Chief Executive Officer Gender Research Articles

How CEOs can Increase Public Engagement via Microblogs: The Role of CEO Gender and Content Orientation

AbstractIn the social media era, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are increasingly using microblogging sites to communicate with the public. Drawing on schema‐congruity theory and gender egalitarianism, we investigate how CEO gender and work–life content orientation interact to influence public engagement with CEOs on microblogs. Using China as our research setting, we conduct a content analysis of data collected from 63 high‐profile CEOs’ microblogs and four laboratory studies with some 2000 respondents. Our results show that for female CEOs, work‐related content leads to greater engagement than life‐related content; for male CEOs, the effect is reversed. We find that such outcomes are driven by the incongruity between stereotypical gender roles and content orientation, which enhances perceived novelty and audience interest, thus leading to greater engagement. This effect diminishes when the audience has a very high or very low perception of gender equality in their society; or when the audience supports male privilege values personally. Our research provides new theoretical insights for online leadership communication, public engagement and gender research. It also offers useful managerial guidance for executives to effectively leverage the capabilities of social media in engaging with the public.

CEO attributes and borrowing costs: exploring the moderating role of financial literacy

ABSTRACT This study examines the effect of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) attributes on borrowing costs and the moderating role of the CEO’s financial literacy on this relationship. We employed 2926 firm-year observations of non-financial firms listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange. We used ordinary least squares regression to test the hypotheses and further employed fixed effect analysis, generalized method of moments estimation and two-stage least squares analysis to resolve the possible endogeneity concerns. Our empirical results indicate that CEO age, tenure, ownership and gender are negatively associated with borrowing costs, whereas CEO duality is positively associated with borrowing costs. Furthermore, we report that a financially literate CEO strengthens the relationships in the cases of age, tenure, ownership and gender while it weakens the relationship in the case of CEO duality. Our results provide novel evidence in this context and extend empirical support to upper echelons theory in the case of an emerging economy.

Corporate cash holdings and financial performance: moderating effect of corporate governance and family ownership

PurposeThis study aims to examine the effect of corporate cash holdings on financial performance. Additionally, it investigates the moderating effect of corporate governance and family ownership on the link between corporate cash holdings and financial performance.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses secondary data regarding the sample of 81 firms listed in the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) 100 index from 2011 to 2020. The present study applies the system generalized method of moments (GMM) to estimate the dynamic financial performance models.FindingsThe findings reveal that corporate cash holding is significantly positively linked with financial performance. Further, the findings indicate that the board size and chief executive officer (CEO) duality strengthen the association between cash holdings and financial performance, whereas CEO gender and family ownership weaken the positive effect of cash holdings on financial performance. Furthermore, the findings suggest that Covid-19 significantly negatively affected the financial performance of Pakistani firms.Practical implicationsThe findings have several policy implications. First, policymakers need to increase the board of directors' role in observing the firms' cash-holding behaviour. Policymakers may also formulate policies providing stronger protection for minority shareholders from majority shareholders.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is the first to examine how corporate governance and family ownership influence the link between corporate cash holdings and financial performance in the context of Pakistan.

Effects of Bad News on Stock Returns and Analysts’ Recommendations: The Influence of Executive Gender

Although women are more conservative and more ethical than men, the proportion of female executives is still lower than that of men. Both Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) have strong influences in making corporate financial decisions. However, most of the literature focuses only on CEOs and ignores CFOs. Therefore, when bad news happens, it is possible that a female CEO/CFO can better alleviate the negative impact. We thus employ 4,405 firm-year observations over the period of 1996–2018, of which 680 are unique companies listed on the S&P1500 index, to examine how CEO and CFO gender influences stock returns and analyst recommendations. Our ordinary least squares and logistic regression results show that investors are pessimistic about companies led by female CEOs/CFOs, especially female CEOs. That is, when something bad happens, stock returns and analyst recommendations are worse for firms with female CEOs. Overall, this study is first to use stock returns to observe market reactions to firms with female CEOs/CFOs. In other words, the corporate remains unfriendly toward women, even those who are qualified as CEOs/CFOs

Gender of firm leadership, audit committee gender diversity and audit quality through the lens of audit fee: a Ghanaian insight

PurposeThis study aims to examine how woman leadership (i.e., woman board chairperson, woman chief executive officer (CEO) and board gender diversity) affects audit fee and also ascertained the interactive effect of woman leadership and gender diversity on audit committee on audit fee.Design/methodology/approachThe study applied ordinary least square and fixed-effect estimators on the data of 21 universal banks in Ghana for the period 2010–2021 to estimate the empirical results.FindingsIt is revealed that under the leadership of women (woman CEO and board gender diversity), higher external audit quality is ensured as higher audit fee is paid. Interestingly, it was found that with the presence of women on the audit committee, the integrity of internal controls and internal audit procedures are enhanced, which leads to quality financial reporting, calls for lower audit effort, hence lower audit fee.Practical implicationsThe result indicates that firms can rely on the leadership of women in ensuring quality external audit and quality financial reporting, which ultimately helps to minimize the information risk to all stakeholders.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to extant literature by establishing that, under the leadership of women in banking entities from a developing country context, external audit quality and financial reporting are achieved.

