When diversity cuts both ways: top management team heterogeneity, AI strategic orientation, and firm value creation efficiency

The relationship between top management team (TMT) diversity and firm performance remains theoretically contested. This study examines when and how TMT heterogeneity is associated with firm value creation efficiency (VCE) through a dual-pathway model. Using an unbalanced panel of Chinese A-share listed firms from 2015 to 2024, the main mediation models include 34,823 firm-year observations, while the regional moderation model includes 34,649. Disclosed AI strategic orientation (AIO) is measured as ln(1 + ai_index), where ai_index captures the cosine similarity between sentence-transformer embeddings of a 73-term AI dictionary and AI-related sentences in annual-report management discussion and analysis sections. Industry and year fixed-effects models with firm-clustered standard errors show that TMT heterogeneity is negatively associated with VCE, positively associated with disclosed AIO, and linked to VCE through a positive but economically modest indirect pathway. A firm-cluster bootstrap yields an indirect effect of 0.000084 (95% percentile confidence interval [0.000019, 0.000151]). Regional digital infrastructure strengthens the disclosed AIO-VCE association. These results represent conditional associations rather than causal evidence, and disclosed AIO should not be interpreted as verified AI implementation.