Gender and Bankruptcy: A Hotel Survival Econometric Analysis

This study’s objective was to understand how chief executive officers’ (CEOs) gender affects hotel businesses’ survival. Female managers’ influence has already been examined in other sectors, but researchers have not studied women CEOs’ role in hotel management and survival. A sample of 2615 Spanish hotel companies was examined during the period 2005–2018 for how their survival was affected by the variables of financial aspects, years of experience and the principal hotel executive’s gender. An econometrics-based survival analysis was conducted using a single complementary log-log model and panel data. The results indicate that some financial variables, such as sales, working capital to total assets ratio and each company’s experience, influence hotel businesses’ survival. The main finding was that women CEOs increase hotels’ survival rate. This CEO gender study is a novelty in the literature on hotel survival.

What’s It Like Inside the Hive? Managerial Discretion Drives TMT Gender Diversity of Women-Led Firms

Do women promote other women? We investigate this question through the lens of gender role theory and managerial discretion. While the trickle-down effect suggests that women in positions of power are likely to promote other women, the queen bee phenomenon indicates that senior women distance themselves from other women. We argue these two conflicting perspectives have developed because (a) much of the literature has considered the influence of board gender representation on top management team (TMT) gender representation, ignoring the role of the CEO, and (b) an important tenet of the queen bee phenomenon has been overlooked in that women who perceive an ability to challenge traditional gender norms are less likely to engage in queen bee behavior. Thus, we suggest women CEOs, who are in a unique position of both importance and isolation, are less likely to promote other women to the TMT due to the gendered context in which they are employed, but as the CEO’s capacity to enact change (i.e., managerial discretion) increases, so too does their ability to challenge traditional gender norms. More specifically, we hypothesize and find that while the presence of women CEOs negatively relates to the proportion of women on the TMT, this relationship is weakened by CEO power, lack of board vigilance, and environmental munificence. Post hoc analyses demonstrated that while a trickle-down effect occurs from the board to the TMT, these mechanisms may not exist at the CEO-TMT interface, highlighting the importance of considering the role of CEO discretion in enhancing executive gender diversity.

Women CEOs and firm performance in the construction industry: evidence from Spain

PurposeThe construction industry has traditionally been a male-dominated economic sector. Barely 10% of managers are women. On the other hand, this sector is considered an engine of the economy. For these reasons, it is important to examine the influence of women CEOs on financial variables of firms in the construction industry.Design/methodology/approachThe empirical study is carried out using a sample from the Iberian Balance Sheet Analysis System record (“Sistema de Análisis de Balances Ibérico”, SABI). The sample includes 8,492 Spanish companies from the construction sector. The methodology employed is a three-stage least squares (3SLS) analysis. This methodology controls for the endogeneity of explanatory variables. It is employed in accordance with the peculiar characteristics of the sample, which includes data for only one year.FindingsThe results show that firms with a woman CEO have a lower level of debt, whatever the terms of the maturity of the debt are. In contrast to most previous evidence, firms managed by women are found to be less profitable.Originality/valueThe paper gives evidence of the influence of the CEO's gender on the performance (return and risk) of a firm. It provides original empirical evidence for the male-dominated construction sector. An extensive search identified no literature in which the researchers had focused on the construction industry.

Women CEOs in Mexico: gendered local/global divide and the diversity management discourse

Purpose The purpose of this study is to add to the existing research on critical perspectives on diversity management (DM). Specifically, this study examines the narratives of women chief executive officers (CEOs) from different countries of origin to understand how they enact the DM discourse by drawing on their past and present experiences at US multinational corporations (MNCs) located in Mexico. Design/methodology/approach This study, based on six open-ended interviews with local and expatriate women CEOs who work in MNCs situated in Mexico, used a sensemaking approach to analyze their narratives. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on decolonial feminist theory, which is used to analyze the hierarchical binary between Anglo-Saxon/European woman and the Mexican/Latin American woman with respect to the discourse of DM. Findings This study found that the dominant discourse used by women CEOs, expats and nationals was a business case for diversity. Female CEOs represent MNCs in favorable terms, compared to those of local companies, despite the nuances in the antagonistic representations in their narratives. This study also found that the women CEOs’ narratives perpetuated a discourse of “otherness” that created a hierarchy between Anglo-Saxons (US/MNCs’ culture) and Latin Americans (Mexican/local companies’ culture). Originality/value This study contributes to critical studies on DM by analyzing diverse forms of power involving gender, race/ethnicity and organizational hierarchy. The use of decolonial feminist theory to examine MNCs is a novel approach to understanding women’s identities and the power differences between local/foreign contexts and global/local businesses. This study also discusses the implications of its findings for women in business careers and concludes with a call for more research within the global South (Latin America).

Gender Gymnastics in CEO succession: Masculinities, Femininities and Legitimacy

This article theorizes how CEOs ‘do gender’ in management succession and how this impacts their legitimacy as successor CEOs. Drawing on the analysis of seven incumbent-successor dyads in a family business setting, we document the multiple masculine (entrepreneurial, authoritarian and paternalistic) and feminine (relational, individualized and maternal) gender identities that both men and women CEO successors enact. We contribute to the CEO succession literature by revealing the different ways that CEOs can ‘do masculinity’ in their pursuit of legitimacy and also expose how CEO successors ‘do femininity’. In particular, we show how men and women CEOs enact relational femininity to garner stakeholders’ support as well as build alliances to temper change initiatives. We contribute to the gender and organization literature by providing an understanding of how certain ways of doing gender in organizations facilitate or hinder the legitimacy of CEO successors.