Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the mediating role of board effectiveness (understood as the capacity to efficiently manage and control all functions to guarantee the company’s prosperity) in the relationship between board diversity and firm performance.

The authors use partial least squares methodology to test the direct and indirect relationships between gender diversity in boards of directors and business performance.

Although the relationship between the presence of women on the board and the board’s effectiveness is statistically significant, this relationship is negative. However, board effectiveness (measured by the three constructs: strategic control, organizational innovation and decision-making) has a positive and statistically significant effect on business performance. Finally, there is a positive, but not statistically significant, relationship between gender diversity and firm performance.

The study has a small sample size, and most of the boards of directors analyzed are unequal with only a few companies achieving gender parity.

Public institutions must promote actions to achieve a critical mass of women directors and managers, so that women transcend a merely “symbolic” role on a board and are able to develop their skills and characteristics, thereby improving a board’s effectiveness and business performance.

This paper makes a theoretical contribution to the diversity and governance literature by providing a better understanding of the relationship between board gender diversity and firm performance. It considers the influence of women on the board through a holistic framework, analyzing the mediating role of the board’s effectiveness.

The 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.

The 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.

The 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.

The 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.

The goal of this paper is to enhance consideration for the potential for institutions of higher education throughout the world, in different cultures and contexts, to be change agents for sustainability. As society faces unprecedented and increasingly urgent challenges associated with accelerating environmental change, resource scarcity, increasing inequality and injustice, as well as rapid technological change, new opportunities for higher education are emerging.

The paper builds on the emerging literature on transition management and identifies five critical issues to be considered in assessing the potential for higher education as a change agent in any particular region or place. To demonstrate the value of these critical issues, exemplary challenges and opportunities in different contexts are provided.

The five critical issues include regional‐specific dominant sustainability challenges, financing structure and independence, institutional organization, the extent of democratic processes, and communication and interaction with society.

Given that the challenges and opportunities for higher education as a change agent are context‐specific, identifying, synthesizing, and integrating common themes is a valuable and unique contribution.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the main changes regarding flood policy in Spain during the period 1983-2013, that is right after the large and very damaging episodes of 1982-1983 in Valencia, Catalonia and the Basque Country.

This is above all a review paper that looks retrospectively at flood policy in Spain during the past three decades. In order to collect and organize the information the authors follow the methodology of the IPCC regarding vulnerability studies. That is, the authors provide evidence for an overall assessment of the evolution of exposure, sensibility and adaptive capacity to floods in Spain for the period of reference. The authors approach these issues through the own experience and expertise on this subject as noted in the reference list.

While exposure to floods has generally increased (especially after the massive growth of urbanization in flood prone land of the 1990s and early 2000s) overall flood policy has contributed to make Spain less sensible and more adapted to floods. Still some issues remain unsolved especially the control of urban growth and the adaptation of the built environment to floods. For these reasons absolute economic losses from floods may continue to be important in the future (perhaps more so with climate change) even though, overall, Spanish society may have become less vulnerable and therefore more resilient than in the past.

The paper provides a retrospective study and assessment of policies taken and their changes regarding floods at a national level over a long period of time (30 years) which is a theme still relatively little explored in the scientific literature on this hazard.

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims to analyze the individual influence of different knowledge management practises (KMP) on firm performance. Second, it aims to analyze the mediating role of organizational learning (OL) between each KMP and performance.

A telephone-survey was applied in 2018 to the managers of 400 Spanish firms. The data retrieved was analyzed by using multiple regression analysis.

Knowledge generation (KG) and knowledge flow (KF) promote firm performance, while there is not a direct association between knowledge storage and performance. OL mediates the relationship between KG and performance, as well as between KF and performance.

First, this research confirms that not all the KMP have a direct effect on firm performance, thus, future research would need to differentiate between different KMP. Second, this paper is pioneering in providing empirical evidence that OL mediates the KMP – performance relationship. Third, the empirical study was performed in a context non-researched yet by the literature considering KMP individually: Spain.

First, besides the results managers should focus their efforts in practises related to KG and application. Second, OL mediating suggests that managers should invest in managerial commitment to promote a shared culture, shared vision, open-mind to new ideas and a lot of dialogue.

