Board gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from Latin America

Purpose This study aims to intend to check if female board representation affects performance and risk and to analyse the evolution of the demographic aspects of the presence of women on boards in Brazil. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a sample of 150 Brazilian publicly traded companies from 2010–2018, with different measures of firm performance, firm risk and women’s presence on the board. The study approach is based on a set of ordinary least squares, quantile and panel data regressions. Findings The presence of women on the board has a positive effect on all of our accounting and market performance measures. However, the result of the impact on risk is not conclusive. The study also found that the number of females on the board has a more significant effect at the lower levels of firm performance measured by return on equity, but at the higher levels when measured by Tobin’s Q. Regarding return on assets, the more significant effect happened on the extremes of the performance distribution. The study findings point that market investors place more value in female presence on the board than in director positions. Originality/value By estimating the impact of women’s presence on the boards of directors in firm performance and risk, this study aimed to verify this impact in different aspects of the company. In addition, the authors did so in a sample with many years, making it possible to evaluate the historical evolution of the feminine presence in the boards of administration as well as in the groups of directors, assisting Brazilian legislators with new evidence about the possible impacts of Draft Law 7179/2017.

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Does the Board Gender Diversity Enhance Firm Performance?

Asian Journal of Business Research ◽

10.14707/ajbr.200074 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Rita R. Pidani ◽

◽

Amir Mahmood ◽

Frank W. Agbola ◽

◽

...

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Board Gender Diversity

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The role of national culture in the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance: evidence from a multi-country study

Equality Diversity and Inclusion An International Journal ◽

10.1108/edi-04-2020-0092 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Navaz Naghavi ◽

Saeed Pahlevan Sharif ◽

Hafezali Bin Iqbal Hussain

Keyword(s):

Corporate Governance ◽

Firm Performance ◽

Generalized Method Of Moments ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Governance Structure ◽

Corporate Governance Structure ◽

Data Set ◽

Content Type ◽

Board Gender Diversity ◽

The Impact

PurposeThis study seeks to add more insights to the debate on “whether”, “how”, and “under which condition” women representation on the board contributes to firm performance. More specifically, the current study aims to investigate if the effect of board gender diversity on firm performance is dependent on macro factors of national cultures.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used the generalized method of moments regression and a data set consists of 2,550 company year observations over 10 years.FindingsThe results indicated that cultural variables interact with board diversity to influence firm performance. Having women on the board in countries with high power distance, individualist, masculine and low-uncertainty avoidance culture influences the firm performance negatively.Originality/valueThe findings indicate that the effects of corporate governance structure on firm performance depends on culture-specific factors, providing support for the argument that institutional norms that are governed by cultural norms affect the effectiveness of corporate governance structure.

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Private firm performance: do women directors matter?

Meditari Accountancy Research ◽

10.1108/medar-03-2021-1233 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Mahnoor Sattar ◽

Pallab Kumar Biswas ◽

Helen Roberts

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Performance Measures ◽

Small Firm ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Private Firm ◽

Private Firms ◽

Women Directors ◽

Content Type ◽

Firm Profitability ◽

Board Gender Diversity

Purpose This paper aims to examine the relationship between board gender diversity and private firm performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors test the association between board gender diversity and private firm performance by estimating pooled multivariate regressions using an unbalanced panel data set of 115,253 firm-year observations. Findings The authors find that younger, less busy and local women directors enhance private firm performance. Firms with 40% or more women directors report triple the economic benefits compared to boards with at least 20% women directors. Considering firm size, women directors significantly increase small firm profitability, and the effect is more pronounced for high-risk firms. Greater board gender diversity enhances small firm performance as the monitoring role of women directors benefits the firm even in the presence of busy men directors. Consistent with the agency theory framework, the authors find that women directors improve small firm profitability in the presence of agency costs. Research limitations/implications Due to the lack of availability of data about private firms, many factors are not directly observable. The analysis uses accounting-based performance measures that may be subject to managerial discretion. Nevertheless, the authors report highly significant results using cash-based performance measures that substantiate the overall findings. Practical implications The results of the present study point to the need for private firms to increase board gender diversity and consider women director busyness, age, nationality and firm size when making board director appointments. Originality/value This study adds to the scarce existent literature investigating private firms. The results contribute to the understanding of gender-diverse boards as well as the attributes of women directors that enhance private firm performance.

