Male Chief Executive Officers Research Articles

Social Equity in Municipally Owned Corporations: Do Women in the Boardroom Make a Difference to the Gender Pay Gap?

ABSTRACTRepresentative bureaucracy theory posits that the presence of less‐advantaged social groups in public leadership positions is an important driver of social equity among the recipients of public services and the public servants who provide them. To evaluate whether active representation can lead to improvements in social equity within arms‐length public service organizations, this article presents an analysis of the relationship between women in the boardroom and the gender pay gap in 102 large municipally owned corporations (MOCs) in England for a 6‐year period (2017–2022). The findings suggest that MOCs led by female chief executive officers (CEOs) have a lower pay gap between male and female employees. The presence of more women directors on MOC boards is also negatively related to the pay gap, especially in MOCs led by male CEOs. The findings highlight the importance of board gender representation to address social equity in arms‐length public service organizations.

Impression management in the boardroom: How CEO facial trustworthiness influences turnover risk

This paper examines the effect of perceived trustworthiness on the turnover of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and its moderating role in the relationship between firm performance and CEO turnover. We employ a unique dataset comprising headshots of male CEOs in US-listed firms from 2010 to 2019 and a machine learning-based facial landmark detector to construct a composite facial trustworthiness index. Our results show that CEOs exhibiting high facial trustworthiness experience a lower turnover risk. We also find that facial trustworthiness strongly influences the link between firm performance and CEO turnover. Well-performing executives have a lower risk of being dismissed from their positions, and the dismissal risk is even lower among CEOs perceived as having a high facial trustworthiness. Conversely, underperforming CEOs are more likely to be dismissed, and the dismissal probability is greater among CEOs who have been perceived as being highly trustworthy. Our findings are consistent with the predictions of the expectancy violation theory, which posits that trustworthy-looking executives are more likely to be punished if they do not live up to the expectations held by the board of directors.

The gender gap in the first deal: Equity split among founding teams

We investigate the gender gap in equity splits among members of founding teams using proprietary survey data on Japanese startups. The results reveal that, on average, female founder chief executive officers (CEOs) own 12 percentage points less equity than male founder CEOs. The gender equity gap is more pronounced in founding teams in which the founder CEO is a woman and the other founding members are men. However, the results vary depending on the founding teams’ characteristics. Notably, the gender equity gap is observed only in teams with individuals belonging to older generations and in teams from regions (prefectures) with great gender inequality. The findings indicate that gender norms influence the gender equity gap.

The Impact of Audit Committees and Chief Executive Officer Characteristics on Real Earnings Management

Earnings management is an opportunistic behavior influenced by many factors. However, previous studies have not extensively investigated the impact of audit committee mechanisms and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) characteristics on real earnings management. This study aims to analyze the impact of audit committee mechanisms and CEO characteristics on real earnings management. The study utilizes secondary data from manufacturing companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange from 2020 to 2022. The audit committee mechanism is proxied by using two measurements i.e. the number of audit committee meetings and the educational background of the audit committee, Meanwhile, CEO characteristics are proxied by the gender and the CEO's tenure. By applying multiple regression, this study finds that the number of audit committee meetings and CEO’s tenure have significant negative effects on real earnings management. Meanwhile, the background of the audit committee does not affect real earnings management. Interestingly, this study finds that male CEOs decrease real earnings management. Therefore, this research provides evidence that the number of audit committee meetings and CEO’s tenure play significant roles in reducing opportunistic behavior in a company.