This is the first study that investigates how KMP contribute to firm performance by incorporating the mediating impact of OL. The results will help organizations to identify the KMP improving the performance.

The aim of this article is to analyse the opinions (and the differences among them) of golf players, golf courses managers and the general population about the economic and social impact of golf courses in a tourist destination (Alicante province, in Spain) from the data collected in three surveys. Golf players and golf courses managers have a more positive opinion about this economic and social impact than the population in the province. This is due to the knowledge of the first group about golf industry benefits. Therefore, communication about these social and economic benefits of golf courses has to be increased with the population in the area in order to improve their opinion about them.

The purpose of this paper is dual. The first is to assess the quality of websites of Italian wineries, using the Web Assessment Index (WAI), and compare e-commerce and e-marketing websites. The second is to verify the existence of a relationship between the website quality and business revenue, on one hand, and the characteristics of managers, on the other.

A two-step survey was carried out to respond to the aims of the study. First, a sample of wineries was contacted to capture information on both the wineries and managerial characteristics. On the basis of the observed data, a second step of the analysis was performed taking into consideration 84 wineries having a website. The website quality has been evaluated by WAI, and afterwards, it has been related to the internal business factors previously identified.

Findings show that the website quality is higher in e-commerce websites than in e-marketing websites, and that business revenue and the education level of managers have a positive influence on the websites’ quality.

The results of the study need to be interpreted within the context for which this research was designed and cannot be applied generally to all businesses.

Findings have some theoretical and practical implications. From a theoretical point of view, this study validates the WAI model in the wine sector. From a managerial perspective, results are useful both for wineries creating an online presence for the first time, and for those already existing which, and for system designers of websites.

Very few empirical studies have been conducted on the relationship between website quality, business performance and managerial characteristics.

This study aims to validate a Spanish version of the Glasgow Depression Scale for Learning Disability (GDS-LD) and of the Glasgow Depression Care Supplement Scale (GDS-CS).

The GDS-LD was administered to 120 adults with mild and moderate intellectual disabilities and the GDS-CS to the staff from their occupational workshops (n = 120) to detect symptoms of depression. Internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, test-retest reliability, criterion validity, construct validity and the feasibility and applicability of both scales were analysed.

Both scales showed an adequate internal consistency (GDS-LD, a = 0.86) (GDS-CS, a = 0.88). Exploratory factor analysis revealed four well-defined factors in GDS-LD and three in GDS-CS. Pearson correlation analysis data has also been carried out with both tools for test-retest and inter-rater, showing good correlations.

In terms, of limitations, the participants were recruited from the same centre, so this could be a problem in terms of generalisation. In addition, the GDS-LD and GDS-CS scales were developed for people with mild and moderate ID; it would be worth it to develop a version for people with severe and profound disabilities.

From its clinical perspective, it will be possible to have a specific tool that assesses the symptoms of depression in the Spanish population with ID. Furthermore, as it is a user-friendly scale; it can be administrated by both mental health and other professionals working in the field of disability.

The Spanish version of the GDS-LD and GDS-CS showed adequate rates of feasibility and reliability to assess symptoms depression among Spanish speaking adults with mild and moderate ID.

The purpose of this paper is to seek insights into the demands and challenges faced by school principals in Spain, especially in their dealings with local education authorities.

In all, 100 principals from public infant, primary and secondary schools in Alicante (Spain) participated in the study, which was carried out from a qualitative research perspective using deductive content analysis.

Most participants noted the need to improve channels of communication with, and support from, the local education authority. They also stressed the desirability of increasing their autonomy, reducing bureaucratic tasks and improving working conditions, which is in line with the international framework. Their narratives make it clear that they remain tied to a management leadership model but actually aspire to an instructive leadership.

An absence of triangulation and the use of a single data collection technique are the limitations of this paper.

These participants are practising professionals who are proposing ways to improve aspects of their working lives based on actual experience. Acknowledging their voices could inspire the design of policies aimed at improving the principal’s role in Spain.

Knowledge is contributed to the area of study into proposals for improving the role of the principal, but with new and contextualised insights.