scholarly journals Gender diversity and corporate sustainability performance: empirical evidence from India

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ritu Pareek ◽  
Tarak Nath Sahu ◽  
Arindam Gupta

Purpose This study aims to attempt to evaluate and establish the relationship between gender diversity (GD) on the board and corporate sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 212 non-financial companies listed on the National Stock Exchange has been considered for a period of 2013–2014 to 2018–2019. For the purpose of the analysis, this study has conducted the static panel data model analysis and also some diagnostics tests to arrive at robust results. Findings This study, from its analysis, interprets that GD or the proportion of women directors in the company plays a significant role in the decisions related to the sustainability performance of the company. Alongside GD, the profitability of the company, measured in terms of Tobin’s Q, and firm size are also seen to have a positive impact on the sustainability performance of the company. Practical implications This study from its findings contributes to the existing works of literature by highlighting the impact of GD on the sustainability performance of the firm. This study thus recommends the recruitment of an ample number of females in the top-notch positions of the board to create a gender-diverse management team to reap the benefits of leadership styles of both genders. Originality/value Very few studies have been conducted on the dynamics of women’s directorship, especially in an emerging economy like India. This study thus tries to fill this important gap in the literature by examining the relationship between board GD and sustainability performance of Indian firms.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amel Kouaib ◽  
Asma Bouzouitina ◽  
Anis Jarboui

PurposeThis paper explores how the tension between a firm's CEO overconfidence feature and externally observable hubris attribute may determine the level of corporate sustainability performance. This work also contemplates the impact of the moderator “corporate governance practices.”Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a sample of 658 firm-year-observations using a sample of European real estate firms indexed on Stoxx Europe 600 Index from 2006 to 2019. To test the developed hypotheses, feasible generalized least square (FGLS) regression is applied.FindingsFindings suggest that a good corporate governance score strengthens the positive effect of the psychological bias (CEO overconfidence) on corporate sustainability performance while it fails to attenuate the negative effect of the cognitive bias (CEO hubris).Research limitations/implicationsThe research provides an overview of the impact of CEO personality traits on the corporate sustainability performance level in the European real estate sup-sector. As corporate governance can have a major impact to control these traits, the authors recommend European real estate companies to improve their corporate governance practices.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the existent literature this gap with two empirical novelties: (1) providing a novel insight into sustainability involvement using a sample of European real estate sup-sector and (2) investigating the moderating effect on the link between CEO psychological and cognitive biases and sustainability performance. This study provides empirical evidence that entrenchment problems arising from CEO hubris would not be mitigated by a good corporate governance practice.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Khairul Anuar Kamarudin ◽  
Akmalia M. Ariff ◽  
Wan Adibah Wan Ismail

Purpose This study aims to investigate whether board gender diversity is associated with corporate sustainability performance and whether industry-level product market competition moderates the effect of board gender diversity on corporate sustainability performance. Design/methodology/approach This study uses international data extracted from global ESG data set from Thomson Reuters (Refinitiv) database. Using data of 23,137 firm-year observations from 37 countries, the authors perform regression analyses to examine the hypotheses. Findings The findings show that firms with high board gender diversity exhibit high corporate sustainability performance. The authors also find firms in highly competitive industries to have low corporate sustainability performance. In highly competitive industries, the positive relationship between board gender diversity and corporate sustainability performance is weakened. The results are robust to various specification tests such as alternative measures for corporate sustainability performance, board gender diversity, product market competition and also the use of propensity score matching to address endogeneity issue. Overall, the results support the prediction that board diversity and product market competition play a substitutive role in influencing corporate sustainability performance. Research limitations/implications This study offers empirical evidence that the appointment of female directors is a useful way to improve a firm’s corporate sustainability performance, hence, providing significant benefits in terms of stakeholders’ values and corporate reputation. Practical implications This study provides useful insights to investors and policymakers that intense industry competition might mitigate the role of board governance, particularly board gender diversity, in enhancing corporate sustainability performance. Originality/value Using an international data set, where the observations operate in various market and institutional differences, this study is able to extricate the positive impact of board gender diversity and product market competition on corporate sustainability performance. This study corroborates evidence that sustainability strategy and initiatives are reflections of integrated factors, including corporate governance as internal driver and market forces faced by firms as external driver.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 513-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal Shahzad ◽  
Mushahid Hussain Baig ◽  
Ijaz Ur Rehman ◽  
Fawad Latif ◽  
Bruno S. Sergi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study whether the presence of women directors on the corporate board influences financial performance (FP). To examine the underlying causal mechanism, the authors modeled firm-level intellectual capital efficiency (ICE) in the relationshipbetween board gender diversity (BGD) and FP. Design/methodology/approach Using a sample of 5,879 US firms, a structural model of BGD, IC and FP is conceptualized by accounting for the endogeneity issues and alternative measures of the key variables in the empirical framework. In the model, the percentage of women directors is taken as BGD measures and value-added intellectual coefficient as an IC performance measure, considering governance and corporate performance measures. Findings The authors find a significant impact of BGD on FP. In particular, the results suggest: BGD is linked to IC; the influence of board gender diversity on the FP is indirect; and ICE fully mediates the relationship between BGD and FP. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, no study has empirically investigated whether the firm-level IC performance explains the influence of BGD on FP. Drawing on the resource-based view and organizational learning theory of the firm, the authors empirically modeled the relationship between BGD and FP through a mediation mechanism of firm-level ICE to fill the void in the literature.


