Female Chief Executive Officers Research Articles

Female directors on corporate boards and their impact on corporate social responsibility (CSR): evidence from China

PurposeThis study aims to examine the determinants of the female representations on Chinese listed firm’s boards. This study also investigates the effect of gender diversity on corporate social responsibility activities.Design/methodology/approachThe Tobit regression model is used because the data is censored and using ordinary least square regression can give spurious results. For robust check, the authors also used Heckman’s (1979) two-stage self-selection model to remove the sample self-selection bias.FindingsThe authors find that the female representations on the corporate board are positively associated with firm age, firm performance, corporate governance, family ownership, institutional ownership and managerial ownership while negatively related to firm size and state ownership. This study also incorporates predictors of the critical mass of women on the Chinese listed firm’s board. The study also tests the female-led hypothesis and concludes that the female representation increases in firms with female chief executive officer (CEO) or female chairpersons. The Chinese listed firms with gender-diverse board are socially responsible.Research limitations/implicationsThe importance of diversity in corporate boards has been demonstrated in light of the agency theory and the resource dependence framework. The results contribute to the previous literature by documenting the determinants of female representations on board, robust by alternative measures of gender diversity, firm size, corporate governance and estimation techniques.Practical implicationsThe economic significance of gender diversity stirred the firms to increase female representation. The policymakers can understand the reasons for female underrepresentation in Chinese boards and can reform the regulation to enhance governance quality, non-state ownership and risk aversion among the listed firms.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence on the key predictor of the world’s largest emerging economy, specifically the study focuses on the firm specific determinants, different governance attributes, ownership structure and firm risk measures. This study also seeks to answer if the presence of a female in the Chairperson or CEO position encourages the firms to hire more female directors or not?

Female and environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms. Evidence from India

PurposeThis study aims to use the gender socialization theory, critical mass theory and legitimacy theory to examine the female gender and environmental disclosure of family and non-family-controlled firms in India.Design/methodology/approachA sample size of 783 and 177 firm-year observations for family and non-family-controlled firms, respectively, between 2009 and 2020 uses descriptive statistics, a test of difference in means and panel regression with random effect assumptions for data interpretation.FindingsThe descriptive statistics show a significant mean difference between family-controlled firms and non-family-controlled firms in India. The first findings show that female chief executive officers (CEOs) and CEO duality have a positive and statistically significant association with environmental disclosure in a family-controlled firm but not in non-family-controlled firms in India. The second findings show that independent female directors have no significant association with environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The fourth findings with critical mass theory confirm the insignificant association of female directors on environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The results are robust to controlling firm-level variables.Practical implicationsFirms in the Indian context, through this study, assure stakeholders that family firms are better at improving stakeholder’s expectation of environmental accountability than non-family firms, especially where female CEOs are in charge.Originality/valueThis study adds the family perspective of the relationship between female CEOs and the environmental disclosure of listed firms in India. Also, female CEO duality and environmental disclosure add novelty to the research studies on gender and environmental disclosure.

Female CEOs on Japanese corporate boards and firm performance

This paper examines the effects of female chief executive officers (CEOs) on firm performance. Using data on nonfinancial listed firms in Japan, we show that only 0.8% of some 42,000 firm-year observations have female CEOs. There is also little evidence that firms appoint more females as CEOs during our sample period. While the stock market reacts positively to the introduction of a firm's first female CEO, the relationship between CEO gender and firm accounting performance is generally not strong. However, when we classify the type of female CEO, the estimated coefficient for a founder female CEO and Tobin's Q is positive and significant.

How environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility affect the firm innovation with the moderating role of Chief executive officer (CEO) power and ownership concentration?

