Female board appointments and firm valuation: short and long-term effects

The presence of women on boards of directors has become a high profile issue in recent years. Several studies, based largely on data from countries with Anglo-Saxon corporate governance systems, have investigated the influence of female board appointments on firm performance. This study focuses on the impact of female directors in Spain, where debate about this topic has been intense for two reasons: the recommendation in 2006 by Spain’s Unified Good Governance Code of positive discrimination in favour of female board appointments and the passing in 2007 of a Gender Equality Act by the Spanish parliament. Our paper analyses the short and long term effect of the appointment of female directors prior to these events. We use an event study to analyze the short term stock market reaction to the appointment of female directors and a multiple regression approach, using the system GMM estimation procedure, to assess the long term influence on firm value of female boardroom appointments. We find that the stock market reacts positively in the short term to the announcement of female board appointments, suggesting that investors on average believe that female directors add value. This belief appears to be confirmed by our regression results which show that female board appointments are positively associated with firm value over a sustained period. These results suggest that the legislative changes in Spain make economic sense as well as advancing the cause of women in Spanish boardrooms.     

The Glass Cliff: Evidence that Women are Over-Represented in Precarious Leadership Positions

There has been much research and conjecture concerning the barriers women face in trying to climb the corporate ladder, with evidence suggesting that they typically confront a ‘glass ceiling’ while men are more likely to benefit from a ‘glass escalator’. But what happens when women do achieve leadership roles? And what sorts of positions are they given? This paper argues that while women are now achieving more high profile positions, they are more likely than men to find themselves on a ‘glass cliff’, such that their positions are risky or precarious. This hypothesis was investigated in an archival study examining the performance of FTSE 100 companies before and after the appointment of a male or female board member. The study revealed that during a period of overall stock‐market decline those companies who appointed women to their boards were more likely to have experienced consistently bad performance in the preceding five months than those who appointed men. These results expose an additional, largely invisible, hurdle that women need to overcome in the workplace. Implications for the evaluation of women leaders are discussed and directions for future research are outlined.     

The female leadership advantage: An evaluation of the evidence

Journalists and authors of trade books increasingly assert a female advantage in leadership, whereby women are more likely than men to lead in a style that is effective under contemporary conditions. Contrasting our analysis of these claims with Vecchio's [Leadersh. Q. 13 (2002) 643] analysis, we show that women have some advantages in typical leadership style but suffer some disadvantages from prejudicial evaluations of their competence as leaders, especially in masculine organizational contexts. Nonetheless, more women are rising into leadership roles at all levels, including elite executive roles. We suggest reasons for this rise and argue that organizations can capture the symbols of progressive social change and modernity by appointments of women in key positions.     

Queens of the hill: Creative destruction and the emergence of executive leadership of women

Despite penetrating the middle management ranks of many U.S. businesses, women continue to lag far behind men in their appointments to top leadership positions. Many explanations exist for why the glass ceiling exists, but few theories offer suggestions for how women break through this ceiling. In this paper we propose that the concept of ‘creative destruction’ can help us understand why some women ascend to leadership positions. Using empirical research and anecdotal evidence from the experiences of several high-profile female executives, we argue that women may rise to leadership positions in turbulent environments that are receptive to new talent and open to innovative, bold ideas. Further, we propose that under these conditions women may be seen as especially attractive candidates to guide organizations because they are perceived to utilize a leadership style that promotes openness and inclusion, and facilitates change.     

高管股权激励与大股东掏空抑制研究:大股东异质特征和制度情境的调节效应

在引入合谋薪酬的委托代理模型中,探究高管股权激励对大股东掏空的作用机制,通过数值模拟与规范分析,从收入效应、风险效应以及身份转换效应三个层面阐释高管股权激励对大股东掏空的影响路径,并以我国沪深A股2009年至2013年实施股权激励计划的上市公司为研究对象,运用面板回归分析发现:高管股权激励存在抑制大股东掏空程度的作用;在股权集中度低、控股层级高和两权分离度大,以及市场化程度低、国有性质和集团控股的公司中,高管股权激励对大股东掏空的抑制作用显著,成为有助于投资者保护的内部治理机制;准自然实验的PSM-DID方法稳健性检验也支持了研究假设,并且高管股权激励对大股东掏空在滞后两年的抑制效应显著。研究揭示了高管股权激励对大股东掏空的抑制作用及情境差异,这为从公司内外部治理机制提出抑制大股东掏空的政策提供了启示。     

