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The authors motivate this research on the gender diversity of the board because of the recent increases in the number of women in top executive teams (Francis et al., 2015), which has probably been the result of the adoption of legislation for gender quotas as well as the establishment of corporate governance recommendations for gender diverse boards in several countries. The purpose of this study is to consider the quality of board directors when examining the effect of female directors on earnings management.

The analyses follow the system generalized method of moment to address endogeneity concerns (e.g. a board with higher quality is more likely to have female directors on board and vice versa). Besides the lags of the endogenous variables, the authors use the female industry ratio as an additional instrument (Liu et al., 2014), as female directors might be inspired by other female directors according to industrial sectors (measured by the two-digit industry codes), where competitors are likely to follow gender diversity practices of other firms within the same industrial sector.

The authors’ findings show a negative and significant association between board gender diversity and earnings management (EM), suggesting that independent female directors are the drivers of such effect. High-quality boards decrease the incidence of EM but hinder the potential involvement from female directors towards reducing EM. The incumbent effect of high-quality boards on female director’s contribution on EM reverses with less powerful CEOs.

The authors contribute to the extant literature by recognizing that the effectiveness of a female director on decreasing EM is a function of the environment in which decision-making takes place (i.e. board quality/powerful CEOs).

This study investigates the impact of female directors on firms' financial performance by scrutinizing the different roles they are empowered to fulfill.

This study examines the impact of the roles performed by female directors on firms' financial performance using a panel dataset of the top 100 listed Indian firms over a period of 5 years. The study uses an appropriate panel data model for empirical analysis. For the robustness evaluation, a two-stage least square (2SLS) with the instrumental variable model were used.

The findings reveal a significantly positive impact of the total percentage of female directors on firms' financial performance. Further, by disentangling the impact of the total percentage of female directors between independent directors and executive directors, the study shows that independent female directors make a significant positive contribution to their firms' financial performance. By contrast, the performance impact of female executive directors was insignificant. In addition, the findings reveal that firms with a higher proportion of independent female directors outperform firms with a higher percentage of female executive directors.

This study is the first of its kind to unravel the performance impact of female directors and distinguish between the roles of independent directors and executive directors in the context of the emerging market of India, after the imposition of a gender quota for corporate boards.

Companies, politicians, the mass media, legislators, scholars and society in general have shown a growing interest in how board gender diversity affects a firm’s decisions. This concept has been developed because some nations have introduced voluntary policies to regulate and increase the proportion of female directors on corporate boards. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to review previous research based on board gender diversity as a corporate governance mechanism and its effect on some firms’ business decisions: financial reporting quality (FRQ), firm performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting.

The authors focus on the agency and stakeholder theory to examine the link between female directors on boards and FRQ, CSR disclosure and firm performance.

This review provides researchers a structure that can identify the benefits and disadvantages of including female directors on boards regarding three particular corporate outcomes (FRQ, firm performance and CSR reporting).

This study provides a review of past literature on firm performance, CSR disclosure and FRQ from 1975 to 2017, and it contributes to past research by giving a broad overview of the main results of the association between female board directors and corporate decisions. The findings have implications for governments, academics and company managers.

Las empresas, los políticos, los medios de comunicación, los legisladores, los investigadores y la sociedad, en general, han incrementado su interés en cómo la diversidad de género de los Consejos de Administración impacta en las decisiones empresariales. El concepto de diversidad de género en los Consejos ha sido desarrollado porque algunos países han implementado políticas voluntarias para regular e incrementar la proporción de mujeres consejeras en los Consejos de Administración de las empresas. Por tanto, el objetivo de este trabajo es revisar la literatura previa que se ha centrado en analizar la diversidad de género del Consejo de Administración como mecanismo de buen gobierno corporativo y su efecto en algunas decisiones empresariales: calidad de la información financiera, desempeño empresarial y divulgación de información sobre la responsabilidad social corporativa.

