IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v157y2023ics0148296322010177.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Female-friendly boards in family firms

Author

Listed:
  • Wang, Joyce C.
  • Zhao, Yiyi
  • Sun, Sunny L.
  • Zhu, Jigao

Abstract

How do female directors fare in family firms? Can women gain influence on family boards? Research on board informal hierarchy indicates that female directors, due to perceived role incongruity, may wield less influence than male directors. We posit that the gender-induced informal hierarchy is less salient on family boards. That is because family firms, characterized by their socioemotional wealth—a non-economic goal centered on compassion and relationships, redefine directorship roles to become more congruent with the gender role prescribed for women. In turn, female directors gain influence on family boards. We additionally explore contingencies that further mitigate the gender-induced informal hierarchy, nurturing female-friendly boards. We hypothesize that such boards can unlock the potential of gender diversity by improving firm performance. The analysis of 43,947 directors in publicly listed Chinese firms supports our hypotheses. Overall, we contribute to the literature at the intersection of family business, female leadership, and corporate governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Wang, Joyce C. & Zhao, Yiyi & Sun, Sunny L. & Zhu, Jigao, 2023. "Female-friendly boards in family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322010177
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113552
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322010177
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.113552?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhu, Jigao & Ye, Kangtao & Tucker, Jennifer Wu & Chan, Kam (Johnny) C., 2016. "Board hierarchy, independent directors, and firm value: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 262-279.
    2. Gómez-Mejía, Luis R. & Herrero, Inés, 2022. "Back to square one: The measurement of Socioemotional Wealth (SEW)," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4).
    3. Sunny Sun & Jigao Zhu & Kangtao Ye, 2015. "Board Openness During an Economic Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 363-377, June.
    4. Franz W. Kellermanns & Kimberly A. Eddleston, 2004. "Feuding Families: When Conflict Does a Family Firm Good," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 28(3), pages 209-228, May.
    5. Miller, Danny & Amore, Mario Daniele & Quarato, Fabio & Corbetta, Guido, 2022. "Family Ownership Dispersion and Dividend Payout in Family Firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(3).
    6. Hernández-Perlines, Felipe & Covin, Jeffrey G. & Ribeiro-Soriano, Domingo E., 2021. "Entrepreneurial orientation, concern for socioemotional wealth preservation, and family firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 197-208.
    7. Comino-Jurado, María & Sánchez-Andújar, Sonia & Parrado-Martínez, Purificación, 2021. "Reassessing debt-financing decisions in family firms: Family involvement on the board of directors and generational stage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 426-435.
    8. Morten Bennedsen & Kasper Meisner Nielsen & Francisco Perez-Gonzalez & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2007. "Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(2), pages 647-691.
    9. Lívia Markóczy & Sunny Li Sun & Jigao Zhu, 2021. "The Glass Pyramid: Informal Gender Status Hierarchy on Boards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(4), pages 827-845, February.
    10. Wenchuan Huang & Shouming Chen & Luu Thi Nguyen, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Organizational Resilience to COVID-19 Crisis: An Empirical Study of Chinese Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    12. Jiang, Fuxiu & Shi, Wei & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2020. "Board chairs and R&D investment: Evidence from Chinese family-controlled firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 109-118.
    13. Jess H. Chua & James J. Chrisman & Pramodita Sharma, 1999. "Defining the Family Business by Behavior," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 23(4), pages 19-39, July.
    14. Francesco Chirico & Dianne H. B. Welsh & R. Duane Ireland & Philipp Sieger, 2021. "Family versus Non‐Family Firm Franchisors: Behavioural and Performance Differences," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 165-200, January.
    15. Luciano Ciravegna & Liena Kano & Francesco Rattalino & Alain Verbeke, 2020. "Corporate Diplomacy and Family Firm Longevity," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 44(1), pages 109-133, January.
    16. Danny Miller & Isabelle Le Breton–Miller, 2014. "Deconstructing Socioemotional Wealth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(4), pages 713-720, July.
