The strategic asymmetry in female leadership: differential risk-taking between strategic and non-strategic activities

Purpose This paper aims to examine the asymmetric pattern in the effect of female leadership on firm decision-making, where the same leaders exhibit contrasting risk attitudes depending on the strategic core nature of business activities. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the Economic Census data on the Egyptian firms in 2018 with a particular focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This data set is carried out by the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics in Egypt. The empirical work uses an instrumental variable approach in non-linear models (IV-Probit) to achieve its objectives. Additionally, robustness checks are conducted using a recursive bivariate probit (RBP) model and further robustness was developed to incorporate other measures of women’s leadership as well as different classifications of strategic (core) and non-strategic activities. Findings The findings report a robust asymmetric pattern: female leadership simultaneously increases outsourcing of non-strategic activities (by 3.51 percentage points) while decreasing outsourcing of strategic activities (by 1.19 percentage points). This dual approach persists across firm characteristics, suggesting female leaders systematically distinguish between strategic and peripheral business functions in their risk-taking behavior. Female leadership supports the protection of the firm’s intellectual capital, know how and strategic competencies. Originality/value This study is the first to document that female leadership’s influence on risk-taking systematically varies based on activity type. This challenges the conventional view of gender-based risk preferences as uniformly conservative, revealing instead a nuanced approach that differentiates between strategic and non-strategic business functions.