Para examinar la relación entre la presencia de mujeres consejeras en los Consejos de Administración y la calidad de la información financiera, la divulgación de información sobre la responsabilidad social empresarial y el desempeño empresarial nos hemos basado en la teoría de la agencia y la de los stakeholders.

Esta revisión de la literatura previa proporciona a los investigadores una sólida estructura para que puedan identificar las ventajas y desventajas de incorporar mujeres consejeras en los Consejos de Administración con respecto a tres decisiones empresariales en particular (calidad de la información financiera, desempeño empresarial y la divulgación de información sobre la responsabilidad social corporativa).

Este trabajo realiza una revisión de la literatura previa sobre el desempeño empresarial, sobre la revelación de información sobre la responsabilidad social empresarial y sobre la calidad de la información financiera desde 1975 hasta 2017, y contribuye a la literatura previa ofreciendo una amplia perspectiva de los principales resultados de la relación entre la presencia de mujeres en los Consejos de Administración y estas tres decisiones empresariales. Los resultados tienen implicaciones para los gobiernos, los académicos y los gerentes de las empresas.

The importance of board composition, especially female directors’ presence on boards, is thought to influence corporate responsibility performance, has attracted significant scholarly interest. This study aims to examine how board gender diversity (BGD) affects corporate social responsibility (CSR) performance and the moderating factors that influence the relationship. There is a lack of research on the moderating indicators (variable measurement, geographic location, data sets and gender parity score) that impact the BGD and CSR relationship.

This study uses content analysis and meta-analysis to combine the findings of 44 selected papers published from 2010 to 2019, comprehensively reviewing the academic literature on gender diversity in the board composition. Independent and dependent variables are classified based on the variable measurement; this study examines the moderator indicators, such as geographical location, research data sets and gender parity score to investigate the BGD and CSR relationship.

The findings indicated a significant positive relationship between BGD and CSR performance. The meta-method results showed that the measurements of BGD and CSR limited to impact on the relationship. But a significant moderating effect of the geographical location on the BGD-CSR relationship, the BGD-CSR relationship would be stronger in the firms located in North America than firms located in Asia and other areas. Empirical results also showed a significant moderating effect of gender parity score. There would be stronger BGD-CSR relations in the firms located in the countries with higher gender parity score than the firms located in the countries with low gender parity score. This means the female status is an essential indicator of moderating the BGD-CSR relationship.

The main shortcoming is a lack of sufficient articles on the BGD-CSR relationship. In a future study, researchers may use other databases, such as Google scholar or Ebscohost, to increase the number of relevant articles. These studies would offer new insight into the meta-analysis of the relationship between the BGD and CSR. Finally, the authors identify the potential trend in future research, future research on BGD will need for standardized metrics. The Geographic location is an important indicator that will influence the female director role in CSR. A systematic measure and data of gender research are more important for study in this field.

Meta-analysis is conducted on the independent and dependent variables to examine the causality between BGD and CSR performance, which could better explore diversity among different countries’ boards and, more generally, to investigate the degree to which diversity may influence CSR. Firms may try to balance the BGD to improve future development prospects. Specifically, the results of this study have important implications for corporate governance and policymakers.

First, this systematic study uses meta-analysis to combine the findings of previous research on the BGD-CSR. The current research attempts to incorporate mixed empirical results based on the different variable measurements. Second, this study develop and test a contingency model of female on boards and CSR that considers uses the geographic location factors that may enhance or diminish the influence of female on boards on CSR. Specifically, the authors examine whether and under what conditions, boards with more female directors differ for inter-country heterogeneity to which they engage in monitoring roles and are involved with strategy management.

First, this study could be the first systematic study that uses the meta-analysis to combine previous research findings on the BGD-CSR. Second, the current research attempts to incorporate mixed empirical results based on the different variable measurements. Third, this study uses the “gender parity score” to account for inter-country heterogeneity in the BGD-CSR relationship. This study also identifies the potential trend in future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between gender diversity and the risk profile of Italian banks during the period 2015–2019. This study examines whether the presence of female board directors or top executives has any significant effect on bank risk-taking.

