Mind the gap: Are female directors and executives more sensitive to the environment in high-tech us firms?

Leadership in heels: Women on boards and sustainability in times of COVID‐19

“…= 0.0260) for a confidence level of 99%. These results, which are in line with Shoham et al (2017), Elmagrhi et al (2019), Yaseen et al (2019), Govindan et al (2021), Al‐Najjar and Salama (2022) and Wang et al (2022), among others, showed a positive relationship between the number of female directors and the firms' sustainability performance. In addition, when we estimate Equation () for the three main dimensions of sustainability, we observe that the variable B_Diversity favorably influences the social (coeff.…”

“…Thus, several studies have found a positive relationship (i.e., Al-Najjar & Salama, 2022;Beji et al, 2020;De Masi et al, 2022;Elmagrhi et al, 2019;Galletta et al, 2022;García-Sánchez et al, 2023;Govindan et al, 2021;Issa et al, 2022;Moreno-Ureba et al, 2022;Provasi & Harasheh, 2020;Rehman et al, 2020;Shoham et al, 2017;Uyar et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2022;Yaseen et al, 2019), while others have observed non-significant (Ardito et al, 2020;Ajaz et al, 2020;Zaid et al, 2020) and even negative (Bristy et al, 2020;Fakir & Jusoh, 2020;Garcia-Sanchez, Gallego-Alvarez, & Zafra-Gomez, 2021;Loukil et al, 2019;Orazalin & Baydauletov, 2020;Sanan, 2016) relationships, presenting divergences in favor of economic dimensions over social and environmental ones (Nadeem et al, 2020;Nguyen et al, 2021). In addition, there may be a temporary effect that indicates changes in the role that female directors play, in the sense that a change has been observed in the interest they show regarding the adoption of ethical policies and management of the firm's activities (i.e., Monteiro et al, 2021;Nadeem et al, 2017), something that did not occur in previous times (i.e., García-Sánchez et al 2015;Rodriguez-Dominguez et al, 2009).…”

Is it the mere female directors or their attributes that matter for the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures?

“…In recent decades, the corporate world has faced severe scrutiny and pressure to reduce the negative effects of their operations (Issa et al, 2022; Rahman et al, 2023; Shaheen et al, 2021), safeguard stakeholders' legitimate interests, and report their efforts toward corporate sustainability (CS) (Al‐Najjar & Salama, 2022; Jin et al, 2021; Rahman et al, 2023). Nevertheless, the successful adoption of CS and its reporting are still serious challenges, especially in developing countries (Gong et al, 2021; Rahman, Zahid, & Khan, 2021; Shaheen et al, 2021; Zahid et al, 2018).…”

“…Other authors also consider BGD to be an important internal governance mechanism for improving the quality of corporate sustainability disclosures (QCSD). Besides increasing the allocation of the required human and financial resources, BGD also pushes firms for the development as well as the implementation of effective integrating strategies that positively influence QCSD (Al‐Najjar & Salama, 2022; Issa et al, 2022; Katmon et al, 2019; Rahman et al, 2023). Female directors have fewer social ties with managers; hence, they are more independent and effective in challenging firms' decisions that may have negative implications for stakeholders' interests (Galbreath, 2018; Issa et al, 2022; Zahid et al, 2019).…”

“…In addition to contextual and methodological differences (Rahman & Zahid, 2021; Wang & Clift, 2009), previous studies may also lack agreement for mostly overlooking the “tokenism” and “critical mass” assumptions of female representation on the board (Gong et al, 2021; Yang et al, 2019), and a few studies that probed their impact on CS and its reporting also produced mixed results by either supporting (Gong et al, 2021) or opposing their presence on the board (Yang et al, 2019). Furthermore, the incongruence may also be because the majority of the prior studies mostly focused on “BGD” and “women or female directors” and their experience (Al‐Najjar & Salama, 2022; Gallhofer, 1998; Shaheen et al, 2021) rather than differentiating them and their experience as of “independent” and “executive” female directors, especially in regard to QCSD (Giannarakis, 2014; Issa et al, 2022). The disagreement found among previous studies could also be associated with overseeing the differences in female directors' education (both level and background) in their investigations.…”