At present, many economies are suffering from environmental problems that have significant effects on the climate and life of human beings, thus, the governments and institutions work to reduce the industrial negative effects on the environment. Based on the Porter Hypothesis, agency theory, and management and organization theory, this study examines the connection between environmental regulations, corporate social responsibility and firm innovation with the moderating role of CEO power and ownership concentration. Importantly, this study divided CEOs into male and female CEO. This study classifies firm innovation into two kinds, such as firm input innovation and firm output innovation. This study selects the sample of Pakistani manufacturing firms and uses the panel data for the period 2008 to 2018. For the analysis purpose, this study employs ordinary least squares (OLS), fixed-effect (FE) model, generalized method of moments (GMM). For more robust results, this study employs the feasible generalized least square (FGLS) model. Based on the findings from the empirical analysis, this study concludes that environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility have a positive relationship with firm innovation (Input and Output). Moreover, a powerful CEO and ownership concentration are valuable for firm innovation (Input and Output), because these factors are positively connected with firm innovation (Input and Output). Majorly, this study contends that environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility are positively connected with firm innovation (Input and Output) because of the interactive role of CEO power. This study supported the role of both male and female CEOs for firm innovative practices. Therefore, firms of developing economies should also consider the female CEO. Besides, environmental regulations and corporate social responsibility also positively connected with firm innovation (Input and Output) because of the interactive role of ownership concentration. Moreover, this study offers various policy implications for governments and policymakers.

Female CEO Leadership: Viewing Global Strategy Through a Systems Archetype Lens

The world is experiencing unprecedented changes and the challenges global corporations face are reshaping what it means to lead in turbulent times. Few studies have sought to look at the experiences of female chief executive officers (CEOs) relative to how they strategize corporate transformation. This study is designed to advance the knowledge of how women appointed to CEO positions navigate the responsibility of managing failing conglomerates. While ample research shows situational factors that got women to their positions, there is little research that shows what keeps them there. The problem addressed is fundamental to the development of women for CEO succession in global corporations. The central question asked is, “What are the experiences of female CEOs in transforming downward performing corporations?” To frame the central question, a systems archetype is used as a diagnostic tool for understanding the complexities present within the business environment that affect strategy formulation and performance.

Do female executives and CEO tenure matter for corporate cash holdings? Insight from a Southeast Asian country

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate the relationship between female executives, chief executive officer (CEO) tenure and corporate cash holdings in the context of the developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia).Design/methodology/approachThe sample was screened from 231 publicly listed companies in the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The period of observation was 2011–2017. Two measures were applied for corporate cash holdings: the ratio of cash and cash equivalent to total assets and cash and cash equivalent to net assets. Three surrogate indicators were used for female executives: female CEO, the proportion of female members in the board of management and the number of female members in the board of management. CEO tenure is the length of time a CEO has been a member of the board of management. This study uses panel data regression analysis, including the fixed effect model with clustered standard errors.FindingsThe empirical evidence indicates that female executives and CEO tenure are positively and negatively associated with corporate cash holdings, respectively, and both are significantly related. Additional analysis using lagged independent variables remains consistent with the main analysis, suggesting that corporate cash holding becomes higher as a female presence in the board of management increases.Research limitations/implicationsEmpirical tests set in Indonesia suggest that female executives are more conservative and risk-averse, thereby holding more cash with a precautionary motive. The findings also imply that CEOs with long tenure focus on long-term performance such as increasing research and development investments or capital expenditure, thus holding less cash. Accordingly, policymakers and regulators should promote diversity issues proportionally and advance to the board level.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the field of executive and CEO studies by enriching the empirical findings in related topics. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies applying two measures of cash holdings in the setting of a developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia).

Are Female CEOs Really More Risk Averse? Examining Economic Downturn and Other-Orientation

Scholars and practitioners have offered anecdotal evidence that firms led by female chief executive officers (CEOs) fare better during global recession, perhaps because they take fewer risks. In contrast to commonly held stereotypes that women are more risk averse than men, neither systemic theorizing nor empirical findings support that this popular assumption holds among top organizational leadership. Rather than seeking absolute gender differences in risk aversion, we take a more nuanced approach, considering executive job demands and decision orientation theories to examine underlying psychological mechanisms and economic boundary conditions to gender differences in strategic risk-taking. We test our hypotheses using multiple methods and samples, including an archival study of Fortune 1,000 firms and a survey of CEOs. Our results challenge absolute assumptions of gender risk preferences; rather, we find that female CEOs are less likely to choose risky strategies in a high job demands environment (e.g., economic downturn) due to underlying gender differences in other-orientation.