The influence of female CEOs on bank performance in Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on the performance of banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2010-2018. The independent variable used in this study was female. The dependent variables used in this study are company performance which is proxied with Return on Assets (ROA) and Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR). The source of data used in this study is in the form of financial statements of banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange for the period 2010-2018. The sampling method used in this study used purposive sampling techniques. The model used in this study is panel data with a Fixed Effect Model approach. The results obtained from this study that CEO gender has a significant effect on ROA and CAR n

ENTERPRISE RISK MANAGEMENT DISCLOSURE AND CEO CHARACTERISTICS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF GO PUBLIC COMPANIES IN INDONESIA

Organizations can use enterprise risk management disclosures to share financial and non-financial risk information with external stakeholders. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has a key role in enterprise risk management. This study examines the relationship between Indonesian CEOs’ characteristics and enterprise risk management disclosure. Purposive sampling is the basis for the process of gathering samples from the population. The research was conducted in 2020 and consisted of 475 non-financial Indonesian companies that were listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The findings of previously released annual reports may be found on the websites of both the Indonesia Stock Exchange and individual companies. These secondary sources were used to compile the study data. The ISO framework index 31000:2018 is utilized to evaluate the Enterprise risk management (ERM) disclosure. Eviews10’s implementation of multiple regression serves as the basis for the analysis. The findings indicate that CEO overconfidence and CEO tenure influence enterprise risk management disclosure, while CEO financial expertise and CEO gender did not have an effect on enterprise risk management disclosure. The innovation of this research is investigating CEOs’ characteristics by psychological characteristics, namely CEO overconfidence and measurement of ERM disclosure based on the ISO 31000:2018 framework which is the latest standard of risk management.

Gender and decision-making styles in male and female managers of Chilean SMEs

PropósitoEsta investigación analiza cómo el género y los estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales (CEOs) de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (PYMEs) impactan en el desempeño financiero de las empresas que administran.DiseñoSe obtuvieron datos del año 2017 para 185 PYMEs ubicadas en Chile, una economía emergente, incluyendo información de la empresa, así como características sociodemográficas y estilos de toma de decisiones de los gerentes generales. Se estimaron modelos de Mínimos Cuadrados Generalizados (GLS) para explicar la influencia del género y los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, controlando por una serie de covariables. Para determinar si el género modera el efecto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento de la empresa, se incluyeron términos de interacción. Además, los modelos fueron sometidos a varios procedimientos de robustez, sin encontrar diferencias significativas en los resultados.HallazgosLos autores encuentran evidencia de relaciones significativas tanto para el género como para el estilo evitativo. Asimismo, los autores encuentran evidencia de efectos interacción entre el género y estilos de toma de decisiones, particularmente entre el género y el estilo dependiente.OriginalidadLos hallazgos contribuyen a investigaciones anteriores al analizar la relación entre el género del CEO y el rendimiento de las PYMEs en el contexto de una economía latinoamericana emergente; al proporcionar evidencia del impacto de los estilos de toma de decisiones en el rendimiento financiero de las PYMEs; y al examinar cómo un estilo de toma de decisiones específico, a saber, el estilo dependiente, opera de manera diferente según el género del CEO, esclareciendo su carácter ambiguo tal como ha sido descrito en investigaciones anteriores. Para las autoridades y los responsables de políticas, los hallazgos indican la importancia de incorporar mujeres a las PYMEs y apoyarlas en su ascenso hacia la alta administración.

