This is particularly the case of policies aimed at increasing the participation of women and minority groups in public research activities, such as the Programme to Support Research Activities of Female Researchers in Japan and the Thuthuka programme in South Africa. Diversity may also help boost firms’ innovativeness (Talke, Salomo and Kock, 2011) and may lead to more sales and profits (Herring, 2009, Talke, Salomo and Kock, 2011, Dezso and Ross, 2012, Credit Suisse, 2012). While there are differences in findings regarding the impacts of different dimensions of diversity, it is generally considered that diversity can lead to more creative thinking and problem solving than would be the case in homogeneous teams.