The role of national culture in the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance: evidence from a multi-country study

Abstract

PurposeThis study seeks to add more insights to the debate on “whether”, “how”, and “under which condition” women representation on the board contributes to firm performance. More specifically, the current study aims to investigate if the effect of board gender diversity on firm performance is dependent on macro factors of national cultures.Design/methodology/approachThe authors used the generalized method of moments regression and a data set consists of 2,550 company year observations over 10 years.FindingsThe results indicated that cultural variables interact with board diversity to influence firm performance. Having women on the board in countries with high power distance, individualist, masculine and low-uncertainty avoidance culture influences the firm performance negatively.Originality/valueThe findings indicate that the effects of corporate governance structure on firm performance depends on culture-specific factors, providing support for the argument that institutional norms that are governed by cultural norms affect the effectiveness of corporate governance structure.

Does Board Gender Diversity Really Improve Firm Performance? Evidence from Greek Listed Firms

“…For instance, Adams and Ferreira (2009) find that the average effect of board gender diversity on performance is negative. Naghavi et al (2021) claim that in nations with high power distance, masculine, individualist and low-uncertainty avoidance culture, the high proportion of female board members has a negative impact on firm performance. Fernández-Temprano and Tejerina-Gaite (2020) and Ararat and Yurtoglu (2021) claim that there is no evidence that gender diversity has an impact on the performance of Spanish and Turkish companies, respectively.…”

Analysis of the effect of Financial Distress on Tax avoidance during the COVID-19 Financial Crisis: Evidence from Pakistan

“…While the endogeneity problems that occur with independent variables are correlated with the error term. So, researchers apply GMM which provides the potential panel data instruments that address all problems of unobserved endogeneity, heterogeneity, and heteroscedasticity problems in panel data analysis (Naghavi et al, 2021).…”

The impact of board gender diversity on banks' environmental policy: The moderating role of gender inequality in national culture

“…In particular, BGD has become a relevant component of effective CG as an essential step in addressing the gap in global gender inequality (Yarram & Adapa, 2021). Previous literature suggests that increasing female representation on boards positively affects companies' sustainable performance (e.g., Gangi et al, 2021; Kassinis et al, 2016; Naciti, 2019; Nadeem et al, 2017, 2019); however, women still struggle to regularly and appropriately establish their presence in top positions (Byron & Post, 2016; Carrasco et al, 2015;Halliday et al, 2021; Naghavi et al, 2021).…”

“…The gender diversity construct is intrinsically linked to culture since the socially constructed roles of genders are culturally determined and differ in time and place (Byron & Post, 2016; Naghavi et al, 2021), and expectations for the attributes and behaviors appropriate to women and men and of the relations between genders are shaped by the cultural context. Accordingly, gender identity and relations are critical aspects of cultures, influencing individuals' everyday lives, including their work (Eagly, 1987).…”