Executive remuneration standards and the “conformity gap” at controlled corporations

In this paper we analyze the relationship between conformity to executive remuneration standards, corporate ownership, and the level and structure of CEO compensation for large European listed companies in the years 2007 and 2010. We show that controlled corporations conform to executive remuneration standards less than widely held firms. We also show that weaker compliance is associated with lower CEO pay and more cash-based incentive structures. We interpret this “conformity gap” from the perspective of individual firms and from a societal perspective, with the aim to contribute to frame the policy questions concerning executive pay at controlled corporations. Different policy implications depend on whether the conformity gap reflects a lower need for managerial incentives, given the monitoring by controlling shareholders, or the latter’s willingness to extract private benefits of control. We argue in this paper that the former hypothesis prevails, so that regulators should abstain from increasing the level of enforcement of executive remuneration standards.     

Glass Cliffs Are Not So Easily Scaled: On the Precariousness of Female CEOs' Positions

Adams, Gupta and Leeth ( British Journal of Management , 2008) question the universality of the glass cliff after finding no differences in US companies' financial performance either before or after the appointment of male and female CEOs. We agree that glass cliffs are neither universal nor ineluctable, but urge caution in interpreting this null result. This is because the nature and significance of women's precarious leadership positions becomes more apparent when one goes beyond archival financial data and compares the broad circumstances of male and female leaders. Here multiple strands of research suggest that above the glass ceiling the playing field for men and women is far from level.     

Women in high places: When and why promoting women into top positions can harm them individually or as a group (and how to prevent this)

This contribution focuses on women in leadership positions. We propose that two convictions are relevant to the effects of having women in high places. On the one hand, women as a group are expected to employ different leadership styles than men, in this way adding diversity to management teams. On the other hand, individual women are expected to ascend to leadership positions by showing their ability to display the competitiveness and toughness typically required from those at the top. We posit that both convictions stem from gendered leadership beliefs, and that these interact with women's self-views to determine the effectiveness of female leaders. We develop an integrative model that explains the interplay between organizational beliefs and individual-self definitions and its implications for female leadership. We then present initial evidence in support of this model from two recent programs of research. The model allows us to connect “glass cliff” effects to “queen bee” effects showing that both relate to the perceived salience of gender in the organization, as well as individual gender identities. Each of these phenomena may harm future career opportunities of women, be it as individuals or as a group. We outline how future research may build on our proposed model and examine its further implications. We also indicate how the model may offer a concrete starting point for developing strategies to enhance the effectiveness of women in leadership positions.     

Working with an executive search firm: Part II--The hiring organization's perspective

This article is the second part in a two-part series on how to work with an executive search firm. The first article, which appeared in the September-October 1992 issue of Physician Executive, focused on executive search from the candidate's perspective. This article focuses on how organizations can work with an executive search firm to recruit and retain top management talent.     

Are Patients Patient? The Role of Time to Appointment in Patient Flow

The current state of outpatient healthcare delivery is characterized by capacity shortages and long waits for appointments, yet a substantial fraction of valuable doctors’ capacity is wasted due to no‐shows. In this study, we examine the effect of wait to appointment on patient flow, specifically on a patient's decision to schedule an appointment and to subsequently arrive to it. These two decisions may be dependent, as appointments are more likely to be scheduled by patients who are more patient and are thereby more likely to show up. To estimate the effect of wait on these two decisions, we introduce the willingness to wait (WTW), an unobservable variable that affects both bookings and arrivals for appointments. Using data from a large healthcare system, we estimate WTW with a state‐of‐the‐art non‐parametric method. The WTW, in turn, allows us to estimate the effect of wait on no‐shows. We observe that the effect of increased wait on the likelihood of no‐shows is disproportionately greater among patients with low WTW. Thus, although reducing the wait to an appointment will enable a provider to capture more patient bookings, the effects of wait time on capacity utilization can be non‐monotone. Our counterfactual analysis suggests that increasing wait times can sometimes be beneficial for reducing no‐shows.     