CEO gender and employee relations: Evidence from labor lawsuits

• This study examines the relationship between CEO gender and firms’ employee relations. • Firms led by female CEOs experience significantly fewer labor lawsuits. • Firms with female CEOs encounter fewer serious allegations of coercive labor practices. • The presence of female CEOs is associated with a greater variety of employee-friendly initiatives adopted by their firms. This study investigates the relationship between the gender of chief executive officers (CEOs) and firms’ employee relations, as proxied by labor lawsuits. Drawing on gender socialization, upper echelons, and stakeholder theories, this study hypothesizes that firms with female CEOs have superior employee relations. Using a hand-collected sample of 11,970 labor lawsuits filed against Standard & Poor's 1500 firms from 2001–2014, the empirical results show that firms led by female CEOs experience fewer labor lawsuits. The findings are robust to a series of additional analyses to alleviate endogeneity concerns. The evidence from this study provides novel insights into the role of female corporate leaders in the context of employee relations.

CEO demographic characteristics and firm performance: an empirical study in the scientific research and technology development industry

The purpose of this study is to analyze the impact of the chief executive officer (CEO) demographic characteristics including CEO age, CEO gender, and CEO education on the performance of firms in the scientific research and technology development (SRTD) industry context. The crosssectional data employed are collected from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam’s survey on corporations in 2017 with three samples, which include SRTD firms, certified SRTDs as CSRTD firms, and the SRTD industry as a whole. The least-squares analysis, robust regressions, statistical parametric and non-parametric tests are conducted to analyze the data. Firstly, it is found that the association between CEO age and firm performance is different between SRTD firms and CSRTD firms and statistically non-significant to the SRTD industry as a whole. Secondly, female CEOs of SRTD firms operate their businesses better than their male counterparts while the opposite is witnessed in CSRTD firms. For the whole SRTD industry, male CEOs outperform. Thirdly, for SRTD firms, the higher education of CEOs does not ensure higher performance. Nonetheless, CEOs with master’s degrees do have better performance than CEOs with bachelor’s degrees. These results are consistent in all estimation models being employed. The study is the first to examine factors affecting the performance of firms in the SRTD industry.

An institutional approach to the SHE’-E-O plight: evidence from organizational legitimacy and SHE’-E-O dismissal

PurposeThis paper aims to examine how regulatory legitimacy and moral legitimacy influence biased performance evaluations on female chief executive officers’ (CEOs) dismissal.Design/methodology/approachThe final sample contains 10,780 firm-year observations from 2004 to 2013.FindingsThis paper finds that the negative relationship between firm performance and CEO dismissal is weakened when the firm has a female CEO. In addition, the regulatory legitimacy pressure and moral legitimacy pressure can disrupt the biased performance evaluations in the board.Originality/valueThis study enriches female leadership literature regarding gender stereotype issues by incorporating institutional approach and organizational legitimacy literature. By focusing on regulatory legitimacy and moral legitimacy, this work also helps to further understand gender-related organizational behaviors and outcomes.

Do Companies with Female on the Board have Effects on the Earning Management? Evidence Indonesia Manufacturing Listed Firms

This study aims to examine the influence of the presence of women on the board such as chief executive officer, chief financial officer and chief audit committee on the earning management (EM) practices and also to examine whether the educational backgrounds of women executive officials have a moderating effect on the earning management practice. The data used is secondary data from Indonesian listed manufacturing companies, hypothesis testing using regression model with partial least square test. Sampling was carried out using a purposive sampling method. The results showed that female chief executive officer and female chief financial officer did not affect earning management practice, but woman as chief audit committee affect the company's earnings management practices. Education background capable as moderating variable to strengthen the influence women as chief executive officer, chief financial officer and women as chief audit committee to earnings management practices. This research can provide contribution for users of financial statements about the possibility of differences in earnings management practices due to the presence of women in top management positions.

The effects of female chief executive officers on corporate social responsibility

This study examines the effects of female chief executive officers (CEOs) on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Random‐effects models and Poisson models were used to test female CEOs' effects on overall CSR commitment and the different CSR types. Empirical analyses on 2166 US companies revealed that female CEOs had significant effects on CSR. Specifically, the companies led by female CEOs had an active overall CSR participation, but their effects differed by CSR type. Further, when the relative power of the board of directors was high, the positive effects of female CEOs on the social activities of institutional stakeholders were weakened.

