Social Wellbeing, Board-Gender Diversity, and Financial Performance: Evidence From Chinese Fintech Companies

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between female representation on board of directors and financial performance, using evidence from Chinese fintech companies, which are providing financial services using cutting-edge technologies. This research used fintech firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzen Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2019 to test the research questions using regression analyses by SPSS v26. According to the data, the Blau index has a large and negative influence on Tobin's Q, which demonstrates that gender diversity harms the performance of Chinese enterprises. Furthermore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is found to have a significant and positive moderating influence on Tobin's Q, implying that the adoption of CSR converts a negative to a positive effect. Diversified board members can improve the organization's control and monitoring operations, and female-represented board of directors can participate in the CSR activities that contribute to the organization's performance. The study contributes to the research of gender diversity by providing evidence that women on board of directors enhance firm performance, and the moderating function of CSR is examined with the link of female participation on the board of directors and financial performance.

The relationship between women and racial minority employees/managers and financial performance

“…Two major perspectives have emerged at these levels of analysis, a social categorization perspective and an information/decision-making perspective (Köllen, 2021;van Knippenberg et al, 2004). The empirical work has resulted in GM 38,8 positive, negative and nonsignificant impacts within each perspective (Ghafoor et al, 2022;Moon and Christensen, 2020;Pandey et al, 2022;van Knippenberg et al, 2013).…”

“…In line with this stream of thinking, race and gender have often been used in diversity research as proxies for differences in perspectives and human capital (Hillman et al , 2002; Kolev and McNamara, 2020; Roh and Sung, 2022). However, despite their long histories as variables of interest, their effects have been inconsistent within the research (An and Lee, 2022; Hoobler et al , 2018; Makkonen, 2022; Riordan, 2000), even as their salience and importance in business have increased (Ghafoor et al , 2022; Miller and Triana, 2009; Verhulst and DeCenzo, 2021).…”

“…Aside from the increased communication conflict that is expected between in-group and out-group members, in-group and outgroup members often compete for resources (Perry et al , 2022) reducing the efficient allocation of those resources. Furthermore, stereo-typing is likely to occur as out-group members are reduced to a common profile (Bendick et al , 2010; Ghafoor et al , 2022).…”

The impact of family ownership on the relationship between the existence of the woman Board of Commissioners and firm performance

“…The presence of WBoC serves as a control function (Assenga, Aly & Hussainey, 2018;Lafuente & Vaillant, 2019) and monitoring function (Rahman & Zahid, 2021;Zhou, Owusu-Ansah & Maggina, 2018) to improve firm performance (FP) (Mubarka & Kammerlander, 2022;Ramadan & Hassan, 2022). While empirical research on the influence of WBoC on FP has shown inconclusive results, many studies have shown that the presence of WBoC either has a lower impact on FP (Adams & Ferreira, 2009;Akpan & Amran, 2014;Darmadi, 2013;Fauzi & Locke, 2012;Ghafoor, Duffour, Khan & Khan, 2022;Mubarka & Kammerlander, 2022;Roudaki, 2018) or a positive impact on FP (Dissanayake, Jeyaraj & Nerur, 2021;Mubarka & Kammerlander, 2022;Ramadan & Hassan, 2022;Tran, Nguyen& Wang, 2022). Meanwhile, other studies (Hatane, Winoto, Tarigan & Jie, 2022;Kumar, Nigam & Singh, 2020;Shukeri, Shin & Shaari, 2012;Wang, Abbasi, Babajide & Yekini, 2019) have also shown that the presence of WBoC has no impact on FP.…”

“…Does family ownership moderate the influence of the existence of women board of commissioners on firm performance? Studies on WBoC and FP have been extensively conducted in developed countries such as Italy (Flabbi, Macis, Moro & Schivardi, 2019), Iceland (Gudjonsson, Kristinsson, Gylfason & Minelgaite, 2020), Germany (Green & Homroy, 2017), Spain (Valls-Martínez & Cruz-Rambaud, 2019, Britain (Gong & Girma, 2021), and China (Ghafoor et al, 2022). However, researchers have yet to explore the relationship between WBoC and FP moderated by FO in developing countries.…”