CEO gender and social versus economic value creation of social enterprises: an attention-based view

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the effects of CEO gender on social enterprise (SE) value creation and the moderating effect of selective attention on SEs’ dual goals (i.e. relative attention to social versus economic goals).Design/methodology/approachThe authors surveyed 596 active Taiwanese SEs to rate independent and moderating variables and received 191 responses (109 female and 82 male CEOs). The authors used external SE experts to evaluate each SE’s economic and social value creation, lowering the threat of common method bias and enhancing data quality.FindingsSocial value creation is higher with female chief executive officer (CEOs) (than with male CEOs), whereas economic value creation tends to be lower. But, attentional selection (i.e. changes in attention) to economic goals by female CEOs mitigates the negative relationship between female CEOs and economic value creation.Practical implicationsGender diversity in the top management team is critical for dual-goal attainment. Decision-makers’ attention focus could vary along with the situation to achieve the desired outcomes. Thus, creating an attention structure under a given situation may help guide the decision-making process toward the desired performance for SEs.Originality/valueLittle research brings the attention-based view to investigate the effects of managerial gender roles on the dual-goal performance (i.e. social versus economic value creation) of SEs and test its contingency, and to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to do so. This study also adopted a unique research design asking outside SE experts to provide the performance data.

Gender diversity and corporate financial distress in the Pakistan stock market: the interacting effect of family-controlled companies

PurposeAs the benefit of gender diversity continues to receive significant attention, a holistic investigation of its effect on corporate financial distress (CFD) is lacking. Therefore, this study examines the effects of board gender diversity, measured in different forms, such as the presence and proportion of female directors, family-affiliated female directors and the chief executive officer (CEO) gender, on CFD in Pakistan. The study also investigates the interacting effects of family-controlled (20 and 50% family-owned) companies on the association between board gender diversity and CFD.Design/methodology/approachThe study applied the pooled cross-sectional logistic regression model to examine the effect of board gender diversity (presence and proportion of female directors, family-affiliated female directors and CEO gender) on CFD through a sample of 285 non-financial companies in Pakistan over the period of 2006–2017.FindingsThe results reveal that gender diversity on boards is significantly and negatively associated with CFD in Pakistan. In addition, when family ownership is 50% or more, the interacting effect of family control is found to be significant, while gender effects remain negative. The results suggest that female directors contribute to the long-term viability of companies, especially family-owned companies. Female directors are also found to be more prevalent in family-owned companies compared to their non-family counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings imply that female directors may efficiently manage and control all functions necessary to guarantee the company's long-term prosperity. Similarly, gender effects can outweigh the detrimental impact of family control when female directors are in reasonable numbers and of high quality in the boardroom.Practical implicationsThe practical relevance of the findings is that female directors play a significant role on the corporate board. Thus, it is a wakeup call for Pakistani companies to recognize the critical role and uniqueness of women on the corporate ladder. Family companies can also galvanize on the uniqueness of women to improve their governance structure.Originality/valueThis study adds to the literature on the benefits of gender diversity in family and non-family-owned companies. Specifically, this study applied multiple measures of gender diversity and family control in a single study. In addition, the study was conducted in a country that is ranked as the second worst country in the Global Gender Gap Index 2022, implying that investigating this type of research would go a long way towards changing the minds of corporate executives and regulators about the critical role that women can play in the economy.

How to secure an innovation grant for firms in new industries? Gender and resource perspectives

PurposeResearch on financing for entrepreneurship has consolidated over the last decade. However, one question remains unanswered: how does the combination of external finance, such as equity and debt capital, and internal finance, such as working capital, affect the likelihood of grant funding over time? The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between different sources of financing and firms' ability to fundraise via innovation grants and to examine the role of female chief executive officer (CEO) in this relationship. Unlike equity and debt funding, innovation grants manifest a form of innovation acknowledgement and visibility, recognition of potential commercialization of inovation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use firm-level financial data for 3,034 high-growth firms observed in 2015, 2017 and 2019 across 35 emerging sectors in the United Kingdom (UK) to test the factors affecting the propensity of high-growth firms to secure an innovation grant as a main source of fundraising for innovation during the early stages of product commercialization.FindingsThe results do not confirm gender bias for innovation fundraising in new industries. This contrasts with prior research in the field which has demonstrated that access to finance is gender-biased. However, the role of CEO gender is important as it moderates the relationship between the sources of funding and the likelihood of accessing the grant funding.Research limitations/implicationsThis study does not analyse psychological or neurological factors that could determine the intrinsic qualities of male and female CEOs when making high-risk decisions under conditions of uncertainty related to innovation. Direct gender bias with regards to access to innovation grants could not be assumed. This study offers important policy implications and explains how firms in new industries can increase their likelihood of accessing a grant and how CEO gender can moderate the relationship between availability of internal and external funding and securing a new grant.Social implicationsThis study implicates and empirically demonstrates that gender bias does not apply in fundraising for innovation in new industries. As female CEOs represent various firms in different sectors, this may be an important signal for investors in new product development and innovation policies targeting gender bias and inclusion.Originality/valueThe authors draw on female entrepreneurship and feminist literature to demonstrate how various sources of financing and gender change the likelihood of grant funding in both the short and long run. This is the first empirical study which aims to explain how various internal and external sources of finance change the propensity of securing an innovation grant in new industries.