Weightier Matters

Trendwatchers have spotted some seismic shifts in relations between business and politics. Particularly, Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are increasingly weighing in on greater good issues. Although a global phenomenon, current CEO activism scholarship reflects a Western focus; an ideological bias for modernist perspectives; a preponderance of White male CEO voices, and the relative elision of female activist CEOs. While, generally, no empirically-based typology of the sociopolitical issues that matter to activist CEOs exists, the specific range of causes of particular concern to non-Western CEO activists is neatly absent. This paper addresses all of these concerns, offering an inquiry into the emerging CEO activism phenomenon in the Ghanaian non-Western sociocultural milieu. Data collection entailed three separate rounds of fieldwork that saw long interviews with a corps of 24 self-identified informants, featuring an even split of men and women activist CEOs. The hermeneutic phenomenological theme-based approach guided data analysis. Following extant brand activism models, a typology of six clusters of CEO activism issues is offered that highlights the weightier matters of sociocultural activism, environmental activism, business/workplace activism, political activism, legal activism, and economic activism. Sociocultural issues include Ghana’s fight against COVID-19, where activist CEOs pooled resources to construct and equip a new multimillion dollar 100-bed infectious diseases hospital facility, embarked on risk communication campaigns, donated critical health supplies, funded the screening and testing of employees, provided food and essential supplies to vulnerable groups, and called out the government for lapses in the management of this health crisis. Besides internationalizing CEO activism studies for the strategic communications, leadership, business ethics and responsible management fields, the results suggest the need to consider the perspectives of CEO activists in non- Western societies. This paper contributes mainly to current discussions in CEO activism (aka corporate social advocacy) and brand activism. It contributes to other theoretical and conceptual streams, including covenantal notions of public relations, Caritas, Ubuntu Philosophy, Africapitalism, and postmodern values in strategic communication. This paper contributes to the upper echelon perspective; insider activism; sustainability transitions; and current discussions concerning how to address issues of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and social justice in the public relations literature. Policy implications are laid out, and areas for future research are indicated.

English

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between gender diversity and the risk profile of Italian financial institutions during the period 2013 to 2019. The paper examines whether the presence of top executives has any significant effect on corporate risk-taking. A sample of 160 Italian financial institutions was analyzed and a multivariate regression model was developed considering five risk dimensions to verify the effect of gender diversity. The results suggest that female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and Chairmans of the Board of Directors (CHAIRs) are considerably less overconfident and less risky than their male colleagues, thus confirming a negative causation between gender diversity and risk-taking. The findings reveal that financial institutions headed by women are more risk averse since they account upper capital adequacy and equity to assets ratios. As credit risk in female-run financial institutions is no diverse from male-run financial institutions, higher capital adequacy does not come from minor asset quality because it is related to the greater risk aversion of female top managers.   Key words: Gender diversity, female directors, female xsass, risk-taking, Italian financial institutions.

Female CEOs and corporate investment efficiency: Evidence from China

This study investigates the effect of female chief executive officers (FCEOs) on investment efficiency. Our study suggests that CEO gender plays a significant role in efficient investment decisions by improving governance and disciplining the management. We document that FCEOs are associated with higher investment efficiency. We also find that FCEOs, when making investment decisions, pay more attention to curbing overinvestment than to underinvestment. Furthermore, we find that FCEOs play no role in improving the investment efficiency of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). Our findings suggest that SOEs’ investment decisions are independent of factors that shape investment decisions at non-state-owned enterprises and are more reliant on sociopolitical factors.

How CEO Social Media Disclosure and Gender Affect Perceived CEO Attributes, Relationship Investment, and Engagement Intention

How does a chief executive officer (CEO)’s social media content disclosure on Twitter affect perceived CEO attributes, relationship investment, and public engagement, and to what extent does the CEO’s gender (male vs. female) moderate how publics evaluate content disclosures? A 2 (CEO gender: male vs. female) × 4 (level of disclosure: 100% corporate vs. 70% corporate and 30% personal vs. 30% corporate and 70% personal vs. 100% personal disclosure) between-subject experimental design was used to address these questions with a random sample of 465 adult Twitter users in the United States. Results showed that posts that featured high personal disclosure did not increase the perceived likability or competence of the CEO. Nor did CEO gender impact these outcomes. However, CEO professional disclosure proved to be an effective means to gain high levels of perceived relationship investment from publics. Finally, publics may hold implicit gender bias in cognitive (i.e., perceived relationship investment) and behavioral evaluation (i.e., engagement intention) of a female CEO.

