  Diversity in teams can boost creativity, and gender diversity was shown to be
a contributor to collective creativity. We show that gender diversity requires
inclusion to lead to benefits in creativity by analyzing teams in 4011 video
game projects. Recording data on the weighted network from past collaborations,
we developed four measures of inclusion, depending on a lack of segregation,
strong ties across genders, and the incorporation of women into the core of the
team s network. We found that gender diversity without inclusion does not
contribute to creativity, while with maximal inclusion one standard deviation
change in diversity results in .04 to .09 standard deviation change in
creativity, depending on the measure of inclusion. To reap creative benefits of
diversity, developer firms need to include 23 percent or more female developers
(as opposed to the 15 percent mean female proportion) and include them in the
team along all dimensions. Inclusion at low diversity has a negative effect. By
analyzing the sequences of diversity and inclusion across games within firms,
we found that adding diversity first, and developing inclusion later can lead
to higher diversity and inclusion, compared to adding female developers with
already existing cross-gender ties to the team.
