Structural power of female executives and retailer profitability: A contingent resource-based perspective

Although the retail sector already has a much larger presence of female executives than other industry sectors, it remains unclear whether female executives should be endowed with more power to be effective leaders in the top management team (TMT) of a retail organization. Drawing on the TMT structural power perspective, we argue that structural power of female executives (SPFE) is crucial to improve a retailer’s operating performance measured by profitability. We find that SPFE is indeed positively associated with retailer profitability. Further, drawing on the contingent resource-based view, we hypothesize and find that comparable store sales and industry munificence positively, while inventory turnover negatively, moderate the relationship between SPFE and retailer profitability. Taken together, our research has important implications for public retailers to manage their TMT composition and power allocation.