To explore the influence of women on bank risk-taking, the authors analyzed a sample of 387 Italian banks and developed an econometric model applying unbalanced panel data with firm fixed effects and controls per year. Within a multivariate regression model, the authors considered five risk dimensions to verify the effect of gender diversity.

The findings suggest that female board directors and executives are considerably more risk averse and less overconfident than their male colleagues, thus confirming a negative causality between risk-taking and gender diversity. The results reveal that banks headed by women are less risky because they report higher capital adequacy and equity to assets ratios. As credit risk in female-led banks is no different from male-led ones, higher capital adequacy does not derive from lower asset quality because it is linked to the higher risk aversion of female directors and top managers.

From a theoretical standpoint, the results suggest that having women in executive positions entails different risk implications for Italian banks; from a managerial perspective, the results highlight conditions that may promote the role of women in the banking sector. The conclusions are of particular significance because they provide some support for the view that regulators should favor gender quotas in the board management of banks to reduce risk-taking behavior.

This paper offers an in-depth examination of the risk practices of banks and it attempts to bridge the gap in prior literature on the risk profile of the Italian banking industry given that few empirical studies have examined the determinants of risk-taking in this field, to date. The findings on the higher risk aversion of women directors advance the understanding of the determinants of risk-taking behavior in banks, suggesting that gender quotas in bank boards can contribute to reducing risk-taking behavior. This also unveils some policy implications for bank regulatory authorities.

The purpose of this research is to examine whether board gender diversity reduces the agency costs of firms in the context of Chinese listed firms.

This paper uses a large sample of 23,340 firm-year observations of Chinese listed companies during 2004–2017. The authors use ordinary least squares regressions as the primary methodology with a wide range of methods to control for endogeneity and to check robustness, including the fixed-effect method, instrumental variable approach, lagged gender diversity measures, propensity score matching, Blau index, Shannon index and industry-adjusted measures of agency costs.

The evidence reveals that the participation of female directors in corporate board reduces agency costs, which correlates with conflicts of interest. Moreover, gender-diverse boards are more effective in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), in which agency issues are more severe. Female directors also provide better monitoring roles in more-developed areas. Finally, corporate boards that have a critical mass of female directors have a greater tendency to reduce agency costs as compared to their token participation. Overall, all findings support the validity of agency theory.

This study shows the economic benefit of female directors in the boardroom by reducing agency costs and by improving firms' governance structure. Regarding the government, which is gradually introducing board gender diversity policies, this study provides valuable pragmatic information for Chinese regulators on this issue.

This study extends the literature by providing evidence that gender diversity in boardroom matters for shareholders' wealth maximization. It provides novel evidence that a critical mass of female directors is more effective in reducing agency costs compared to a single female on the board, and that the effect of gender diversity varies in relation to ownership structure and region.

This study examines whether female directorship on board is related to firm's risk-taking behavior in India.

The study considers the top 500 listed companies in India during the period 2013 to 2018 for the analysis. The paper employs fixed effects as well as a dynamic panel data model to address the bias in the fixed effects model when the lagged risk outcome is included as an explanatory variable.

The study finds that the presence of female directors on board is unrelated to the firm's risk-outcomes and the risk-adjusted return earned by the shareholders. The results are in line with the tokenism theory of board diversity. Having a higher share of female independent directors is also unrelated to the risk-taking behavior of firms. The findings are in contrast to the critical mass theory and the agency theory of gender diversity. The study does not rule out the possibility of female directors' risk-preferences being similar to those of male directors.

The findings suggest that regulations related to having independent female directors may not add value for the shareholders in the short run. The business case for such stringent regulations in India on the gender diversity of boards remains unclear.

This is the first study to analyze the relationship between gender diversity of boards and firm-level risk in India. Most of the studies have focused on gender diversity and firm performance in India. However, modern portfolio theory suggests that both risk and return are important as shareholders care about risk-adjusted returns.

