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Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is regarded as a region with one of the worst cases of armed conflict and climate risk. This paper examines the interactive effect of armed conflict and climate risk on gender vulnerability in SSA.

The difference and system generalised method of movement (GMM) were used to examine the relationship between the variables using annualised data of 35 SSA countries from 1998 to 2019.

The paper found strong evidence that armed conflict and climate change are positive predictors of gender vulnerability. The impact of climate change on gender vulnerability is found to be more direct than indirect.

The direct and indirect positive effect of armed conflict and climate change on gender vulnerability implies that climate change drives gender vulnerability through multiple channels. This underscores the need for a multi-disciplinary policy approach to addressing gender vulnerability problem in SSA.

The study contributes to the climate action debate by highlighting the need for climate action to incorporate gender inclusive policies such as massive investment in infrastructure and safety nets that offer protection to the most vulnerable girls and women affected by armed conflict and climate change. Societies should as a matter of urgency strive to structural barriers that predispose girls and women to biodiversity loss.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-09-2022-0595

This study aims to explore the factors that build positive leadership identities in women and reduce woman-leader identity conflict in societies with low gender equality. In doing so, it responds to calls to examine the role of “context” for women aspiring to leadership roles.

The required data were collected through semistructured interviews with 30 senior-level female leaders in the corporate sector of Pakistan and analyzed using NVivo.

Successful professional women are often facilitated by various social and organizational factors that boost their confidence and ability to view themselves positively as leaders, reducing woman-leader identity conflict. The main facilitators observed were egalitarian values practiced at home, male sponsorship in organizations and individual leadership experiences. Furthermore, the age and socio-economic status of women have also emerged as important factors contributing to the success of women leaders in Pakistani society, which is characterized by gender inequality and high power distance.

Organizations committed to developing women for leadership roles and attaining their gender diversity goals need to address the structural and psychological barriers that hinder women’s progress in the workplace. Moreover, men need to be engaged as allies to enable women’s advancement as organizational leaders.

This study highlights how culture, gender norms and significant experiences of women moderate equality lows in patriarchal societies. It aims to demonstrate that women can progress as leaders within a low gender-egalitarian culture in the presence of factors that facilitate the establishment of their identities as leaders, thus reducing identity conflict. In addition, the role that men can play in creating a supportive environment for establishing women’s leadership identities is particularly highlighted in this study.

This study aims to uses biosocial gender theory to describe successful entrepreneurial behavior in conflict zones. Specifically, the authors investigate how the reliance on agentic (assertive, individual focused) behavior and communal (facilitative and friendly) behavior lead to differential outcomes depending on the physical gender of the entrepreneur exhibiting the behavior.

The authors developed a conceptual framework based on extant literature. To test the framework, the authors gathered survey data from Iraqi-Kurdish entrepreneurs who have been living in a state of war since the late 1980s and use a novel analytical method to deal with the limitations inherent in gathering survey data in conflict zones. Qualitative data is presented to generate a better understanding of the survey results.

The findings indicate females who are successful in taking on the traditional male role of entrepreneur in conflict zones engage in lower levels of agentic behavior compared to their male counterparts. Successful entrepreneurs (male and female) rely extensively on communal behavior in their ventures. When it comes to community development, male entrepreneurs engaging in agentic behavior, seem to mentor aspiring entrepreneurs more than females. Females relying on communal behavior engage in more mentoring of aspiring entrepreneurs than males.

An understanding of the unique gender dynamics underlying entrepreneurial behavior in conflict zones remains incomplete. The study introduces evidence that gender differences, as well as social factors, combine with the unique characteristics of conflict zones resulting in different behavioral paths to entrepreneurial success. The analytical method introduces some statistical tools to scholars attempting to understand the unique conflict zone context. As such, the study provides guidance for scholars working in this context, as well as NGO’s and other institutions seeking to train entrepreneurs and improve economic conditions in conflict zones.

Gender diversity is known to trigger creative and relationship conflicts alike, the former a boon for innovation and the latter a bane. This study aims to explore the possibility of a gender mix that is “just right” for balancing the intensities of varied forms of conflict to boost innovation in firms in India. Specifically, this paper investigated the presence of an optimal level of women as a percentage of the firm’s full-time permanent employees (Percent-Women) that maximized the firm’s likelihood of product innovation (Product–Innovation–Likelihood).

Logistic regression analyses of firm-level data of Indian establishments of varied sizes and industries from World Bank Enterprise Surveys 2014 was performed. Instrumental variable addressed the potential endogeneity of Percent-Women.

