Does gender diversity matter for green innovation?

Abstract

This study empirically investigated the relationship between board gender diversity and firm's green innovation, using panel data of public companies of China's manufacturing. Green product innovation was assessed by “green” patents and green process innovation assessed by environmental management certification. The endogeneity problem that resulted from self‐selection of gender diversity was addressed by means of extended probit regressions with an instrumental variable, and the instrumental variable was elaborately constructed based on changes in directorships. The findings show that occurrence of green innovation at the firm‐level is systematically related to female board representation. Specifically, women can exert a sizable and positive effect on green innovation, once they enjoy at least two seats on the boards; a further increase in representation of women on the boards can increase the likelihood of green product innovation rather than the likelihood of green process innovation. These results were robust to various regression specifications and alternative samples. The study provides empirical evidence that women at the top management can play a positive role in developing firm's active environmental strategies, and the conclusions are of practical implications for improving corporate governance along the environmental dimension.

Are women eco‐friendly? Board gender diversity and environmental innovation

“…This is notably important for the environment, as the plaintiffs are general communities and the environment without contractual relationships with firms (Liu, 2018). Firms' commitment towards the environment is largely determined by the extent to which they consider the interests of broader stakeholder groups in policy-making (He & Jiang, 2019). Female directors are found to be more concerned about the interests of others and in maintaining long-term relationships (Nadeem et al, 2020).…”

CEO hometown identity and firm green innovation

“…Nevertheless, existing research rarely mentions that whether and how the characteristics of CEOs play a role in firm outcomes that combine both innovation and CSR such as, in our context, green innovation. A few exceptions include studies on how executives' gender (He & Jiang, 2019), environmental concern (Tang, Walsh, Lerner, Fitza, & Li, 2018), hubris (Arena et al, 2018) and temporal cognition (Liao, 2016) facilitate the engagement in green innovation. However, none of these research has shed light on examining the influence of CEO hometown identity on firm green innovation, which we follow this line of research by.…”

Does it pay to be green? A disaggregated analysis of U.S. firms with green patents

“…Finally, firms with green patents represent specific characteristics that can affect the relationship between environmental and financial performance. For example, He and Jiang () found that the occurrence of green innovation at the firm level is systematically related to female board representation. On the other hand, Przychodzen et al () stated that firms possessing environmental innovations have some specific features such as a strong preference formation, higher complexity, and higher uncertainty compared to firms possessing nonenvironmental innovations.…”