Women directors’ propensity towards risk in technology firms

Abstract

Purpose This study aims to investigate the impact of the presence of women directors on firm’s risk-taking behavior in industries where innovation is pivotal and how this impact varies across ownership structure. Design/methodology/approach A sample of 71 listed technology firms on the National Stock Exchange of India for the period of 2008 to 2013 was used. Generalized method of moment estimation technique was used for data analysis. Findings Results reveal a positive impact of the presence of women directors on technology firms’ risk-taking behavior measured in terms of R&D spending, which is in contrast to the traditional notion that women are risk-averse. Further, results also reveal that family ownership negatively affects the impact of the presence of women directors on risk taking in technology firms. Practical implications The findings of the study suggest that females are risk takers in the context of R&D-intensive technology firms, thus providing new insight for policymakers to formulate more effective board gender diversity policies. Originality/value Based on the integration of agency and behavioral theories, it is suggested that female executives may be risk-averse or risk-takers depending on contextual factors such as innovation and ownership, which drive the impact of the presence of women directors on firms’ risk-taking behavior.

A systematic literature review on family business: insights from an Asian context

“…Family firms are commercial organisations in which various generations of the same family influence the decision-making processes as well as the capacity to shape the visions and behaviours of companies and the will of the company in achieving its distinctive objectives (Lee et al , 2017; Mukarram et al , 2018; Panicker, 2017; Ye et al , 2019) and generally identified in the short term by means of the family leadership or ownership. For a company to classify as a family firm, there has to be a multi-generational and preponderant family dimension that ensures the unique dynamics and relationships ongoing in family firms (Chaudhary and Batra, 2018; Hussain and Ismail, 2015).…”

Does board gender diversity affect firm performance? Empirical evidence from Standard & Poor’s 500 Information Technology Sector

“…This study would contribute to the literature as it focuses on the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance in the information technology (IT) sector of the United States (US). Prior literature that investigated high-technology companies was focused on female directors and earnings management (Gavious et al 2012) or risk (Mukarram et al 2018). Carmen, (2019) merely explored gender diversity in US computer industries but only at the senior management level.…”

Gender and firm innovation - A systematic literature review and future research agenda

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“…Several innovation variables have been studied in our sample of studies in typology 1. On the input side, the influence of TMT diversity on R&D spending (Midavaine et al , 2016; Mukarram et al , 2018) has been studied. On the output side, product innovation (Galia and Zenou, 2012; Talke et al , 2011), marketing innovation (Heyden et al , 2018) and intellectual capital efficiency (Nadeem et al , 2019) have been studied, leaving much to be desired about other types of innovation such as organizational innovation.…”