Team’s Learning Orientation, Absorptive Capacity, and Effectiveness of Certified Accounting Offices: The Moderating Role of Gender and Age Diversity

Abstract

Adopting an input-process-output (IPO) framework and social categorization perspective and relying on a sample of 89 Thai Certified Accounting Offices, this study aims to evaluate the potential moderating roles of team diversity conditions in terms of the gender and age diversity with regard to the relationships between team’s learning orientation, absorptive capacity, and effectiveness. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and the Hayes Process macro, this study shows that the direct effects of team’s learning orientation on team’s absorptive capacity are moderated by gender and age diversity. Moreover, the relationship between team’s learning orientation and team effectiveness is mediated by team’s absorptive capacity and this mediating effect is moderated by the gender diversity. This study offers insights to accounting team managers in enhancing team’s absorptive capacity and effectiveness where gender and age diversity are the factors that could strengthen or weaken the effect of team’s learning orientation. Implications for design gender and age composition in accounting teams are discussed in the concluding section.