Diversity and Governance: Is There Really Progress?

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to determine if the diversity of gender, nationality, and age has a positive and significant effect on adopting corporate governance practices. The study considered 1106 corporate social responsibility and corporate governance reports from 2015 to 2020. The research was of the descriptive–correlational type, with a longitudinal temporality, considering in the first instance an analysis of the disaggregated descriptive statistics to later determine if the diversity of gender, nationality, and age of the board affects the adoption of corporate governance practices. The results show a low degree of diversity and stagnation in the analyzed period. Regarding the adoption of corporate governance practices, these are in an incipient stage, and the most liquid companies in the Chilean stock market are the ones that have advanced the most during the period. It is concluded that gender diversity has a positive and significant impact on the degree of adoption of corporate governance practices, operation, and composition of the board of directors, and protection of shareholders, while the diversity of nationality has a positive and significant impact on the adoption of related practices to risk management. Finally, the study confirms the heterogeneity of results by linking board diversity variables versus non-financial variables.