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.

Corporate governance practices are arguably diffusing across the world. This paper examines the adoption of the committee-based governance system (i.e. audit, nomination, and remuneration) in Japanese firms, a practice common in Anglo-American capitalism but potentially contestable in Japan. The study finds that firms that are internationally exposed through cross listing are more likely to adopt the committee system. Moreover, more experienced and highly cross-held firms, with larger proportions of foreign ownership, are more likely to adopt the committee system. On the other hand our study finds partial support for the hypothesis that larger proportions of bank ownership are negatively associated with the adoption of the committee system, suggesting a gradual withdrawal by banks from the traditional monitoring of firms. This paper adds to the longstanding debate on the convergence on or persistent divergence from the Anglo-American corporate governance system. The study thus provides insights into corporate governance changes in non-Anglo/American countries that face a struggle between global capital market forces for change and deep-seated institutional practices of continuity.

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The mutual versus plc debate has now branched out to include discussion of the potential benefits to consumers from alternative organisational forms. This paper investigates whether performance, risk and fee levels differ across mutual and plc ownership groups in the UK unit trust industry. To this end, this paper uses monthly time-series data for UK unit trusts industry for the years 2000 to 2005 and compares recorded performance from a consumer perspective by organisational form. The paper finds some difference between the two organisational groups with respect to the annual management fee charged and risk-exposures, which seem to affect returns of their unit trusts. Consistent with recent studies, such results suggest that diversity of organisational form fosters product variations across UK investment products. Copyright (c) 2007 The Author; Journal compilation (c) 2007 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.