Women's Leadership and Pragmatism Incidences on Performance of Listed Family-Owned Firms in the Cultural Context of Arab Countries

Azzeddine Allioui,Taib Berrada El Azizi,Badr Habba

doi:10.5430/ijfr.v12n3p251

Azzeddine Allioui, Taib Berrada El Azizi + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5430/ijfr.v12n3p251

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Abstract

This research paper aims to study the level and determinants of the financial performance of family businesses, according to the gender of the board of directors’ chairman in the Arab world. Our research approach is based on a sample of 152 listed family-owned businesses and a control sample of 166 listed non-family businesses over the 2011-2018 periods. The research results indicate that the female gender issue has a positive influence on the financial performance of businesses with family ownership. This is explained by the fact that women leaders have a prudent and pragmatic leadership style that limits stereotypical images of women presidents’ leadership style in the Arab world. This result is original since it can be considered as the first one to ever clarify the relationship between female leadership in the board of directors, risk-taking, and financial performance in the context of family ownership in the Arab countries.

Highlights

Leadership has been the subject of many contributions and various managerial researches
This paper examines the influence of the gender of the chairman on the performance of the family-owned business in the Arab world, and we provide evidence that the function of the chairman should be examined differently based on gender leadership style (Eagly & Carli, 2012), and in relation to family issues (Smith and al., 2006)
From a sample of 318 companies, 152 of which are family businesses in the Arab world over the period 2011-2018, our results are consistent with the premises of leadership contingency theory, which postulates that the performance of the leadership is dependent on the type of company, the prerequisites of the leader's position, and cultural values

Summary

Introduction

Leadership has been the subject of many contributions and various managerial researches. The analyses carried out remain asexual and are mostly applied to a sample of men who were once fully involved in top management functions Another style of comparative research on the leadership styles mobilized by men and women in management positions has aroused great interest, to identify the different issues concerning the dominant management styles of both sexes, and to note the characteristics of the representation of women in this type of position The UN women report (2018) shows a low rate of integration of women in the economic activity of companies in this region of the world: 26.74% in Morocco, against 27.08% in Tunisia, 16, 85% in Algeria, and around 28% in Saudi Arabia (of which only 2% hold CEO positions). These rates are lower compared to the world average of 53.7%

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