IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i22p15232-d974882.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Governance and Financial Performance: The Interplay of Board Gender Diversity and Intellectual Capital

Author

Listed:
  • Zeineb Ouni

    (Department of Finance and Economics, School of Management, University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, 3351 des Forges BLVD, P.O. Box 500, Trois-Rivières, QC G9A 5H7, Canada
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Jamal Ben Mansour

    (Department of Human Resources Management, School of Management, University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, 3351 des Forges BLVD, P.O. Box 500, Trois-Rivières, QC G9A 5H7, Canada
    These authors contributed equally to this work.)

  • Sana Arfaoui

    (School of Science Administration, TÉLUQ University, 5800 Saint-Denis St, Montréal, QC H2S 3L5, Canada)

Abstract

Prior research has found mixed evidence regarding the relationships between board gender diversity (BGD) and firm value. Moreover, there is a lack of evidence on the channels through which BGD affects firm performance; hence, this paper tackles this issue. We aim to investigate the relationship between BGD and firm performance and to explore the mediating role of intellectual capital efficiency (ICE) in this relationship. Using a multivariate regression analysis and a sample of 4008 North American firms from 2002 to 2020 (14,382 firm-year observations), we find that gender diversity is positively related to financial performance, confirming that a diversified board improves board effectiveness and brings new resources to the firm, which allows it to improve its performance. More interestingly, the results of the Structural Equation Model (SEM) indicate that the relationship between gender diversity and performance is more pronounced with the mediating role of ICE. Our results are robust, controlling for the endogeneity and heteroscedasticity issues, with several controls for firm- and country-level characteristics, using alternative sample compositions and alternative econometric techniques, and including year, industry, country and firm-fixed effects. Interestingly, this paper shows strong evidence that the effect of BGD on firm value is more effective by incorporating the role of intellectual capital efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Zeineb Ouni & Jamal Ben Mansour & Sana Arfaoui, 2022. "Corporate Governance and Financial Performance: The Interplay of Board Gender Diversity and Intellectual Capital," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-22, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15232-:d:974882
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15232/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/22/15232/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson, Ronald C. & Mansi, Sattar A. & Reeb, David M., 2004. "Board characteristics, accounting report integrity, and the cost of debt," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 315-342, September.
    2. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Terjesen, Siri & Mazurek, Jakub, 2020. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 634-645.
    3. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    4. Kenneth R. Ahern & Amy K. Dittmar, 2012. "The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 137-197.
    5. Fabrice Galia & Emmanuel Zenou & Marc Ingham, 2015. "Board composition and environmental innovation: does gender diversity matter?," International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 24(1), pages 117-141.
    6. Yiwei Li & Xiu‐Ye Zhang, 2019. "Impact of board gender composition on corporate debt maturity structures," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 25(5), pages 1286-1320, November.
    7. Renée B. Adams & Tom Kirchmaier, 2016. "Women on Boards in Finance and STEM Industries," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 106(5), pages 277-281, May.
    8. Kevin Campbell & Antonio Mínguez-Vera, 2008. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Financial Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 435-451, December.
    9. Thompson, Samuel B., 2011. "Simple formulas for standard errors that cluster by both firm and time," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(1), pages 1-10, January.
    10. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2013. "A Female Style in Corporate Leadership? Evidence from Quotas," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(3), pages 136-169, July.
    11. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    12. Guido W. Imbens & Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2009. "Recent Developments in the Econometrics of Program Evaluation," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 47(1), pages 5-86, March.
    13. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    14. Cristian L. Dezsö & David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9), pages 1072-1089, September.
    15. Nuno Fernandes, 2014. "The Impact of Sovereign Wealth Funds on Corporate Value and Performance," Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, Morgan Stanley, vol. 26(1), pages 76-84, March.
    16. Kevin Campbell & Antonio Minguez Vera, 2010. "Female board appointments and firm valuation: short and long-term effects," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 14(1), pages 37-59, February.
