Mind the gap: Are female directors and executives more sensitive to the environment in high-tech us firms?

Abstract

Female directors are under-representative in the technology sector. There is a distinct lack of research into the relationship between board gender diversity and environmental performance, particularly in US high-tech firms. This study fills the gap in the literature by exploring the importance of female directors and executives in environmental decisions within US high-tech firms. We employ different environmental measurements, including an overall environmental score, emissions score, ISO14001, and whether firms have products to overcome climate change risks. Using the US publicly traded technology firms listed in S&P 500 and S&P 1000 from 2006 to 2020, we detect a positive impact of both board diversity and executive diversity on environmental performance (environmental score and emission score). This finding is robust after controlling for endogeneity and using different econometric techniques such as quantile regression analysis and across the different environmental performance proxies. Our results have empirical implications on the high-tech sector by stressing the importance of having female directors and executives as they are more sensitive to environmental issues than their male counterparts.