Social Sustainability on Corporate Boards: The Effects of Female Family Members on R&D

Abstract

There is growing institutional and social pressure for greater balance, parity, and equality at the highest levels of corporations. This is coupled with an increasing interest in analysing the effects of gender diversity on corporate boards. However, companies may only reap the benefits of gender diversity by achieving better qualified and more independent boards. This study aims to contribute to the open debate on the effects of board gender diversity on R&D, by taking into account the independence of female directors. Panel regression analyses were performed with data for 67 Spanish-listed companies during the 2003–2019 period. Our results confirm the positive effects of gender diversity on R&D. However, this positive influence is lower if female directors have family links with male members on the board. These findings have policy implications, regarding the need to increase gender equality in corporate boards for social and sustainability purposes, while the benefits are conditioned by the independence of female directors. The value of this research rests on the study of the effects, beyond the mere analysis of financial performance of the gender diversity of boards.

Top Management Team Diversity and International Expansion: Spanish Companies in China

“…Despite the proportion of women in our sample is low (20%), we believe that this result is still valid since, in general, the proportion of women in managerial positions is lower than men. So having women on the team adds up (Hernández-Lara et al, 2021). The behavior of men and women managing organizations differs (Croson & Gneezy, 2009), and their views and leadership styles, among other aspects, may also be different which means that they can provide different and richer solutions in the same scenario.…”

Definitions of Sustainability in the Context of Gender

“…Article Identified by the Reference Number * Leadership [5,[12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] Consumer choices [2,10,13,[20][21][22][23] Demographic issues [19,[22][23][24][25] Social justice [2, Migration [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41] Education [18,[42][43][44][45][46] Eco-activism [2,10,47] Corporate responsibility [5,13,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54] Innovation [12,58] GENERAL with no specific categorisation [6,…”

“…Leach [2] conducted a comprehensive review of available sources, and it shows the richness of the literature available. There are also numerous articles that focus on comprehensive review of specific theme, such as sustainability in healthcare [3], circular economy [4], or gender sustainability in corporate boards [5], which provide a wide range of sources, showing that sustainability is a popular subject of scientific enquiry. Diverse social groups may have different and possibly opposing interests, priorities, and perspectives, which makes the matter highly politicized and an object of continual negotiation and renegotiation.…”

Gender Diversity in Research and Innovation Projects: The Proportion of Women in the Context of Higher Education

“…However, with the exception of Spain, there have been no significant changes in the participation of women in the labour market in the comparison countries [11]. In this context, Spain is particularly interesting, because, since the mid-2000s, there has been a strong legislative movement to incorporate women in the workforce and in top corporate positions [20]. In fact, studies by Díaz-García et al [9] and López-Iñesta [13] have shown that having women on teams improves decision-making processes, enhances the sort of creativity that favours innovation and encourages R&I teams to develop projects that involve important social changes.…”