    17. Abou-El-Sood, Heba, 2021. "Board gender diversity, power, and bank risk taking," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    18. Catherine M. Daily & S. Trevis Certo & Dan R. Dalton, 1999. "A decade of corporate women: some progress in the boardroom, none in the executive suite," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(1), pages 93-100, January.
    19. Val Singh & Susan Vinnicombe & Phyl Johnson, 2001. "Women Directors on Top UK Boards," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(3), pages 206-216, July.
    20. Fodil Adjaoud & Walid Ben-Amar, 2010. "Corporate Governance and Dividend Policy: Shareholders' Protection or Expropriation?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(5-6), pages 648-667.
    21. Joanna Tyrowicz & Siri Terjesen & Jakub Mazurek, 2017. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of firms," GRAPE Working Papers 5, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    22. Farag, Hisham & Mallin, Chris, 2017. "Board diversity and financial fragility: Evidence from European banks," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 98-112.
    23. Benjamin E. Hermalin & Michael S. Weisbach, 2003. "Boards of directors as an endogenously determined institution: a survey of the economic literature," Economic Policy Review, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, vol. 9(Apr), pages 7-26.
    24. Shimin Chen & Xu Ni & Jamie Y. Tong, 2016. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Risk Management: A Case of R&D Investment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(3), pages 599-621, July.
    25. García-Meca, Emma & García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Martínez-Ferrero, Jennifer, 2015. "Board diversity and its effects on bank performance: An international analysis," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 202-214.
    26. Bernardo Bortolotti & Veljko Fotak & William L. Megginson, 2015. "Editor's Choice The Sovereign Wealth Fund Discount: Evidence from Public Equity Investments," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 28(11), pages 2993-3035.
    27. Ho, Carol-Anne & Williams, S. Mitchell, 2003. "International comparative analysis of the association between board structure and the efficiency of value added by a firm from its physical capital and intellectual capital resources," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 465-491.
    28. María del Carmen Triana & Toyah L. Miller & Tiffany M. Trzebiatowski, 2014. "The Double-Edged Nature of Board Gender Diversity: Diversity, Firm Performance, and the Power of Women Directors as Predictors of Strategic Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 25(2), pages 609-632, April.
    29. Caspar Rose, 2007. "Does female board representation influence firm performance? The Danish evidence," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 404-413, March.
    30. Mohsni, Sana & Otchere, Isaac & Shahriar, Saquib, 2021. "Board gender diversity, firm performance and risk-taking in developing countries: The moderating effect of culture," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    31. 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.
    32. Low, Daniel C.M. & Roberts, Helen & Whiting, Rosalind H., 2015. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: Empirical evidence from Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 381-401.
    33. David A. Carter & Betty J. Simkins & W. Gary Simpson, 2003. "Corporate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Value," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 33-53, February.
    34. Ghouma, Hatem & Ben-Nasr, Hamdi & Yan, Ruiqian, 2018. "Corporate governance and cost of debt financing: Empirical evidence from Canada," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 138-148.
    35. Ho, Carol-Anne & Williams, S. Mitchell, 2003. "Reply to "International comparative analysis of the association between board structure and the efficiency of value added by a firm from its physical capital and intellectual capital resources: A," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 499-502.
    36. S. Trevis Certo & Richard H. Lester & Catherine M. Dalton & Dan R. Dalton, 2006. "Top Management Teams, Strategy and Financial Performance: A Meta‐Analytic Examination," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(4), pages 813-839, June.
    37. Talke, Katrin & Salomo, Sören & Rost, Katja, 2010. "How top management team diversity affects innovativeness and performance via the strategic choice to focus on innovation fields," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(7), pages 907-918, September.
    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. Hafiz Mustansar Javaid & Qurat Ul Ain & Rita D’Ecclesia, 2023. "Female directors in the boardroom and intellectual capital performance: Does the “critical mass” matter?," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 9(1), pages 1-24, December.
    2. Augustine Donkor & Terri Trireksani & Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta, 2023. "Board Diversity and Corporate Sustainability Performance: Do CEO Power and Firm Environmental Sensitivity Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(23), pages 1-24, November.

