The gender composition of corporate boards: A review and research agenda

In recent years, the composition of boards and, particularly, the inclusion of women on boards has attracted significant scholarly interest and public debate. In this article, I comprehensively review the academic literature on board gender composition. Using the systematic review method, I ask whether women directors really are different from men on boards, what factors shape board gender composition, how board gender composition affects organizational outcomes, and finally, why board gender quotas and other forms of regulation are introduced and what outcomes can be expected. Based on my findings, I develop a conceptual framework that clarifies the causal processes underlying both women's access to boards and the effects of women's presence on boards. Finally, I offer a research agenda designed to enrich our understanding of board gender composition.     

Perspective on comparative corporate governance: understanding corporate governance patterns

 The purpose of this study was to examine the perspective of international comparative research on corporate governance. The problems of stock ownership and corporate control in large corporations are the basis of any discussion on corporate governance. In large corporations of major capitalist countries, the subject of corporate control is changing from a single individual or family to the system of impersonal possession, depending on various factors of stock ownership between corporations and the interlocking directorship. These are the common bases that started the corporate governance problem. After these aspects are recognized, it is important to identify the difference in patterns of corporate governance in each country. First, I clarify the common direction of the development of “stock ownership and corporate control” seen in large corporations of major capitalist countries. Second, I look at the Anglo-American, Japanese, and South Korea patterns, and consider the differences or the distinctiveness of the classification by country in a concrete system of stock ownership and corporate control.     

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.     

Bankers on boards as corporate governance mechanism: evidence from Poland

This paper examines whether a bank exercises a monitoring role when a banker is represented on a firm’s board. Bank monitoring reduces information asymmetries, and hence lessens firm’s financial constraints—phenomenon frequently measured by investment-cash flow sensitivity in the sample of all non-financial companies listed during 1999–2002 on the Polish stock exchange. I find that firms with a banker on the board rely more heavily on bank loans than on internal capital in their investment activities. In contrast, firms with no banker on the board finance to a larger extent their investment with internal capital than with credit. However, firms with the bank-lender representation on the board are almost as much financially constrained as firms without a bank-lender representative on the board. Hence, the presence of bankers on boards is not associated with bank monitoring. They rather promote their employer’s business. The findings show that investment of firms with a banker on the board is less sensitive to cash flow than investment of firms without bank representatives on the board. This result suggests that bankers on the board provide financial expertise that help those firm to reduce financial constraints.     

The impact of corporate outsourcing on company value

Companies worldwide are expanding their use of outsourcing for services and products. This article appraises what is known about the impact of outsourcing on company value, and the emergent picture is not an unblemished one. Company managers frequently complain about the downsides, some companies have retrieved what they had sourced out, failures can be seen here and there, and the long-term potential consequences of outsourcing too much are yet to be seen. Still, the weight of the research evidence indicates that, when well designed and well managed, outsourcing reduces operating cost, enhances competitive strategy, and enlarges shareholder value.     

The impact of corporate governance on auditor choice: evidence from Germany

Statutory audits are only beneficial if the appropriate audit quality is both provided and perceived by the users of audited financial statements. On the one hand, Big 4 audit firms are commonly viewed as producing high quality audits. On the other hand, regulators complain about the high market share of Big 4 audit firms. In this context, it is of interest to examine the drivers of a Big 4 audit firm selection. Despite extensive prior research, there is still a lack of findings form Continental European countries and on the impact of corporate governance on auditor choice. This paper on hand is intended to fill the related research gap. Thus, our study identifies variables that determine the auditor choice of large German listed companies. Based on a sample of 432 firm-year observations for the period 2010–2014, our logistic regression analysis suggests that the corporate governance structure influences auditor choice significantly. Notably, the annual meeting frequency of the audit committee and the size of the supervisory board are positively associated with the engagement of a Big 4 audit firm. However, the meeting frequency of the supervisory board and the compliance to the German corporate governance code are negatively related to the choice of a Big 4 auditor. Additionally, the proportion of female supervisory board members does not exert a significant impact. The results remain stable when the DAX30 observations, for which statutory audits are exclusively performed by Big 4 audit firms, are excluded. The main contribution of our paper is, that it sheds light on the impact of corporate governance variables not analyzed by prior research, like supervisory board characteristics, deviations from a corporate governance code, or the female quota, in a Continental European setting, and that it mainly indicates a complementary relationship. Despite the peculiarities of the German setting, the two-tier corporate governance system and the low level of investor protection, the findings of our study are not only relevant for Germany, since many other Continental European countries are characterized by a similar environment. The study’s findings are of particular interest for regulators when addressing audit market structure problems.     

The implications of board nationality and gender diversity: evidence from a qualitative comparative analysis

Journal of Management and Governance - This study extends research on the board nationality and gender diversity to a new, unchartered, methodological territory of qualitative comparative analysis...     

The face says it all: CEOs,gender, and predicting corporate performance

This study examined relationships among CEOs' facial appearance, gender-linked traits, and the financial performance of their company as indicated by Fortune 1000 rank and company profits. Naïve college students rated traits based solely on the facial appearance of male and female CEOs whose companies were matched by Fortune 1000 rank. Female CEOs were rated higher than male CEOs on communal traits (supportiveness, compassion, warmth), whereas male CEOs were rated higher than female CEOs on agentic traits (dominance, leadership, powerfulness), consistent with social role theory. Correlations with company rank and/or profits were found for powerfulness for male CEOs, and for supportiveness, warmth and compassion for female CEOs. For female CEOs, a communal composite predicted company rank and profits, and an agentic composite marginally predicted company rank. The findings do not indicate why these variables are related, but implications for the association of gender-linked traits with top corporate leaders are discussed.     