Women CEOs in Mexico: gendered local/global divide and the diversity management discourse

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to add to the existing research on critical perspectives on diversity management (DM). Specifically, this study examines the narratives of women chief executive officers (CEOs) from different countries of origin to understand how they enact the DM discourse by drawing on their past and present experiences at US multinational corporations (MNCs) located in Mexico.Design/methodology/approachThis study, based on six open-ended interviews with local and expatriate women CEOs who work in MNCs situated in Mexico, used a sensemaking approach to analyze their narratives. The theoretical foundation of the study is based on decolonial feminist theory, which is used to analyze the hierarchical binary between Anglo-Saxon/European woman and the Mexican/Latin American woman with respect to the discourse of DM.FindingsThis study found that the dominant discourse used by women CEOs, expats and nationals was a business case for diversity. Female CEOs represent MNCs in favorable terms, compared to those of local companies, despite the nuances in the antagonistic representations in their narratives. This study also found that the women CEOs’ narratives perpetuated a discourse of “otherness” that created a hierarchy between Anglo-Saxons (US/MNCs’ culture) and Latin Americans (Mexican/local companies’ culture).Originality/valueThis study contributes to critical studies on DM by analyzing diverse forms of power involving gender, race/ethnicity and organizational hierarchy. The use of decolonial feminist theory to examine MNCs is a novel approach to understanding women’s identities and the power differences between local/foreign contexts and global/local businesses. This study also discusses the implications of its findings for women in business careers and concludes with a call for more research within the global South (Latin America).

Do Gender-Appropriate Executive Actions Benefit Female CEOs?

Extant literature on executive gender suggests that female chief executive officers (CEOs) face a penalty for simply being female in a male-dominated role, yet our knowledge of whether such penalties can be mitigated is limited. Can certain actions lessen the bias that female CEOs face? Extending role congruity theory, we argue that engaging in gender-(in)consistent CEO-related actions can either exacerbate or weaken the bias they face. In particular, we argue that because corporate social responsibility (CSR) conforms to the prescribed female stereotype, the relationship between CSR and market reactions will be more strongly related for female CEOs. Results from our study indicate that while such conformity to stereotypes of engaging in CSR do not provide an added benefit, violating these gendered expectations and engaging in irresponsible activities however, can lead to market penalization. In a post-hoc study, we further found that female CEOs who are perceived to be communal face a more severe penalty for engaging in irresponsible activities, while agentic female CEOs face a penalty, even when they do engage in responsible CSR activities. This study aims to make several important contributions to the upper echelons and gender-role literatures, as well as provide important managerial implications for female CEOs.

What is (s)he Worth? Exploring Mechanisms and Boundary Conditions of the Relationship Between CEO Extraversion and Pay

AbstractIntegrating human capital theories and the status incongruity hypothesis at the upper echelons, we examine for whom extraversion, the personality trait that has been most strongly and consistently implicated in leader success, influences Chief Executive Officer (CEO) pay. To assess the personality traits of CEOs, we used a computerized text analysis approach on the language spoken by CEOs in conference calls. Using a sample of firms listed on the S&P 1500, we find that more extraverted CEOs earned higher pay, indicating that this was a trait valued by boards. Additionally, this relationship was due to enhanced firm performance; specifically, market performance. However, a critical boundary condition is that the relationship between CEO extraversion and pay was weaker for female (vs. male) CEOs, despite the market responding equally positively to extraverted female and male CEOs. Thus, the monetary benefits of higher levels of extraversion did not extend to female CEOs and likely reflects backlash. Supplemental analyses revealed that this devaluation of more extraverted female (vs. male) CEOs was mitigated when the CEO was also the chairperson of the board (i.e., CEO duality) or under conditions of greater female representation on the board of directors.

Are chief executive officers more likely to be first-borns?

We investigate the link between birth order and the career outcome of becoming Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a company. CEOs are more likely to be the first-born, i.e., oldest, child of their family relative to what one would expect if birth order did not matter for career outcomes. Both male and female CEOs are more likely to be first-born. However, the first-born advantage seems to largely reflect the absence of an older brother, but not of an older sister. These results are more pronounced for family firms, where traditionally the oldest child is appointed to run the family business, but also hold for non-family firms.