The analysis demonstrated an inverted U-shaped relationship between Product–Innovation–Likelihood and Percent-Women. Product–Innovation–Likelihood peaked when Percent-Women lay between 35% and 58%, i.e. when the firm was gender-balanced or close to it.

The finding of an optimal level of female inclusion presents to firms a defined target of gender mix to be achieved, failing to which they may be limiting their innovation potential. It compels firms to view gender diversity as a business imperative with definite implications for their long-term performance.

For India, the demonstrated relationship between workplace gender diversity and innovation brings additional reason and urgency to public initiatives, such as female literacy, for boosting female economic engagement. Innovation can power the next stage of the Indian growth story by engaging the heretofore insufficiently tapped female worker.

By demonstrating an optimal degree of female inclusion at which innovation potential peaks, the study reconciled opposing theories of diversity-driven conflicts and went beyond the commonly observed simple linear relationship between female inclusion and innovation. Further, the paper focused on India, a major developing economy with a vast female populace and growing innovation ambitions but scarcely researched for gender diversity’s role in innovation.

The study aims to investigate how pregnant and nursing mothers’ stories have been neglected in writing about gender, security and spaces.

The study chronicles Agogo Traditional Area’s pregnant and nursing mothers’ resistance and survival in this conflicted environment. The author used photo voices in a participatory photography design to give conflict-area women a voice. Interviews and observations supported this. Pregnant and nursing mothers were sampled using the purposive and snowball sampling techniques. The data analysis considered narrative analysis, photographic and inductive approaches.

The findings highlighted how these mothers in vicious settings experienced healthcare access and problems, societal issues including gender dynamics, food insecurity, and emotional and psychological well-being.

The findings in this study expand the socio-cultural narratives of pregnant and nursing mothers in violent spaces.

Emotional intelligence (EI) and conflict management (CM) are essential skills for construction managers towards achieving organisational effectiveness. It is believed that an individual’s EI level (EIL) is a predictor of the preferred CM styles (CMS). This study aims to explore the relationships between EIL, preferred CMS and demographic factors in the construction sector of the Dominican Republic (DR).

The EIL and CMS of a sample of civil engineers in managerial positions were evaluated using the emotional intelligence appraisal and Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II self-assessment tools.

There was a strong positive correlation between the rated EIL and the scores of collaboration and compromise styles, i.e. participants with higher EIL have stronger fit within the collaboration and compromise styles of managing conflicts. For participants with lower EIL, collaboration and compromise styles were also top preferences, but with no statistical significance. Significant relationships existed between gender, collaboration and compromise styles and between work experience and collaboration style. No significant relationship between demographics and EIL.

The construction industry needs innovative construction managers whose CMS and EIL are compatible with the culture and overall organisational objectives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study appraising the EI and CMS of civil engineers working in DR construction industry.

The aim of this study is to explore how a practice approach can provide an understanding of board diversity practices. Drawing from Schatzki's practice theory, this study considered how board diversity is practiced from the doings and sayings of directors in Mauritius.

In this study, in-depth interviews with directors in listed companies from different industrial sectors were used to collect data.

The authors' findings indicate that a country's board diversity practices are influenced by the country's unique social, economic and cultural environment. Whilst board diversity practices may appear as the practices that are motivated by compliance, a deeper look at the results reveals that the laws governing board diversity are interpreted very subtly in a way that benefits shareholders' self-interest. A low percentage of female directors on boards and some indications of shareholder-driven practices are also found. Whilst the corporate sector acknowledges the advantages of diversity, there are some practices that they are unwilling to abandon, demonstrating the importance of the teleoaffective structures and normativity in determining what really occurs. Members of boards resolving disagreement further demonstrates the teleoaffective structure.

This research would be of interest to researchers because of the research's novel approach in studying board diversity which could be used by other researchers to experiment with a practice approach in exploring corporate governance phenomena in unique settings.

The findings are of relevance to policymakers and regulators who seek to strengthen corporate governance practices in similar settings.

This research contributes to the literature on board diversity by showing that analysing board diversity through a practice approach enables a more comprehensive understanding of practices. The authors' study confirms that practice theory has the potential to re-orient the way board diversity studies are undertaken.

Although women have advanced in the economic sphere, the gender pay gap (GPG) remains a persisting problem for gender equality. Using Acker's theory of gendered organisations, this study strives to gain a better understanding from a macro and micro approach, how family and work-related policies, especially family-friendly measures (FFMs), and their uptake, contribute and maintain the GPG in Malta and specifically within the Financial and Insurance sector.