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Board Gender Diversity and Firm Performance

Handbook of Research on Women in Management and the Global Labor Market - Advances in Logistics, Operations, and Management Science ◽

10.4018/978-1-5225-9171-9.ch015 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 302-311

Author(s):

Reem Khamis ◽

Elisabetta Barone ◽

Adel Sarea ◽

Allam Mohammed Hamdan

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Institutional Theory ◽

Agency Theory ◽

Resource Dependence ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

External Environment ◽

Resource Dependence Theory ◽

Firm Level ◽

Exogenous Factors ◽

Board Gender Diversity

This chapter aims at investigating board gender diversity and firm performance by integrating two theoretical backgrounds (agency theory and institutional theory). Board gender diversity has been investigated by using firm level theories such as agency theory and stewardship theory. Resource dependence theory, which links the board to the external environment of the firm, was also implemented in order to better understand how board gender diversity would affect firm performance. However, results were inconsistent. This study tries to integrate agency theory with institutional theory under the assumption that firms are affected by endogenous and exogenous factors that would eventually affect its outcomes such as performance.

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Board gender diversity and firm performance: evidence from the Russian agri-food industry

International Food and Agribusiness Management Review ◽

10.22434/ifamr2019.0011 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 23 (1) ◽

pp. 35-53 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Alisher Tleubayev ◽

Ihtiyor Bobojonov ◽

Taras Gagalyuk ◽

Thomas Glauben

Keyword(s):

Firm Performance ◽

Large Scale ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Critical Mass ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Policy Makers ◽

Global Food Security ◽

Female Directors ◽

Corporate Executives ◽

Board Gender Diversity

This study provides pioneering empirical evidence on board gender diversity and firm performance relationship for the case of large-scale agri-food companies in Russia. While Russia plays an important role in the global food security, its domestic agri-food production is heavily dependent on large scale producers. Our findings suggest a strong positive link between the percentage of female directors in boardrooms and firm performance. Moreover, in line with critical mass theory, boards with three or more female directors have greater impact on firm performance compared to boards with two or less female directors. Further analysis shows that the presence of female directors in the company has a positive impact on firm performance, mainly due to their executive, rather than monitoring effects. The paper shed light on gender diversity of Russian corporate boardrooms and provides empirical recommendations for policy makers as well as corporate executives in Russia.

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A social capital view of women on boards and their impact on firm performance

Managerial Finance ◽

10.1108/mf-02-2020-0091 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Erin Oldford ◽

Saif Ullah ◽

Ashrafee Tanvir Hossain

Keyword(s):

Social Capital ◽

Firm Performance ◽

Ethnic Diversity ◽

Gender Diversity ◽

Negative Relationship ◽

Future Research ◽

Corporate Boards ◽

Board Diversity ◽

Content Type ◽

Board Gender Diversity

PurposeThe objective of this paper is to leverage a two-sided view of social capital to develop a model of board gender diversity and firm performance using social capital data from Northeast Regional Center of Rural Development.Design/methodology/approachThe authors examine a large sample of 2,322 US publicly listed firms over the period 1996 to 2009. The final sample consists of 14,634 firm-year observations.FindingsThe authors find that when a firm's social network is not supportive of gender diversity, corporate boards have lower levels of female representation. The strength of a social network's social ties exacerbates the relationship between social capital and board gender diversity. The authors also report a negative relationship between female board membership and firm performance in social networks that are not pro-diversity. Robustness tests reveal that the authors’ social capital view of board diversity also applies to board ethnic diversity.Research limitations/implicationsThis study focuses primarily on blue chip firms due to data constraints. It will be interesting for future researchers to investigate a broader spectrum of firms from a broader perspective of diversity beyond the study’s gender and ethnicity findings. Furthermore, this study assesses the US context, and future research could investigate firm sociability in other national contexts.Practical implicationsThis study contributes new insights to the discourse on gender diversity on corporate boards which stand to inform both policy and practice. The results of the study can inform the position of an industry association on board gender diversity, with guidance on how messaging across networks can be more effective should it account for the hidden bias that the authors uncover in the current study. From a manager's perspective, this study can help those managers and boards trying to enhance board gender diversity by providing a more complete understanding of the factors that can limit progress.Originality/valueThis study contributes a social capital view of board gender diversity to the growing literature of corporate governance, board diversity and local environmental influences on corporate policies.

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