Author(s):  
Hong Tian ◽  
Jiahui Tian

Responsible innovation, as a new management paradigm that balances the need for profit growth and the appeal of social value, plays an important role in taking into account corporate economic, social and environmental performance. It provides new ideas for driving enterprises to become more risk-resistant and sustainable in times of crisis. However, existing research on responsible innovation has mostly focused on content issues, and there is a lack of sufficient research and empirical studies on its effectiveness in business organizations. Based on the stakeholder theory and the research logic of “pressure–behavior-performance”, this study investigates the formation mechanism of responsible innovation and its impact on corporate performance. Through empirical research on 306 Chinese sample data, the results show that stakeholder pressure has a positive impact on corporate sustainability performance and responsible innovation plays a partially mediating role in this relationship. Flexible routine replication positively moderates the relationship between stakeholder pressure and responsible innovation, while positively moderating the mediating role that responsible innovation plays between stakeholder pressure and corporate sustainability performance. This study contributes to helping enterprises recognize the importance of responsible innovation in responding to stakeholder pressure and promoting corporate sustainability performance in times of crisis.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asma’a Al-Amarneh ◽  
Hadeel Yaseen ◽  
Majd Iskandrani

This paper aims to investigate the impact of board gender diversity on dividend policy in the context of Jordanian commercial banks. Using a sample of 13 Jordanian commercial banks listed on Amman Stock Exchange during the period 2005-2014, we find strong and robust evidence indicating that diversified boards tend to pay higher cash dividends to shareholders since women can better address the needs of investors in impatient emerging markets. Moreover, this paper presents the negative moderating effect of both, the government existence in the boardroom and international financial crisis on the relationship between gender diversity and dividend policy indicators. Under such conditions, the diversified boards became more conservative and retained most of the profit and paid fewer dividends because of the risk-averse tendencies of women directors.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 414-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Najul Laskar ◽  
Santi Gopal Maji

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the disclosure pattern of corporate sustainability (CS) and the influence of sustainability reporting on firm performance of four countries in Asia – Japan, South Korea, Indonesia and India. Design/methodology/approach The authors have collected the sustainability reports and annual reports of 111 firms from four Asian countries for a period of six years. Based on the framework of Global Reporting Initiatives (GRI, 3 and 3.1), content analysis is used for calculating the disclosure score of corporate sustainability performance (CSP). These scores are further used to examine the impact on firm performance by employing a panel data regression model. Findings The study finds that the average level and quality of disclosure are the highest for Japanese firms, followed by India and South Korea. However, in the case of Indonesia, the average score is very low. Further, the study finds a significant difference in the disclosure of overall sustainability as well as components of sustainability between the countries. The regression results indicate the positive impact of CSP (both in terms of level and quality) on MBR. Specifically, the outcome of the regression model reveals that both the level and quality disclosure of CS are crucial for enhancing firm value for both the developed and developing countries of Asia. Moreover, the relative influence of CSP (both in terms of level and quality) on firm performance is found to be more in developed countries than the developing countries of Asia. Originality/value This is the first comprehensive study in the Asian context to investigate the disclosure pattern of CSP and also examine the association between CSP and firm performance by employing the panel data model. The outcome of this study is useful for policy implication.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Narander Kumar Nigam ◽  
Kirtivardhan Singh ◽  
Purushottam Arya

Purpose The existing literature point that the presence of women directors in a firm reduces its risk. However, the relation between boardroom gender diversity and a firm’s return is widely disputed leading to no concrete answer. Some studies mention that women directors have a positive impact on firm performance, whereas, on the other hand, some findings suggest that women directors reduce financial performance. This paper aims to study the relationship of firm risk and return with boardroom gender diversity and the net impact on firm performance in the Indian context. This study uses not only traditional measures of risk and return but also the third measure of risk-adjusted returns to postulate its findings. Design/methodology/approach Based upon the data of the top 100 of the Bombay Stock Exchange-500 firms for the period FY 2009–2010 to FY 2018–2019, this study applied fixed effect panel regression and random effects Tobit regression to examine the effect of board gender diversity on firm performance. Findings The study concludes that firms with women directors on board have lower risk and lower returns. It also results in a higher risk-adjusted return, creating a positive impact on a firm’s performance. Originality/value The paper contributes to the existing literature on corporate governance by considering return, risk and risk-adjusted returns in single research to have a holistic measure of firm performance. It provides empirical evidence from one of the largest emerging economies, India where the female director and independent female director have been introduced recently.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ridhima Saggar ◽  
Nischay Arora ◽  
Balwinder Singh

