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PurposeAlthough women remain substantially underrepresented in the top echelons of large corporations, a non‐trivial presence of female executives has emerged in recent years. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the firm characteristics that predict the sex of the executive office holder, classifying the plausible firm characteristics that could explain the presence of female executives into four explanations: sector, size, stability, and scandal.Design/methodology/approachThis paper provides perhaps the first large‐sample analyses of the sex of executive officers in Fortune 500 firms by analyzing a sample of 3,691 executives in 444 Fortune 500 companies.FindingsIn the paper's sample, 252 of the executives, or 6.4 percent of the sample, are women. The authors' analyses reveal that women are less likely to be chief executive officers and chief operations officers, but more likely to be chief corporate officers and general counsels. Female executives are somewhat less likely to be present in the construction sector, but there is evidence that they are more likely to be present in retail trade. Firms with greater assets and sales growth are less likely to have female executives. Using originally collected data, it is shown that firms that have experienced a scandal in recent years are more likely to have female executives. However, the nature and quantity of scandals do not have significant effects.Originality/valueUltimately, the authors' analyses reveal that key firm characteristics predict whether an executive office is held by a woman.

Purpose -The purpose of the paper is to illuminate the necessary features of a microfinance mobile banking platform through the use of agents. Design/methodology/approach -This is a conceptual paper, not an empirical one. Findings -The authors illuminate the importance of specifiying what successful partnership between the mobile network operator and the microfinance organization must include and they highlight what a mobile application should include. Social implications -There are roughly two billion unbanked mobile phone users who could be served by a partnership between mobile technology and microfinance. This type of partnership begins to address financial exclusivity among the poor. Originality/value -The paper offers an original, detailed solution about how agents and technology can be used to help the poor access mobile banking platforms.

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