    17. repec:bla:jfinan:v:58:y:2003:i:3:p:1301-1327 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Perryman, Alexa A. & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam, 2016. "Do gender differences persist? An examination of gender diversity on firm performance, risk, and executive compensation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 579-586.
    19. Letian Zhang, 2020. "An Institutional Approach to Gender Diversity and Firm Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(2), pages 439-457, March.
    20. Isabelle Solal & Kaisa Snellman, 2019. "Women Don’t Mean Business? Gender Penalty in Board Composition," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 30(6), pages 1270-1288, November.
    21. Cristina Cruz & Rachida Justo & Martín Larraza-Kintana & Lucía Garcés-Galdeano, 2019. "When Do Women Make a Better Table? Examining the Influence of Women Directors on Family Firm’s Corporate Social Performance," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 43(2), pages 282-301, March.
    22. Jess H. Chua & James J. Chrisman & Lloyd P. Steier & Sabine B. Rau, 2012. "Sources of Heterogeneity in Family Firms: An Introduction," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 36(6), pages 1103-1113, November.
    23. Lin, Yi-Mien & Shen, Cheng-An, 2015. "Family firms' credit rating, idiosyncratic risk, and earnings management," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(4), pages 872-877.
    24. Mario Daniele Amore & Orsola Garofalo & Alessandro Minichilli, 2014. "Gender Interactions Within the Family Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1083-1097, May.
    25. Kraus, Sascha & Kallmuenzer, Andreas & Stieger, Daniel & Peters, Mike & Calabrò, Andrea, 2018. "Entrepreneurial paths to family firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 382-387.
    26. Silvia Bacci & Alessandro Cirillo & Donata Mussolino & Simone Terzani, 2018. "The influence of family ownership dispersion on debt level in privately held firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 51(3), pages 557-576, October.
    27. Debicki, Bart J. & Ramírez-Solís, Edgar Rogelio & Baños-Monroy, Verónica Ilián & Gutiérrez-Patrón, Lilia Magali, 2020. "The impact of strategic focus on relational capital: A comparative study of family and non-family firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 585-598.
    28. Baday Yıldız, Ezgi & Dabić, Marina & Stojčić, Nebojša & Dindaroğlu, Yeşim & Temel, Serdal, 2021. "Scrutinizing innovation performance of family firms in efficiency-driven environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 260-270.
    29. Thams, Yannick & Bendell, Bari L. & Terjesen, Siri, 2018. "Explaining women's presence on corporate boards: The institutionalization of progressive gender-related policies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 130-140.
    30. Liu, Yu & Wei, Zuobao & Xie, Feixue, 2014. "Do women directors improve firm performance in China?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 169-184.
    31. Joyce C. Wang & Lívia Markóczy & Sunny Li Sun & Mike W. Peng, 2019. "She’-E-O Compensation Gap: A Role Congruity View," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(3), pages 745-760, October.
    32. De Massis, Alfredo & Kotlar, Josip & Campopiano, Giovanna & Cassia, Lucio, 2013. "Dispersion of family ownership and the performance of small-to-medium size private family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 166-175.
    33. Fuming Jiang & Tatiana Zalan & Herman H. M. Tse & Jie Shen, 2018. "Mapping the Relationship Among Political Ideology, CSR Mindset, and CSR Strategy: A Contingency Perspective Applied to Chinese Managers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 147(2), pages 419-444, January.
    34. Liu, Yonghong & Lei, Lijun & Buttner, E. Holly, 2020. "Establishing the boundary conditions for female board directors’ influence on firm performance through CSR," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 112-120.
    35. Dennis B. Veltrop & Eric Molleman & Reggy B. H. Hooghiemstra & Hans van Ees, 2017. "Who's the Boss at the Top? A Micro‐Level Analysis of Director Expertise, Status and Conformity Within Boards," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(7), pages 1079-1110, November.
    36. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. De Massis, Alfredo & Muñoz-Bullón, Fernando & Sanchez-Bueno, Maria J. & Velasco, Pilar & Vismara, Silvio, 2024. "Executive gender and firm leverage decisions: The role of firm ownership and governance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
    2. Yusi Jiang & Wan Cheng & Xuemei Xie, 2024. "The Dismissal of New Female CEOs: A Role Congruity Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 194(2), pages 387-432, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chen, Shihui & Wu, Bingde & Liao, Zhongju & Chen, Ling, 2022. "Does familial decision control affect the entrepreneurial orientation of family firms? The moderating role of family relationships," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 60-69.