Purpose The study aims to pervade the gap in the domain of risk disclosure and gender diversity, which is comparatively uncharted. Gender diversity being a crucial element of corporate governance can deepen understanding on the issue in the backdrop of a developing country such as India, so this study aims to investigate the relationship between gender diversity on board and corporate risk disclosure. Design/methodology/approach Four measures of gender diversity, i.e. BLAU index, SHANNON index, proportion of women directors on board and female dummies, have been deployed to measure gender diversity. The empirical analysis is premised on a sample of S&P BSE 100 index pertaining to the 2018–2019 financial year; which eventually gets reduced to 70 non-financial firms after eliminating 30 financial firms. To examine the impact of gender diversity on corporate risk disclosure, hierarchical regression has been used. Additionally, two-stage least square regression analysis has been performed for checking the endogeneity issues in data and validating the findings of the study. Findings The main findings unveil that gender diversity positively impacts corporate risk disclosure. Confirming the agency theory and resource dependency theory, its alternative measures like BLAU index, SHANNON index, proportion of women directors and female dummy divulged to positively impact corporate risk disclosure. When women dummy has been used, analysis unmasked that firms electing more than one female director on board has a higher positive impact on corporate risk disclosure as compared to firms engaging only one women director on board. Research limitations/implications The study is undertaken in the Indian settings, which has its own set of legislative laws, whereas there is need to reaffirm the relationship applying cross-country analysis. Furthermore, there is huge hollowness in the domain of gender diversity and risk disclosure that calls for empirical evidence to unearth futuristic vision. Practical implications The research presents managerial implications for the managers to promote gender egalitarianism by electing higher quantum of women directors on board to achieve global standards of maintaining higher risk disclosure. Adequate risk disclosure on a gender-diverse board further assures the investors that their interest will remain intact in the organization that meets legal requirements by embracing gender equality in employment. A woman in the boardrooms incarnates transparency through divulgence of risk information, which suffices the informational needs of investors. In addition, the findings insists the regulators towards staunch enforcement of effective corporate governance practice through increasing the proportion of women directors on board as they assist in dispelling risk disclosure, which will avert sceptical ambitions of managers and deconstruct their stereotype attitude towards women. Originality/value This study is a novel contribution in expanding the risk disclosure literature by analyzing the unexplored impact of gender diversity on the extent of corporate risk disclosures in India.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Agus Triyani ◽  
Suhita Whini Setyahuni ◽  
Kiryanto Kiryanto

This paper aims to investigate the effect of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure on firm performance, which is measured by ROE. We also analyze the role of CEO tenure on the relationship between ESG disclosure and ROE. We used 159 samples of public listed companies in Indonesia during period of 2012 to 2016. We employed multiple regression technique to assess the research model. The findings show that ESG disclosure has a positive impact on ROE. The better the quality of ESG disclosure can enhance the level of ROE. In addition, we found a moderating effect of CEO tenure on the relationship between ESG disclosure and ROE. However, CEO tenure plays a role in decreasing the relationship between ESG disclosure and ROE. Our empirical evidence support the process of sustainability investment by using ESG data analysis, to get more comprehensive picture regarding companies sustainability performance. The findings of this study are expected to provide strong evidence regarding the importance of ESG disclosure in enhancing corporate performance. Furthermore, the findings are also expected to be able to ensure potential investors in using ESG disclosure to evaluate corporate sustainability performance.


2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 841-856 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwee Pheng Lim ◽  
Chun-Teck Lye ◽  
Yee Yen Yuen ◽  
Wendy Ming Yen Teoh

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between women on board and the financial performance of Malaysian listed companies. Design/methodology/approach Panel generalised method of moments (GMM) analysis was used over 928 public-listed companies listed on the Malaysian Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2016. GMM overcomes the problem of endogeneity and simultaneity bias. The dependent variable was firm performance, measured by Tobin’s Q. The explanatory variable was gender diversity, proxied by the percentage of women on board, the presence of women and gender heterogeneity indices, Blau and Shannon indices. Findings More gender diversification leads to declining firm performance possibly due to issues of tokenism and gender stereotypes. Research limitations/implications Further studies should look into the impact of various types of ownership structures on firm value and also by sectors. Practical implications As women represent half the population in Malaysia, more positive affirmative policies must be introduced to enhance their contributions to society. Social implications As women progress in society, their contributions towards nation building will be significant. Women not only play a nurturing role, but also can shape the destiny of a country. Originality/value Studies on the relationship between board gender diversity and financial performance have been conducted in the context of a few developed economies. This study contributes to the literature by examining such an issue in a developing economy that has a different environment from that of developed economies.


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