PENGARUH GENDER, USIA, DAN PENDIDIKAN DIREKTUR UTAMA TERHADAP KINERJA PERUSAHAAN SEKTOR INDUSTRI DI BURSA EFEK INDONESIA

The manufacturing industry plays a central role in the economies of developing countries, including Indonesia. Financial performance significantly impacts the assessment of a company's value. This research aims to analyze and gain a deeper understanding of how the gender, age, and educational level of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) influence the performance of companies listed in the industrial sector on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). The characteristics of the study's population include companies in the industrial sector listed on the main board and development board of the IDX, which have published annual reports during the period 2012-2022. The data analysis methods employed involve pooled ordinary least squares and quantile regression. The Hannan-Quinn criteria are utilized to select the best equations for interpretation of the hypothesis testing results. Equations using quantile regression are selected for hypothesis testing. From the hypothesis testing results in this study, it can be concluded that the gender of the CEO has an impact on company performance, while the age and educational level of the CEO do not affect company performance. A negative trend is identified, where male CEOs tend to have a lower impact on company performance compared to their female counterparts in the CEO position.

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.

The Impact of CEO Successions Involving a Change of Gender on Strategic Change: The Moderating Role of Environmental Factors

AbstractPrior research highlights the disruptive and detrimental effects of chief executive officer (CEO) successions that involve a change of gender, i.e., from a male CEO to a female CEO and vice versa. In contrast, we contend that the effects of CEO successions with gender change depend on the context in which they take place. Drawing on expectation states theory, we identify contexts in which each type of CEO succession with gender change can have positive effects on strategic change and subsequent firm performance, depending on whether the degree of gender parity in the context is sufficient for the new CEO to enact strategic changes. Consistent with our arguments, we report findings from Chinese and US samples showing that in the presence of high environmental dynamism female‐to‐male CEO succession yields greater strategic change. Conversely, when environmental dynamism is low, it is male‐to‐female CEO succession that brings about greater strategic change. Furthermore, in the Chinese context, we found that female‐to‐male CEO succession in state‐owned companies results in greater strategic change, whereas male‐to‐female CEO succession has the same effect in privately‐owned settings. Moderated mediation analysis showed that the significant interaction effects on strategic change affect long‐term downstream performance (i.e., Tobin's Q). We discuss implications for theory and practice related to CEO successions.

Gender Differences in Reserving Conservatism

Given the rapidly growing industry-wide trends to promote diversity, we provide the first evidence that executive gender differences impact insurer corporate decisions by examining reserve management. In a sample of property-liability insurers with 34 unique female chief executive officers (CEOs) from 2007 to 2013, we find that female CEOs are associated with more conservative loss reserves. Economically, female CEOs over-reserve by 2.25% of total assets, relative to male CEOs. Our identification strategy relies on an instrumental variable approach and a difference-in-differences design based on a propensity-score matched sample. In an analysis of a subset of 13 unique female CEOs involved in turnovers, we find that reserving conservatism increases (decreases) following male-to-female (female-to-male) CEO turnovers compared with male-to-male turnovers. Our study provides economic implications for the industry-wide initiatives and is relevant to various stakeholders.

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.

CEO attributes and foreign shareholdings: evidence from an emerging economy

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of chief executive officer (CEO) attributes on foreign shareholdings from the perspective of an emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach This study examined Bombay Stock Exchange listed firms from the Indian stock market and applied a balanced panel data approach with fixed effect estimation technique during the period 2010–2019. Findings The study shows that CEOs’ financial education and a higher level of education positively affect foreign shareholdings. The age and experience of CEO have a positive and significant impact on foreign shareholdings. Firms with male CEOs are preferred more by foreign investors. The effect of CEO busyness and CEO duality is negative on foreign shareholdings. Foreign investors prefer to invest in firms with foreign nationality CEOs. Furthermore, the robustness test reveals that the influence of CEO attributes on foreign shareholdings is stronger for new, small and stand-alone firms than for old, large and group-affiliated firms. Practical implications The study will be beneficial for a diverse audience ranging from firms’ board of directors, regulators and policymakers who are entrusted with the CEO recruitment process. Additionally, firms seeking external financing should disclose CEO information adequately and improve the reporting quality to attract foreign investors, as they consider CEO characteristics as a valuable signal before making investment decisions. Originality/value In light of the current legislative reforms, this study can be recognized as one of the early studies that explore the relationship between CEO attributes and foreign shareholdings in the context of an emerging 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.