时间偏好不一致下控制权私利与最优股权结构

引入时间偏好不一致，基于实物期权框架构建控制股东谋取私利的动态模型。运用均衡定价方法，得到不同类型控制股东财富价值的显示表达，并在最优股权结构的基础上给出内生化的投资时机、投资规模以及退出时机所满足的代数方程。研究结果表明，时间偏好不一致控制股东持有的最优股权比例大都集中于区间20%-30%，且成熟型控制股东较幼稚型控制股东持有更低的最优股权比例。与无代理冲突情形相比，时间偏好不一致控制股东表现出延迟投资，但投资规模随着时间偏好不一致程度的增大而先增后减。最后，在最优股权结构下分析投资者保护程度对控制股东决策的影响，为公司治理提供新的视角。     

Breaking the glass ceiling

The glass ceiling is a form of organizational bias and discrimination that prevents qualified professionals from achieving positions of top governance and leadership. This article examines glass ceiling barriers that keep physicians from the upper reaches of management. While these factors apply mainly to women and minority physicians in academia, and are attributable to sexual harassment and discrimination, physicians as a class are frequently denied executive management positions. Such denial results from inadequate preparation for a career in health care administration. Important issues in the professional development of physician executives include mentoring, training and education, administrative experience, and cultural and personality factors. All of those must be considered when making the transition from medicine to management.     

Gender differences in advancing to the top

Recently, there has been much empirical interest in why women are so poorly represented in executive ranks in organizations. This review summarizes the findings from recent empirical studies into the causes of gender differences in advancement to executive levels. The results are categorized to answer three questions based on the major arguments for, and assumptions made about, gender differences in advancement to the top of organizations. Are there gender differences in advancing to the top of organizations because (1) women lack the relevant knowledge, skills and expertise, that is, human capital, (2) women lack the relevant networks, are stereotyped as unsuitable, and are in male organizational cultures, that is, social capital, and/or (3) different factors are needed to advance to higher than to lower levels; women incrementally develop fewer of these factors and resources than men, and thus advance less to the top? The review most supports the second proposition. Surprisingly, even though there are many studies, several critical questions have not been addressed with strong research designs. Research using rigorous designs is especially needed to test the major theoretical frameworks.     

A review of hedge funds and their investor activism: do they help or hurt other equity investors?

Hedge funds tend to be highly activist investors who exercise their ??principal power?? over their portfolio firms. We observe that, compared to other investor types, hedge funds appear to be even more activist than is predicted by a comprehensive Investor Activism Model, due to the unexpectedly large role of several antecedent variables. This conclusion suggests that the relatively lightly regulated environment of hedge funds affects the weighting of conventional activism-antecedent variables. We explore how their access to several investing and trading strategies is allowing hedge funds to redefine investor activism. In the process, we find that, while hedge funds and their activism tend to benefit fellow investors, the potential exists for some specific hedge fund types to expropriate value from minority shareholders, creating ??principal?Cprincipal?? conflict. The potentially detrimental impact of hedge fund activism on other equity investors is demonstrated, illuminating several current policy concerns.     

控股股东、代理问题与关联交易:对中国上市公司的实证研究

本文分析控股股东是否通过关联交易,转移上市公司资源、侵占小股东利益.对中国上市公司1999-2001年的关联交易的实证检验结果发现:由控股股东控制的公司,其关联交易显著高于无控股股东控制的公司;控股股东担任高级管理者的公司,其关联交易显著高于控股股东不担任高级管理者的公司;控股股东持股比例和控股股东在董事会中的席位比例越高,关联交易越多,这意味着控股股东确实能够借助关联交易转移公司资源、侵占小股东利益.     