    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. Sanjukta Brahma & Chioma Nwafor & Agyenim Boateng, 2021. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: The UK evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5704-5719, October.
    2. Aruoriwo Marian Chijoke-Mgbame & Agyenim Boateng & Chijoke Oscar Mgbame, 2020. "Board gender diversity, audit committee and financial performance: evidence from Nigeria," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(3), pages 262-286, July.
    3. Nguyen, Tuan & Nguyen, An & Nguyen, Mau & Truong, Thuyen, 2021. "Is national governance quality a key moderator of the boardroom gender diversity–firm performance relationship? International evidence from a multi-hierarchical analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 370-390.
    4. Tanaka, Takanori, 2019. "Gender diversity on Japanese corporate boards," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 19-31.
    5. Đặng, Rey & Houanti, L’Hocine & Reddy, Krishna & Simioni, Michel, 2020. "Does board gender diversity influence firm profitability? A control function approach," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 168-181.
    6. Laura Cabeza-García & Esther B. Brío & Carlos Rueda, 2021. "The moderating effect of innovation on the gender and performance relationship in the outset of the gender revolution," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 755-778, April.
    7. Adeel Mustafa & Abubakr Saeed & Muhammad Awais & Shahab Aziz, 2020. "Board-Gender Diversity, Family Ownership, and Dividend Announcement: Evidence from Asian Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, March.
    8. Victoria Bogdan & Dorina-Nicoleta Popa & Mărioara Beleneşi & Luminița Rus & Carmen-Mihaela Scorțe, 2023. "Gender Diversity and Business Performance Nexus: A Synoptic Panorama Based on Bibliometric Network Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-26, January.
    9. Nguyen, Tuan & Locke, Stuart & Reddy, Krishna, 2015. "Does boardroom gender diversity matter? Evidence from a transitional economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 184-202.
    10. Milagros Gutiérrez-Fernández & Yakira Fernández-Torres, 2020. "Does Gender Diversity Influence Business Efficiency? An Analysis from the Social Perspective of CSR," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-18, May.
    11. Maximiliano González & Alexander Guzmán & Eduardo Pablo & María Andrea Trujillo, 2020. "Does gender really matter in the boardroom? Evidence from closely held family firms," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 221-267, February.
    12. Joanna Tyrowicz & Siri Terjesen & Jakub Mazurek, 2017. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of firms," GRAPE Working Papers 5, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    13. Neji Al-Eid Omri & Abdulhameed Mohanna Alfaleh, 2024. "The effects of boardroom gender diversity on corporate performance: empirical evidence from a sample of European listed companies," Business Economics, Palgrave Macmillan;National Association for Business Economics, vol. 59(2), pages 86-100, April.
    14. Shamsul Abdullah, 2014. "The causes of gender diversity in Malaysian large firms," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 18(4), pages 1137-1159, November.
    15. Garanina, Tatiana & Muravyev, Alexander, 2021. "The gender composition of corporate boards and firm performance: Evidence from Russia," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    16. Kara, Alper & Nanteza, Aziidah & Ozkan, Aydin & Yildiz, Yilmaz, 2022. "Board gender diversity and responsible banking during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    17. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Mora, Araceli & Scapin, Mariano, 2017. "The monitoring role of female directors over accounting quality," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 651-668.
    18. Sultan Sikandar Mirza & Muhammad Ansar Majeed & Tanveer Ahsan, 2020. "Board gender diversity, competitive pressure and investment efficiency in Chinese private firms," Post-Print hal-02956320, HAL.
    19. Patrizia Pastore & Silvia Tommaso & Antonio Ricciardi, 2017. "The Market Reaction to the Appointment of Women on Corporate Boards: Evidence from the Italian Listed Companies," International Journal of Business and Management, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 12(12), pages 1-64, November.
    20. Sultan Sikandar Mirza & Muhammad Ansar Majeed & Tanveer Ahsan, 2020. "Board gender diversity, competitive pressure and investment efficiency in Chinese private firms," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 10(3), pages 417-440, September.

    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:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:22:p:15232-:d:974882. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.