Board Gender Diversity and Nonprofit CEO Compensation: Implications for Gender Pay Gap

This study examines how gender diversity on nonprofit boards relates to chief executive officer (CEO) compensation using data of 1,835 501(c)(3) organizations with the GuideStar Platinum Seal of Transparency. The analysis reveals a positive association between women’s representation on a governing board and female CEO compensation until women’s proportion reaches 82%. By contrast, there is a negative relationship between women’s representation on boards and male CEO compensation. Overall, the findings suggest that board gender diversity has distinctive implications for CEO compensation depending on CEO gender and that having more women on governing boards contributes to closing the gender pay gap for nonprofit executives. These findings can be applied to other dimensions of diversity, including racial and ethnic diversity.

The Impact of Chief Executive Officers on Earnings Management of Listed Companies in Vietnam

Profit is one of the indicators reflecting the growth in the operation of the business and is the fundamental goal in evaluating the manager's success this study examined the impact of Chief Executive Officers (CEO) on the earnings . Thus, management of companies listed on the Vietnam Stock Exchange. Using panel data of 485 listed companies in HOSE and HNX in the period 2016 - 2020, the results of multivariate regression according to the fixed effect model found that CEO expertise and founder were positively correlated with earnings management, and CEO age harmed earnings management. However, there is insufficient evidence to prove that CEO gender impacts earnings management. In addition, the study also admited that net cash flow from operating activities. Financial Leverage is related to earnings management. This study's findings contributed to the existing literature regarding the scientific debates about CEOs' characteristics, earnings management, and discretionary accruals in an emerging economy. Finally, the author proposed that managers engaged in earnings management for personal gain using their influence to interfere in applying policies for the earnings management of listed companies in Vietnam.

Chief Executive Officer, Financial Leverage dan Perusahaan Manufaktur yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia

The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of the chief executive officer's gender and experience of the chief executive officer in influencing financial leverage on manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2017-2021. The data analysis method in this study uses multiple linear regression to predict the influence of independent variables. The population in this research is a manufacturing company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2017 to 2021. The sampling method in this study is the purposive sampling method. The results showed that the CEO gender affects financial leverage. This means that the gender of a CEO has a significant relationship with the use of debt. And the CEO's experience does not affect financial leverage. Because CEOs are more likely to use funds from debt and do not carefully consider their decision to use the debt.

CEO gender and readability of annual reports: do female CEOs’ demographic attributes matter?

PurposeThis study examines the association between chief executive officer (CEO) gender and the readability of annual reports by considering some demographic attributes of female CEOs.Design/methodology/approachOrdinary least squares (OLS) regression is used to test the research hypotheses on a sample of S&P 500 firms between 2004 and 2016.FindingsThe results show that female CEOs are significantly positively associated with the readability of 10-K reports – in line with ethical-sensitivity theory. Further results show that this association is variable depending on the demographic attributes of female CEOs – in line with upper echelon theory. Specifically, older female CEOs and those with financial expertise are significantly associated with more readable 10-K reports. In contrast, female CEOs hired from within the firm are negatively associated with the readability of 10-K.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides evidence on the effect of female CEOs and their demographic attributes on annual report readability, which was not addressed in prior research.Practical implicationsThe findings show that the appointment of female CEOs seems like a helpful avenue to reduce concerns among the regulators about the textual complexity of annual reports. However, the most important policy implication of the study is that the decision to appoint female CEOs should be based more on their demographic attributes than on gender equality recommendations and full trust in women's behavioral consequences.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the academic literature on readability and gender. Prior research has not clarified which attributes and skills of female CEOs drive their abilities to improve shareholder value and make more ethical decisions. This study suggests that female CEOs are not better “per se” to improve corporate governance practices, and the impacts of female CEOs are not the same and differ according to their demographic attributes.

CEO gender and the probability that firms go public

We study the association between the gender of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the probability that firms go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO), using data for the full population of Swedish IPO firms from 2005-2017, and matched private firms. We find that firms that go public are less likely to have a female CEO. The results are robust when we test for a change of CEO: firms that switch from a male to a female CEO are less likely to go public, and when we consider the gender balance among the board of directors.

Earnings management: Are men from Mars and women from Venus?