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact that women who sit on boards of directors, as well as women that are part of an interlocking directorate, have on corporate performance. The investigation is placed within the literature on human capital theory and resource dependency as an argument for gender diversity and boards of directors.

A director data set for over 32,000 firms based in the USA, composed of 6,218 women and 54,932 men, is utilized. From this, regression and network analysis were utilized.

It is found that female directors’ participation in interlocking directorates translates into greater corporate performance when compared to simply examining female representation on boards of directors. Additionally, women involved in interlocks translated into greater corporate performance when compared to men. These results support the resource dependency approach.

Results of this study suggest that when considering female directors, corporate performance is enhanced when female directors already sit on the boards of other firms.

This study highlights external network connections to differentiate between human capital theory and resource dependency as an argument for gender diversity and boards of directors.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the gender composition of the board of directors of Malaysian initial public offering (IPO) companies. This study also examines the business case for having women on boards.

Using a sample of 228 IPO companies that went public during the period 1999‐2006, this study tracks the changes in the gender composition of these companies prior to the IPO year, IPO year and three‐year post‐IPOs. This study also tracks the changes in the gender composition between the pre‐IPO period and some 5 to 12 years later after the IPOs for a subsample of 89 companies that appear as top 500‐companies on the Malaysian Stock Exchange (Bursa Malaysia) in 2011. The compounded buy‐and‐hold returns method is used to measure the post‐IPO company performance.

This study finds that female representation as board of directors in 228 Malaysian companies prior to the IPO is only about 8 percent. This percentage is almost similar for the subsequent four years (IPO year and three‐year post‐IPOs). By using a subsample of 89 companies that appear as top 500‐companies in 2011, the percentage of female directors increases only 2.5 percent from the pre‐IPO year. However, the increment is not statistically significant. An extended analysis on the business case for women on boards reveals that greater percentage of female representation leads to lower long run underperformance. This underperformance is much lower for companies having more foreign ethnic female representation.

The results of this study suggest that there is still a long way to realize the benefits of having female directors in Malaysian companies. Malaysia needs to create an environment that realizes the benefits of having women in the top management levels.

This research contributes to the existing literature on gender especially in the context of IPO companies. This is the first comprehensive study on gender composition using Malaysian IPOs data. Prior studies on gender mainly focus on established listed companies.

This paper aims to examine the impact of female board directorship on the extent of earnings management.

The research hypotheses have been tested using both univariate and multivariate analyzes based on a sample of 198 firm-year observations from closely-held family firms listed on the SBF 120 over the period 2010–2018.

The empirical results first indicate that female board participation reduces the level of earnings management. When looking at women positions in the companies’ boardrooms, the authors reveal that the negative linkage between female board directorship and earnings management remains constant for independent female directors while the opposite holds for their family-affiliated counterparts. Further, the gender quota reform is shown to mitigate the adverse relationship between gender-diverse corporate boards and the extent of earnings management. These results seem sound, as they hold unchanged for the several measures of, both, boardroom gender diversity and earnings management used in the empirical study. In a supplementary analysis, the authors provide evidence that the association between the presence of women directors on the companies’ boards and earnings management depends, in a different way, on the size of the audit firm in a joint auditing context.

The country and the period considered in this paper are noteworthy characteristics that enhance the value of this research. The present study is relevant because it examines the relationship between female boardroom participation and earnings management using a homogeneous sample of family-owned and -managed companies within which shareholders and board members share identical motives for manipulating earnings in one of the leading countries in the world with regard to family ownership dominance (i.e. France). Moreover, this paper is considered to be very timely, as it explores, contrarily to previous related studies, the years following the implementation of a mandatory gender quota reform in one of the less available countries, to date, that have amended a gender quota law. To the knowledge, besides France, there are a few markets (Norway, Belgium, Finland and Iceland) that have implemented such legislation.