Frauen und Medien

Women and mediaWomen in the past decades established themselves like in all public fields also in the field of journalisme and media, including leading positions. The larger presence of women as editors, however, not visibly changed the reporting regarding gender-democratic aspects. We cannot state that traditional role assignments were lastingly overcome. With supervision and coaching of media professionals there seems to be a need of a very specific consulting for women. A need of consultation, which might still require a deeper and a more realistic view of the world, a changed perspective regarding women and men in the society. This does not happen automatically, on instruction or by political correctness. To develop this changed perspective and represent it in public, is obviously not easier to women than to men. A way to learn it would be to conceive journalistic and editorial quality under the criterion of gender democracy and diversity.     

What really works?! Evaluating the effectiveness of practices to increase the managerial diversity of women and minorities

Many studies have investigated barriers for women and minorities on their way to the top, but very few studies have examined which organizational practices indeed increase the diversity of the top management in organizations. This research analyzes whether various diversity practices increase the proportion of women and minorities at the top. The results show that the more diversity management and family-friendly practices that are implemented, the higher is the proportion of women in management positions. However, the results do not show any effect for diversity training or that people with a migration background benefit from diversity practices.     

Optimal Choice for Appointment Scheduling Window under Patient No‐Show Behavior

Observing that patients with longer appointment delays tend to have higher no‐show rates, many providers place a limit on how far into the future that an appointment can be scheduled. This article studies how the choice of appointment scheduling window affects a provider's operational efficiency. We use a single server queue to model the registered appointments in a provider's work schedule, and the capacity of the queue serves as a proxy of the size of the appointment window. The provider chooses a common appointment window for all patients to maximize her long‐run average net reward, which depends on the rewards collected from patients served and the “penalty” paid for those who cannot be scheduled. Using a stylized M/M/1/K queueing model, we provide an analytical characterization for the optimal appointment queue capacity K, and study how it should be adjusted in response to changes in other model parameters. In particular, we find that simply increasing appointment window could be counterproductive when patients become more likely to show up. Patient sensitivity to incremental delays, rather than the magnitudes of no‐show probabilities, plays a more important role in determining the optimal appointment window. Via extensive numerical experiments, we confirm that our analytical results obtained under the M/M/1/K model continue to hold in more realistic settings. Our numerical study also reveals substantial efficiency gains resulted from adopting an optimal appointment scheduling window when the provider has no other operational levers available to deal with patient no‐shows. However, when the provider can adjust panel size and overbooking level, limiting the appointment window serves more as a substitute strategy, rather than a complement.     

投资者保护公益组织与股东诉讼在中国的实践——基于中证投服证券支持诉讼的多案例研究

以2016~2017年间中证中小投资者服务中心(以下简称"中证投服")提起的4例证券支持诉讼为研究对象,本文深入分析了该组织在证券支持诉讼中的作用实现机理及其在中小投资者利益保护方面所产生的直接经济后果和溢出效应。本文发现:中证投服提起的证券支持诉讼在很大程度上改善了虚假陈述案件的赔偿机制,主要体现为赔付主体更加合理化,赔偿金额的计算更加科学,赔付比例有明显提升,赔偿款项的执行力度得以加强;在作用实现机理方面,中证投服作为投资者保护公益组织向中小股东提供了公益服务,同时又具备政府弹性监管的色彩,与我国现行的司法制度形成互补;更为重要的是,中证投服参与证券支持诉讼产生了显著的溢出效应,在唤醒中小股东维权意识的同时,明显提升了民间律师团体的活跃程度,进而从整体上极大地带动了民间股东诉讼的兴起。     

Women on corporate boards around the world: Triggers and barriers

One of the institutions in which the gender gap remains a contestable issue is the board of directors, where the proportion of female directors is still low. While some countries have achieved higher proportions of female directors on their corporate boards, others have not registered even a single one. Drawing on social role theory, that places emphasis on traditional gender activities, this study starts by arguing that board directorship is an agentic role and more suitable for men. The study shows that key social institutions have the potential to alleviate such stereotypical attitudes or to maintain the status quo. Employing a robust statistical technique in two-stage least squares (2SLS), this study finds that the representation of women in other key national institutions, such as in politics, positively affects the appointment of female directors on boards. On the other hand, religiosity has a negative causal effect on female board appointments.