The impact of TMT gender diversity on corporate environmental strategy in emerging economies

Abstract

Drawing on upper echelon theory, we examine how top management team (TMT) gender diversity impacts the adoption of environmental standards in emerging countries. We further examine how this impact is affected by women executives’ personal attributes as well as organizational and institutional conditions. Using panel data from 490 firms in three highly polluted emerging countries (China, India and Pakistan) and employing Probit instrumental variable regressions, we find that the proportion of women in TMTs is positively related to the likelihood of ISO 14001 certification and renewal. Additionally, we find that high institutional gender parity, women executives’ power and CSR committees strengthen this relationship. Our findings, which demonstrate a systematic translation of women’s values into environmental strategy, make important contributions to literature and practice.