Two research instruments were used. National policy documents were analysed through the gender lens, followed by structured interviews with HR managerial participants within this sector.

Findings suggest that at a macro level, family and work-related policies could be divided into two broad categories: A set of family-friendly policies that contribute to the GPG because of their gendered nature, or because the uptake is mostly taken by women. These include make-work pay policies, which initially appear to be gender neutral, but which attracted lower educated inactive women to the Maltese labour market at low pay, contributing to an increase in the GPG. Second, a set of policies that take on a gender-neutral approach and help reduce the GPG. These include policies like the free childcare and after school care scheme that allow mothers to have a better adherence to the labour market. At the micro level within organisations, pay discrepancies between women and men were largely negated and awareness about the issue was low. Here, “ideal worker” values based on masculine norms seemed to lead to covert biases towards mothers who shoulder heavier care responsibilities in the families and make a bigger use of FFMs. Because men are better able to conform to these gendered values and norms, the GPG persists through vertical segregation and glass ceilings, among others.

Since not all the companies in the Eurostat NACE code list participated in this research, results could not be generalised but were indicative to future large-scale studies..

At the macro and policy level, some FFMs take on a clear gendered approach. For example, the disparity in length between maternity (18 weeks) and paternity leave (1 day) reinforces gender roles and stereotypes, which contribute to the GPG in the long run. While some FFMs like parental leave, career breaks, urgent family leave, telework, flexible and reduced hours seem to take on a more gender-neutral approach, the uptake of FFMs (except childcare) seems to generate discriminatory behaviour that may affect the GPG. When considering the make-work pay policies such as the “in-work benefit” and the “tapering of benefits”, this study showed that these policies attracted lower educated and low-skilled women into the labour market, which in turn may have further contributed to the increasing GPGs. On the other hand, the childcare and after school policies relieve working mothers from caregiving duties, minimising career interruptions, discriminatory behaviour and overall GPGs.

This study confirmed that organisations within the Financial and Insurance sector are gendered and give value to full-time commitment and long working hours, especially in managerial roles. Managerial positions remain associated with men because mothers tend to make more use of FFMs such as parental leave, reduced, flexible hours and teleworking. Mothers are indirectly penalised for doing so, because in gendered organisations, the uptake of FFMs conflict with the demands of work and ideal worker values (Acker, 1990). This maintains the vertical segregation and widens the GPG within the Financial and Insurance sector.

By using the gender lens and taking a wider and more holistic approach from the macro and micro level, this study highlights how interlinking factors lead to and sustain the GPG in the Financial and Insurance sector in Malta.

This study investigates the relationship between board gender diversity (BGD) and the time to Initial Public Offering (IPO), which stands as an entrepreneurially risky choice, particularly challenging in family firms. We also investigate the moderating role of family ownership dispersion (FOD).

We draw on an integrated theoretical framework bringing together the upper echelons theory and the socio-emotional wealth (SEW) perspective and on hand-collected data on a sample of Italian family IPOs that occurred in the period 2000–2020. We employ ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and alternative model estimations to test our hypotheses.

BGD positively affects the time to IPO, thus, it increases the time required to go public. FOD negatively moderates this relationship. Our findings remain robust with different measures for BGD, FOD, and family business definition as well as with different econometric models.

The article develops literature on family firms and IPO and it enriches the academic debate about gender and IPOs in family firms. It adds to studies addressing the determinants of the time to IPO by incorporating gender diversity and the FOD into the discussion. Finally, it contributes to research on women and outcomes in family firms.

Through this exploration, this article seeks to contribute to facilitate a greater female participation in power and leadership positions in the context of succession by presenting perspectives in research and practical implications for both family firms and business families.

Literature review of seminal work on women’s involvement in the leadership succession of family firms and systematic reviews related to the topic published in the last 15 years.

Past research shows that the landscape of gender inclusion in the context of succession has evolved, offering women more access to leadership positions in family firms. Perceptions of women as invisible in business or playing emotional roles in the family, shifted to leaders, managing family business. However, access to leadership positions is not equitable to all regions and women leaders still face significant challenges to achieve legitimacy and recognition inside and outside the organisation. Future research should contribute to the enhancement of gender inclusion in leadership of family firms. Action research and interventions in both family firms and business families are ways to achieve this.

This paper elaborates on new research avenues and provides practical insights into how to enhance gender inclusion in the context of succession at both business family and family firm’s realms.