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This paper aims to review studies dealing with gender issues in accounting literature over the period of 1994-2016.

This study combines electronic and manual searches to identify relevant studies using keywords such as “gender” or “female” and “earnings quality” or “social and environmental disclosure” or “auditing” or “tax aggressiveness”. In total, 64 published studies were identified.

Three main streams of gender accounting literature related to financial reporting (earnings quality, accounting conservatism, voluntary disclosure), auditing (audit fees, audit opinion, audit report lag) and other miscellaneous topics were identified. Gender accounting literature uses empirical analysis, experimental approaches and interviews. Reviewed studies deal with top management gender (CEO, CFO), board of directors, audit committee and auditor gender. A synthesis of empirical findings shows that female representation on the board, audit committee, CFO or CEO leads to more conservative reporting, higher level of social and environmental disclosure, less tax aggressiveness and higher audit fees. Furthermore, auditor gender influences audit quality through lower abnormal accruals and shorter audit report lag, higher likelihood of issuing an adverse audit opinion and higher audit fees. Qualitative studies dealing with miscellaneous topics in gender accounting literature generally focus on the status of women in accounting and auditing professions, gender issues in accounting academic setting and disclosure about women in annual reports.

This review informs policymakers about the effect of female representation on accounting and auditing practices given the political debate largely shaped by anti-discriminatory arguments concerning the under-representation of women in management and audit professions.

This study goes beyond a classic narrative review by presenting criticisms to gender accounting literature and suggesting future research avenues.

This paper aims to examine the barriers that act as a hindrance and are the reason behind the struggles for the successful practice of diversity and inclusion. It also provides suggestions that organisations across the Asian region can adopt to have a conducive work environment to flourish diversity and inclusion.

Qualitative data were collected from 21 in-depth semi-structured interviews, where the male and female interviewee ratio was 6:4. The interviewees were diversity and inclusion leaders, diversity and inclusion consultants and human resources (HR) experts from Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Bangladesh and Nepal. The interviewees belonged to varied industries, including information technology, automobile, manufacturing, engineering, logistics and independent consultants. Every interview recorded was transcribed, and an inductive content analysis technique was used using NVivo. Broad themes and several antecedents were identified which hinder the successful practice of diversity and inclusion.

There exists a patriarchal mindset in society as the main reason; that is why Asian countries are finding it difficult and are struggling to embrace diversity and inclusion successfully. There is a lack of awareness amongst managers about how inclusive gender diversity impacts the company’s financial status. Reports show that companies that have female board members have better profit margins in comparison to those that do not.

This study was conducted within one industry setting, the service sector; therefore, the findings may not apply to other industries because of the different organisational cultures and HR policies.

This study offers managerial implications that can help the organisation foster and embrace diversity and inclusion by overcoming the barriers.

There should be fair and equitable inclusivity of females in the workplace. Female employees should be heard without biases and discrimination and allowed to speak up with equity. Females should not be seen differently during organisational decision-making, participation and empowerment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few to explore the challenges faced by Asian region organisations to embrace diversity and inclusion by empirical evidence. The study shows how the Asian region struggles to go beyond gender diversity and move away from patriarchal hegemony, which is the study’s unique contribution.

The purpose of this study was to compare South Korean female executives’ definitions of career success with those of male executives, identify their career development strategies for success and provide implications for research and practice. Two research questions guiding our inquiry included: How do female executives’ definitions of career success differ from those of male executives? What career development strategies do male and female executives use for career success?

A basic qualitative research design was used and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 male executives and 15 female executives in diverse corporations by using an interview protocol of 13 questions regarding participants’ background, definitions of career success and final thoughts. To analyze the interview data, we used both NVivo 11 and a manual coding method.

Gender differences were detected in the participants’ definitions of career success and success factors. As previous studies indicated, male and female executives had different perspectives on career success: men tended to define career success more objectively than women. Many male executives, through experiencing transforming changes in their careers, began to appreciate work–life balance and personal happiness from success. Gender differences were also detected in their career development challenges, meanings of mentors and networking activities. While work stress surfaced as a challenge that men faced, experiencing the token status in the gendered workplace was a major challenge for female participants.