The impact of corporate sustainability performance on information asymmetry: the role of institutional differences

This paper empirically investigates whether corporate sustainability performance (CSP) affects information asymmetry (IA) for European firms listed in the STOXX Europe 600 from 2002 to 2013. We find a significantly negative effect of CSP on IA. By exploiting institutional differences between the European countries, we determine that the negative effect of CSP on IA is more pronounced in liberal market economies compared to coordinated market economies, thus pointing to a substitutive effect of CSP and economic coordination. Further, the impact is greater in countries with stricter disclosure requirements. In such countries, there is generally a greater appetite for company-specific information. However, disclosure requirements fulfil this need only partially because they concentrate on the corporate governance dimension of corporate sustainability. Hence, information on the social pillar especially matters to investors in a complementary manner and drives the overall effect. Our study contributes to the literature on the positive capital market effects of CSP by showing the proposed effect in European capital markets and the institutional determinants of its strength.     

CSR committees on boards: the impact of the external country level factors

Journal of Management and Governance - This article explores the spread of corporate social responsibility (CSR) committees in the European countries, examining whether and what country level...     

The impact of two types of CEO overcompensation on corporate social responsibility

Journal of Management and Governance - This article explores the impact of two types of CEO overcompensation—internal and external overcompensation—on the socially responsible...     

The impact of institutional changes on corporate governance mechanisms in transition economies

We examine how institutional changes affect corporate governance in transition economies. We develop a transition model that specifies three stages of the transition process including the early, intermediate, and late. We develop a framework for assessing the effectiveness of widely recognized corporate governance mechanisms (CGMs) in and across these stages. Our general proposition is that as transition economies move from early, to intermediate, to late stages, effective CGMs tend to be those that are based on state administrative control power, social networks and private orders, and market forces and formal institutions, respectively. Our study has contributions and implications regarding the transition economies and the impacts of institutions on corporate governance.     

The impact of managerial political ties on corporate governance and debt financing: Evidence from Ghana

In this study, we draw upon insights from agency theory to examine the impact of managerial political ties on cost of debt and also to explore whether corporate governance mediates this impact. We hypothesize that political ties reduce financial reporting quality, disclosure of non-financial information and board independence, and are therefore associated with higher interest rates. We also hypothesize that the negative effect of political ties on the cost of debt will be stronger if firms borrow from privately-owned banks versus government-owned banks. Using data from Ghana, we find support for our direct and moderation hypotheses; political ties are associated with high interest rates and poor corporate governance. However, we do not find evidence of mediation. Altogether, the findings reveal the dark side of political connections and highlight the cost of political embeddedness in emerging credit markets.     

Drivers and outcomes of eco-design initiatives: a cross-country study of Malaysia and Australia

Review of Managerial Science - In this study, we have developed and empirically tested a model of the antecedents of eco-design initiatives and their outcome using data that was collected from 255...     

Breaking the boardroom gender barrier: the human capital of female corporate directors

Although there is a paucity of female corporate directors in Canada, women are slowly managing to break the gender barrier of all-male boards of directors. Using resource dependency theory a model is developed that identifies the human capital characteristics that contribute to a woman being appointed to an all-male board. The model is tested on a sample of 193 Canadian firms that appointed women to their boards of directors between 1996 and 2004. The results show that women who are appointed to all-male boards have specialized knowledge skills; either they have firm-specific knowledge as insiders, or they are support specialists with a specific financial or legal expertise.     

高管团队职能异质性与企业绩效关系研究:基于管理者认知和团队冲突的中介分析

高管团队的职能特征如何反映到企业绩效中一直是管理领域研究的重点,但是其实证检验结果呈现出复杂化的特征,一致性的结论尚未达成。本文从高阶梯理论和信息处理理论出发,较为全面地探索高管团队职能异质性如何影响企业绩效。研究结果表明:(1)高管团队职能异质性对企业绩效水平有负向的影响;(2)高管团队职能异质性会显著促进管理者认知集中性和复杂性的提高;(3)管理者认知集中性和复杂性的提高会进一步促进绩效水平的提高;(4)管理者认知是高管团队职能异质性影响企业绩效水平的中介机制;(5)高管团队职能异质性的提高会显著促进团队冲突的提高;(6)团队冲突的增强会抑制企业绩效水平的提高;(7)团队冲突是职能异质性影响企业绩效水平的中介机制。     

Gender diverse boards and goodwill changes: association between accounting conservatism,gender and governance

Journal of Management and Governance - We study the relation between board gender diversity and goodwill (GW). GW on the balance sheet is connected to both the firm’s risk-taking and its...     

The XX factor: Female managers and innovation in a cross-country setting

Our understanding of the link between women managers and firm-level innovation remains incomplete. Building on recent research on gender and leadership styles, we argue that there is a positive association between women managers and firm innovation. We highlight the selection process of women managers as an important underlying mechanism and discuss institutional and environmental contingencies as factors that influence this association. Specifically, we theorize and garner empirical support for the idea that in countries with legislation that promotes legally-mandated gender quotas, underqualified women may be selected for management positions, whereas in countries with voluntary gender quotas (or quotas are entirely absent), women are predominantly selected on the basis of their qualifications. The association between women and innovation is strengthened (weakened) in the latter (former) case. We also argue that this positive relationship is stronger under conditions of environmental complexity, which typically characterize innovation activities. These predictions are supported on the basis of data from the Management, Organization and Innovation (MOI) survey which covers manufacturing firms in twelve countries.