Purpose: This study aimed to examine the effect of corporate governance mechanisms on asymmetric cost behavior in the Egyptian context, particularly concerning the gender diversity of the board of directors and the effectiveness of the internal controls. Moreover, this study sought to test the implications of the asymmetric cost behavior, particularly concerning its impact on the value of the firm.
Research design:I conducted an empirical study on firms listed in the EGX during the period from (2018)(2019)(2020)(2021)(2022). To measure the asymmetric cost behavior, (Anderson, et al., 2003;Homburg & Nasev, 2008) models were employed, the percentage of femininity representation in the board of directors was employed to measure the gender diversity of the board of directors, a dummy variable was employed to capture the adverse auditor opinion concerning material internal control weaknesses as a proxy for internal controls effectiveness, market-based measure (Tobin q) was employed to measure the value of the firm, in addition, accounting-based measures (ROA-EPS) were employed to measure the value of the firm.Findings: This study documented a positive effect of the gender diversity of the board of directors on asymmetric cost behavior from a behavioral perspective. In addition, there is no evidence of a significant effect of the effectiveness of the internal controls on the asymmetric cost behavior. Finally, empirical results indicated a significant positive impact of the asymmetric cost behavior on the value of the firm measured by market-based measure. The additional analysis documented a significant positive impact of the asymmetric cost behavior on the value of the firm measured by accounting-based measures in the medium/long term.Originality/ value: To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine the effects of gender diversity of the board of directors and internal controls effectiveness on the asymmetric cost behavior in the Egyptian context. Also, To the best of my knowledge, this study is the first attempt to examine the impact of asymmetric cost behavior on the value of the firm as measured by market-based and accounting-based measures in the Egyptian context.