    2. Du, Shanzhong & Cao, June, 2023. "Non-family shareholder governance and green innovation of family firms: A socio-emotional wealth theory perspective," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    3. Du, Shanzhong & Ma, Lianfu & Li, Zhuo, 2022. "Non-family shareholder governance and corporate risk-taking: Evidence from Chinese family-controlled businesses," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 156-170.
    4. Huang, Haijie & Lee, Edward & Lyu, Changjiang & Zhao, Yiyi, 2020. "Bequest motive, information transparency, and family firm value: A natural experiment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    5. Davila, Jessenia & Duran, Patricio & Gómez-Mejía, Luis & Sanchez-Bueno, Maria J., 2023. "Socioemotional wealth and family firm performance: A meta-analytic integration," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    6. Amore, Mario Daniele & Miller, Danny & Le Breton-Miller, Isabelle & Corbetta, Guido, 2017. "For love and money: Marital leadership in family firms," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 461-476.
    7. Ginesti, Gianluca & Ossorio, Mario & Dawson, Alexandra, 2023. "Family businesses and debt maturity structure: Focusing on family involvement in governance to explain heterogeneity," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 14(2).
    8. Wen-Ting Lin & Linda C. Wang, 2021. "Family firms, R&D, and internationalization: the stewardship and socio-emotional wealth perspectives," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(1), pages 91-119, March.
    9. Daniel Ruiz-Palomo & Julio Diéguez-Soto & Antonio Duréndez & José António C. Santos, 2019. "Family Management and Firm Performance in Family SMEs: The Mediating Roles of Management Control Systems and Technological Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-22, July.
    10. Kosmidou, Vasiliki & Holt, Daniel T., 2022. "The relationship between family management and performance: A configurational approach in exploring the role of socioemotional wealth and generational stage," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4).
    11. Matthias Filser & Alexander Brem & Johanna Gast & Sascha Kraus & Andrea Calabrò, 2016. "Innovation In Family Firms — Examining The Inventory And Mapping The Path," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(06), pages 1-39, August.
    12. Markin, Erik T. & Skorodziyevskiy, Vitaliy & Zhu, Lina & Chrisman, James J. & Fang, Hanqing “Chevy”, 2022. "Lone-founder firms in China: Replicating Miller et al. (2007) in a different context," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 13(4).
    13. Godlewski, Christophe J. & Nhung Le, Hong, 2024. "Family ties and firm performance empirical evidence from East Asia," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 150-166.
    14. Suveera Gill & Parmjit Kaur, 2015. "Family Involvement in Business and Financial Performance: A Panel Data Analysis," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 40(4), pages 395-420, December.
    15. Stewart, Alex, 2020. "Family control, ambivalence, and preferential benefits," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(4).
    16. De Massis, Alfredo & Kotlar, Josip & Campopiano, Giovanna & Cassia, Lucio, 2013. "Dispersion of family ownership and the performance of small-to-medium size private family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(3), pages 166-175.
    17. Schierstedt, Bennet & Henn, Marisa & Lutz, Eva, 2020. "Diversified acquisitions in family firms: Restricted vs. extended family priorities," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 11(2).
    18. Georgiou, Thoukis & Papasolomou, Ioanna & Vrontis, Demetris & Thrassou, Alkis, 2023. "Market-oriented succession effectiveness in family business – Case-based evidence from Cyprus family-owned wine business," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    19. Jin, Linlin & Liu, Mingzhi & Wu, Zhenyu & Zhang, Zixu, 2023. "The difference of investment efficiency between family and non-family firms: An international scope," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. King, Roger & Peng, Winnie Qian, 2013. "The effect of industry characteristics on the control longevity of founding-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 4(4), pages 281-295.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:157:y:2023:i:c:s0148296322010177. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.