Neurodiversity, corporate boards and corporate performance: a systematic review, evidence-based recommendations and future research agenda

Purpose Globally, an increasing number of people are not only being medically diagnosed and classified as neurodiverse but also facilitated to participate in economic and social activities, including appointment to corporate boards. The study offers a comprehensive and up-to-date systematic literature review (SLR) of the existing studies on neurodivergent individuals (NDIs), neurodivergent individuals on corporate boards (NDOCBs) and their impact on corporate performance. We seek to synthesise and expand the present understanding of both the existing (1) theoretical foundations and (2) empirical literature on (a) multi-level antecedents of NDIs and NDOCBs and (b) the impacts that NDOCBs have on corporate performance. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a three-step SLR method and bibliometric analysis to review one of the most extensive SLR datasets available to date on NDIs and NDOCBs, involving 159 theoretical, quantitative, qualitative and mixed studies undertaken in more than 70 countries from 1976 to 2022. Findings Based on publications in 118 scholarly journals, we discover that most of the available research is descriptive and/or relies on one theory or none, rather than multi-theoretical views. Second, we find that firm-level antecedents of NDIs and NDOCBs, rather than country-level antecedents, have been the focus of previous research. Third, there are noticeable methodological limitations, such as the scarcity of cross-country, mixed-methods and qualitative studies. Originality/value There is little understanding of how neurodiverse people contribute to corporate performance decisions. Synthesis of literature reveals that existing studies examining NDIs and NDOCBs and corporate performance, particularly from an accounting perspective, are rare. Subsequently, we offer an extensive and timely SLR of the existing studies on NDOCBs and corporate performance, highlighting the limitations and discussing the prospects for future research on NDIs and NDOCBs.