Female directorship on boards and corporate sustainability policies: Their effect on sustainable development

Abstract

We aim to explore whether board gender diversity—specifically, women directors representing institutional ownership—improves the sustainability development of listed firms by affecting corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies. Moreover, among female directors representing institutional shareholders, we can differentiate between those working for banks and insurance companies (pressure‐sensitive female institutional directors) and those working for mutual funds, investment funds, pension funds, and venture capital firms (pressure‐resistant female institutional directors). The effect of these categories of directors on CSR policies is also analysed. Our evidence suggests that women directors representing institutional ownership positively affect CSR policies, which is the same as for pressure‐resistant female institutional directors, and pressure‐sensitive institutional directors do not impact CSR policies. This research provides a new framework for the role played by certain types of female directors (female institutional directors, female pressure‐sensitive directors, and female pressure‐resistant directors) in relation to CSR policies, and thus, it may help policymakers to promote CSR policies and to take action to promote responsible behaviour among listed firms.

Disentangling the Bidirectional Relationships Across the Corporate Sustainable Development Indicators

“…The coefficient of ECD it is also positive and significant (column 2). This result is consistent with Ortas et al ( 2019 ), Pucheta‐Martínez et al ( 2020b ) and Khan and Hou ( 2021 ) who found that superior financial performance provided slack resources for the company to support environmentally responsible activities. Together, these results confirm Hypothesis 1 that the relationship between a firm’s economic and environmental performance is positive and bidirectional.…”

“…First, firm size ( SIZE ) is measured as the natural logarithm of firm total assets. Larger firms tend to engage more actively in ESG (Pucheta-Martínez et al, 2020 ). Second, firm financial risk ( LEVERAGE ), calculated as the ratio of total debt to the sum of market capitalization, total debt, and preferred stock, can influence ESG performance (Callan & Thomas, 2009 ; Jo & Harjoto, 2011 ).…”

“…Specifically, slack resource theory (McGuire et al, 1988 ) suggests that firms with slack resources potentially available from superior financial performance invest more in socially responsible activities. Supporting this view, there is evidence of a positive effect of a firm’s financial performance on its social/environmental responsibility (Waddock & Graves, 1997 and, more recently, Pucheta‐Martínez et al, 2020b ).…”

Assessing the effects of workforce diversity on project productivity performance for sustainable workplace in the construction industry

“…Women, on the other hand, are perceived as more agreeable and supportive, and this can facilitate more teamwork and interaction. Therefore, when both genders are present in the workforce, their behaviors can be complementary to support project tasks (Jost & Kay, 2005; Pucheta‐Martínez, Olcina‐Sempere, & López‐Zamora, 2020).…”

“…In the context of Singapore's construction industry, workers' health may affect productivity as cross‐training and handing over as well as hiring temporary replacements all consume time and resources, which can impact project productivity. However, with a more diverse distribution of gender in the workforce, productivity may stand to gain from the contrasting behavior and work pattern of men and women as they have different sets of social behaviors that could be complementary (Jost & Kay, 2005; Pucheta‐Martínez et al, 2020).…”