In this study, three research agendas are presented, needing further investigation on career success, women’s token status and comparative analyses.

Three implications for practice have been provided, including organizational support, government’s role and HRD’s role.

Gender differences in this study were not as distinctive as previous literature has indicated. Some male executives valued more subjective career success than others, while a few female executives spoke of more objective definitions than others. These subtle differences could be captured through in-depth interviews. By hearing the participants’ stories, both objective and subjective definitions of success, for both genders, could be observed, which might not have been possible in quantitative research. In addition, the study findings reflect the nature of a uniquely Korean context. The participants worked in a Confucian and military culture, which operates in hierarchical structures and the command and control system, coupled with a heightened camaraderie spirit in the workplace.

This chapter investigates the role of gender, mentoring and social capital and contributes to literature about the career development of women in senior management roles in the National Health Service of the UK. It draws on a doctoral study of senior-level managers in a Scottish NHS Board. The data collected are: (i) documentary; (ii) quantitative; and (iii) qualitative. The quantitative data are collected through questionnaires, while the source of qualitative data is in-depth semi-structured interviews. The doctoral study is embedded within an interpretivist and feminist paradigm. Although access to mentoring and social capital was seen as likely to enhance the career progression of females to senior managerial roles, gendered work and family expectations, gendered organisational culture, and normative performances of gendered senior management were identified as obstacles in taking advantages of mentoring and social capital. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only piece of work that explicitly investigates the role of mentoring and social capital in managing gender diversity at the senior managerial positions of the NHS.

This paper aims to challenge the myth of risk-averseness among women entrepreneurs and analyses risk in the context of gender. It explores risk perceptions and examines the relationship between the concept of risk and women’s socially attributed roles.

This paper adopts a qualitative approach, where ten Irish women business owners were interviewed, that encouraged them to talk about their entrepreneurial experiences. The research design aimed to elicit data concerning how gender and the socio-economic context influenced risk.

Risk is shown as a gendered concept which needs to be widened to suit the experiences of women entrepreneurs and the influences of the gendered expectations of care dictated by the socio-economic environment.

Risk as a concept needs to be expanded to go beyond financial risk. The different types of risk encountered by women should be addressed by policy to promote a further growth of women-led enterprises and support those considering self-employment.

The paper develops an understanding of risk among women entrepreneurs in their socio-economic context. It challenges the viewpoint of seeing women entrepreneurs as risk-averse and thus leading to low-growth prospects for their business ventures.

This paper seeks to examine gender‐ and management‐ level differences in perceptions of effective leadership within a framework of new leadership models that focus on the processes of influencing self and others rather than leadership based on hierarchy.

A self‐report questionnaire was distributed to a sample of council employees. The responses were analysed using thematic matrix displays.

Males and non‐management employees (when compared with female and management) perceived effective leadership as that which emphasises fairness, equality and honesty, develops staff, fosters workplace harmony, and is trustworthy. Female employees emphasised communication, decision‐making ability, and supporting the leader as being important to how a work unit could contribute to organizational leadership effectiveness. Employees at the management level underscored vision, supporting the leader, and integrity as being important to how a work unit could contribute to organizational leadership effectiveness. Female and non‐management employees highlighted employee development, contingent reward, communication and vision as being central to how organizational leadership could contribute to the effectiveness of the work unit.

Unlike the literature that differentiates between charismatic and transformational forms of leadership, this paper views these two constructs as both being components of transformational leadership.

Entrepreneurial motivations are often defined as fitting into “push” or “pull” categories. To date, research has focused on the factors motivating men and women separately. What is missing from this research is an analysis of the comparative differences in these motivators of men and women, and an exploration of what this means in terms of push‐pull theory. This paper aims to contribute by applying the existing theory on push and pull factors; and using a gender comparative approach to explore the nature of potential gender differences within entrepreneurial motivations.

