Female-Exclusive Support and Gender Gap on Digital Platforms

Abstract:This study investigates the gender gap issue in the mobile platform context by analyzing performance disparities between male and female-led app companies. First, we identify the existence of the performance gap between the apps from two gender groups, utilizing a representative sample of mobile apps on Apple App Store. By employing the occurrence of Apple Entrepreneur Camp 2019 as an exogenous event, we assess the effectiveness of the platform’s female-exclusive support in mitigating the gap. The results demonstrate that following the event, apps from the supported female-led companies exhibit improved performance compared to their male-led counterparts, whereas there is no significant increase in the performance of apps from unsupported female-led companies. We further show that as the age of apps from the unsupported female group increases, the event shows an increasingly positive impact on app performance. This finding suggests the presence of a conditional spillover effect of the platform’s support. This study contributes to understanding the gender gap and emphasizes the importance and limitations of platform support initiatives for promoting gender equality within the platform. Managerial implications highlight the need for implementing supporting strategies to foster diversity and inclusion in the platform ecosystem.

Recommended citation: Yu Xia and Hailiang Chen. (2023) "Female-exclusive Support and Gender Gap on Digital Platforms." ICIS 2023, Hyderabad, India