Making DEI Initiatives Successful Through Antecedents and Governance‐Based Enablers: Evidence From Italian Companies

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to investigate the pressing need for a clearer understanding of how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) can be properly adopted and positively impact business performance. Despite the growing interest from organizations in DEI, many initiatives fail to translate into measurable outcomes, identifying the conditions under which DEI can influence performance. We adopt a mix‐method approach that combines a qualitative and quantitative analysis. The qualitative analysis reveals that certain DEI antecedents are needed to effectively adopt DEI initiatives. Moreover, several governance‐based facilitators emerge as crucial elements in ensuring a greater DEI impact. Subsequently, we use the results from the qualitative analysis as input to run a quantitative analysis and test the impact of DEI antecedents and initiatives on business performance. A deep analysis of these relationships shows that companies can adopt certain governance‐based facilitators to activate a positive influence on business performance, specifically: transparency and communication, reporting unethical behavior systems, commitment to ethical governance, promoting ethical practices and legal compliance, addressing internal conflicts, and combating and preventing corruption. Notably, these facilitators enable either an indirect impact of DEI antecedents and/or diversity in improving business performance, but none of them strengthen the effect of equity and inclusion.