PurposeResearch on gender and finance finds that women chief executive officers (CEOs) are relatively risk-averse and more ethical than their male counterparts. These differences are often presented as reasons for lower earnings management by firms led by women. A strand of contrasting literature however finds the notions of women being risk-averse and ethical not necessarily true for women occupying top leadership positions as women successful in shattering the glass ceiling adopt behaviors like men. This study attempts to understand the differences between the ethical tendencies of the two genders by examining if CEO power impacts the relation between CEO gender and earnings management.Design/methodology/approachThe authors begin the analysis using standard regressions using the propensity score matched (PSM) samples and examine if CEO power mediates or amplifies relationship between CEO gender and earnings management. The authors use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression approach and instrumental variables (IV) estimation to address the endogeneity concerns.FindingsThis study’s results suggest that the relationship between CEO gender and earnings management is mediated by CEO power. The authors find that women CEOs with lower power engage in lower earnings management. However, women CEOs with more power tend to engage in greater levels of earnings management than their male counterparts.Originality/valueThis study contributes the finance literature by showing women leaders successful in occupying top leadership positions are not necessarily more risk averse and more ethical. Less powerful women CEOs are subjected to potentially higher levels of scrutiny and are forced into an environment where they have to be seen as ethical. However, powerful women face the same concerns as their male counterparts and not necessarily more ethical.

The adoption of human resource practices to support employees affected by intimate partner violence: Women representation in leadership matters

AbstractIntimate partner violence (IPV) is a global public health issue that negatively impacts organizations and their employees. Research suggests that organizations can play a supportive role to lessen this negative impact. However, it has been relatively silent on the conditions under which organizations choose to play such a role. Integrating social role and critical mass perspectives, we examine the extent to which organizations adopt human resource (HR) practices to support employees affected by IPV. Specifically, we argue that organizations are more likely to adopt IPV‐related HR practices when they are led by female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Top Management Teams (TMTs) with more female members. Furthermore, we argue that when women's representation reaches a critical mass plateau, appointing more women in TMTs has no incremental impact, and this non‐linear relationship moderates the CEO gender effect. Overall, we found support for our hypotheses based on a survey study of HR professionals from 414 Australian organizations (Study 1) and an archival study using 2 years of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency data from 4186 Australian organizations (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications on the influence of gender configurations in leadership positions on the adoption of diversity, equity, and inclusion‐related HR practices are discussed.

Female CEOs and the compensation of other top managers.

We study the implications of having a female chief executive officer (CEO) for the compensation levels of other top managers of a firm. Extant theoretical perspectives, such as social identity theory, gendered notions of firm status, and loss of diversity benefits, among others, make competing predictions about the effect of having a female, as opposed to a male, CEO: (a) that only female top managers may earn more, (b) that both female and male top managers may earn less, and (c) that only female top managers may earn less. Using over 20 years of data on the top management teams (TMTs) of the largest 1,500 U.S. firms, we find that women (but not men) in top management earn significantly less with a female CEO than what they would have earned with a male CEO in a given year within a particular firm. We theorize that these results are consistent with the argument that a female top manager confers diversity benefits on her firm, which become redundant when there is a female CEO. Thus, the focal female top manager is paid less with a female CEO than what she would have earned with a male CEO. Our post-hoc test related to the effect of the percentage of female members on the TMT provides further empirical evidence for the diversity benefits perspective. This study contributes to research on TMTs, gender, and compensation and should inspire further work investigating the psychological mechanisms through which CEO gender influences TMT compensation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

CEO demographics and gender diversity in senior management in large Scandinavian firms

PurposeThis study aims to investigate whether chief executive officer (CEO) demographics are associated with gender diversity in senior management in the Scandinavia region.Design/methodology/approachThe research design draws on multivariate cross-sectional analysis. The demographic characteristics examined are gender, age and education. A total of six hypotheses are developed and tested. The sample includes the largest 106 public firms from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.FindingsResults show that firms with female CEOs have more women in senior management than other firms. However, neither age nor level of formal education of CEOs shows significant results, with the exception of CEOs holding MBA degrees, who are associated with fewer women in these positions. Interestingly, the association between educational background and gender diversity is principally driven by study-abroad experiences. Finally, results show that gender diversity in senior management has an important country component, whereas the industry component is negligible.Originality/valueThe relationship between managers’ demographics and gender diversity among subordinates is a relatively unexplored research issue, as previous works have focused on general comparisons between male and female managers. Furthermore, the Scandinavian context is particularly interesting as this region leads gender equality rankings.