This exploratory study uses a gender comparative approach in semi‐structured, face‐to‐face interviews with 75 entrepreneurs (28 women and 47 men).

Findings suggest that both women and men appeared similarly motivated by a combination of push and pull factors. Three gender differences were found in the incidence of motivations: women were more influenced by a desire for independence; women considered their children as motivators more so than did men; men were influenced more by job dissatisfaction than were women. The discussion focuses on analysing the nature of gender differences rather than merely their incidence.

A number of further research directions and questions are posed as a way of extending the knowledge in this area. Implications for managers and entrepreneurs are also presented.

Contributes to push‐pull theory by offering a gender comparative approach to advance theory.

The purpose of this paper is to develop and validate a new measure of gender equality at male-dominated workplaces, allowing quantitative analyses of men's beliefs about gender-based inequality at work.

The present paper examines a questionnaire developed from qualitative interviews based on grounded theory methodology and designed to assess men's beliefs about gender inequality. A 23-item version of the Men's Polarized Gender Thinking Questionnaire (MPGQ) was completed by a sample of 220 men from three different male-dominated organizations in Sweden. Recommended psychometric testing procedures were conducted.

Confirmatory factor analysis supported a six-factor model of male attitudes to gender-based inequality: different views on success, stereotypical gender roles – different jargons, benevolent sexism, conscious of gender order, conscious of the male norm system and strategies for gender equality at work. The final model showed acceptable fit to data. All six factors were positively intercorrelated.

It was concluded that the MPGQ provides a useful tool for further studies of men's sometimes polarized views of gender equality in male-dominated workplaces. Hence, MPGQ may allow researchers and practitioners to go deeper in their understanding of persistent and often hidden gender-based inequality at work.

Equality plans are difficult to fulfill if people do not know on which subtle mechanisms the concept gender-based inequality is founded. The MPGQ illustrates how they are manifested at a specific workplace. Because of the scarcity of this type of workplace measures, this study may make a contribution of concern to the literature. By measuring these sometimes polarized beliefs, management strategies aiming at decreasing barriers to gender equality at work could become more accurate and efficient.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear view of current dynamics and research diversification of extant literature in the field of work-life balance (WLB). This paper provides a systematic and critical analysis of WLB literature using bibliometric analysis.

Scopus database has been used for carrying out this review that is based on 945 research papers published from 1998 to 2020. The prominence of the research is assessed by studying the publication trend, sample statistics, theoretical foundation, the highly cited research articles and journals, most commonly used keywords, research themes of top four recognized clusters, sub-themes within each cluster and thematic overview of WLB corpus formed on the premise of bibliographic coupling. Additionally, content analysis of recently published papers revealed emerging research patterns and potential gaps.

Major findings indicate that the research area consists of four established and emerging research themes based on clusters formed as (1) flexible work arrangements, (2) gender differences in WLB, (3) work–life interface and its related concepts, and (4) WLB policies and practices. Emerging themes identified through content analysis of recent articles include gender discrepancy, the impact of different forms of contextual (situational) factors and organizational culture.

This research paper is the first of its kind on the subject of WLB as it provides multifariousness of study fields within the WLB corpus by using varied bibliographic mapping approaches. It also suggests viable avenues for future research.

This conceptual, multi-voiced paper aims to collectively explore and theorize family entrepreneuring, which is a research stream dedicated to investigating the emergence and becoming of entrepreneurial phenomena in business families and family firms.

Because of the novelty of this research stream, the authors asked 20 scholars in entrepreneurship and family business to reflect on topics, methods and issues that should be addressed to move this field forward.

Authors highlight key challenges and point to new research directions for understanding family entrepreneuring in relation to issues such as agency, processualism and context.

This study offers a compilation of multiple perspectives and leverage recent developments in the fields of entrepreneurship and family business to advance research on family entrepreneuring.