This paper aimed at explaining the composition of top management teams in terms
of diversity as a reflection of industry, organizational and corporate elites factors. The
empirical results suggest that looking at different level-factors and multiple diversity
dimensions are two fruitful areas for future research. Moving away from a general
construct of diversity, support was found for the prediction that there are different
rationales and necessary conditions for the different diversity dimensions. By
distinguishing between background characteristics and experiences and relationsoriented
and task-related diversity attributes, a more nuanced understanding of the
determinants of different diversity dimensions was reached.