership positions.”

Yan “Anthea” Zhang, the Fayez Sarofim Vanguard Professor of Strategic Management at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, is available to comment on Sandberg’s findings and key arguments.

“The value of senior female executives in mentoring junior females has been well recognized,” Zhang said. “Indeed, even the females who have reached the C-suite still need support from other females. My research finds that a female CEO who succeeded a male predecessor often is associated with lower firm performance postsuccession and is more likely to leave office prematurely, compared with other types of CEO successors. However, having other females on the board of directors and/or in the top management team can reduce such liability of a female successor.”

Zhang’s areas of specialization include CEO succession and dismissal, foreign direct investment and technology entrepreneurship in emerging markets. Among her research projects has been a study of women in Chinese boardrooms, which highlighted the progress made by women in Chinese companies compared with Western companies and argues against legislative quotas.

To schedule an interview with Zhang, contact Jeff Falk, associate director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

Rice University has a VideoLink ReadyCam TV interview studio. ReadyCam is capable of transmitting broadcast-quality standard-definition and high-definition video directly to all news media organizations around the world 24/7.

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Related materials:

Yan “Anthea” Zhang: http://business.rice.edu/Anthea_Zhang

Jones Graduate School of Business: http://business.rice.edu