Spanish CEOs' perceptions in complex situations: an analysis from a gender perspective

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of discrepancies in certain management-related business factors in complex situations from a gender perspective.Design/methodology/approachThe study examined whether there are any differences in the characteristics of Spanish companies run by men and women and how male and female chief executive officers (CEOs) perceive critical situations such as the COVD-19 pandemic. To answer the research questions, the survey carried out by the Ibero-American Observatory of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (FAEDPYME) in 2021 was used. The final sample consisted of a total of 1,532 small and medium-sized enterprises.FindingsThe main results show that female CEOs are more likely to have a university education than male CEOs, but they run smaller companies in Spain. On the other hand, they are more risk averse and evaluate the impact of complex and risky situations more negatively.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings open up new research questions. This is a cross-sector study, but are there differences in behaviour between sectors? The view of the crisis is negative, but which types of companies have been strengthened?, finally, do other countries have similar results?Originality/valueThe originality and value of this document lies in the fact that it makes an interesting contribution to the open debate on the management of complex situations from a gender perspective.

Evaluating the likelihood of the glass cliff phenomenon for female ceos in college and universities

The glass cliff phenomenon (GCP) maintains that women are more likely to lead risky organizations than men. Quantitative measures of risk for assessing a possible GCP exist for leaders in the business sector, but no quantitative measures exist for college or university leadership. This article tests one variable of risk for college and university institutions, the financial responsibility composite score (FRCS), to see if it measures the GCP in college or university chief executive officer (CEO) hires. Using an ex post facto causal-comparative design, gender and FRCS in private American colleges and universities were analyzed using the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System data. Purposive sampling randomly paired institutions with female CEOs with similar institutions with male CEOs. Using the U.S. Department of Education’s FRCS database, the researcher reviewed patterns in FRCS before and after CEO hires over three studies. No statistically significant results were observed, demonstrating that there is no indication that female CEOs are hired into riskier colleges or universities when utilizing FRCS. Future studies should further investigate the GCP using alternative measures of risk.

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).

Choosing sides: CEO gender and investor support for activist campaigns.

Recent evidence suggests that female-led firms are more likely to be targeted by activist investors. We examine how Chief Executive Officer (CEO) gender influences retail investors' responses to proxy contests. We find that these investors are more likely to support-through their proxy voting behavior-campaigns that target female-led versus male-led firms, despite the fact that retail investors evaluate female and male CEOs similarly. We show that this apparent discrepancy is a function of how subjective ratings mask stereotype-influenced judgments, consistent with the shifting standards model (SSM). Respondents use lower standards to evaluate female versus male CEOs. This difference becomes apparent when externally-anchored judgments are employed, such as when investors are asked to choose sides in a proxy contest. Correspondingly, activists are judged as relatively more competent when targeting female-led firms. Our findings contribute to research on CEO gender and activism. In doing so, our research also introduces the SSM to the investor decision-making literature, thereby enriching the discussion about what mechanisms underpin the less favorable investment outcomes female-led firms can experience. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Does the gender of board members influence the choice of sustainability report format of listed firms? Empirical evidence from India

PurposeThis study examines the effect of gender board characteristics on the choice of sustainability report format in India. A sustainability report covers the environmental and social impacts of firms. It is presented either as an integrated report with the rest of the financial reporting to stakeholders or a separate document (stand-alone) with the advantage of communicating better information.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses an inclusive sample of 800 firm-year observations between 2010 and 2019. The study applies the binary probit and the instrumental variable probit regressions to analyse the data from the Indian Stock Exchange.FindingsThe authors find that female chief executive officers (CEOs) are more likely to choose stand-alone reports over integrated reporting. The authors also find that female CEOs with a duality role are insignificant in choosing between integrated reporting and stand-alone sustainability reporting. Furthermore, the study shows that gender board diversity (percentage of women over total board size) and females of two or less are insignificant. However, three or more females on the board significantly and positively affect stand-alone sustainability reporting. Similarly, independent female directors are more likely to choose stand-alone reporting over integrated reporting. Policymakers must encourage sensitive environmental firms to employ more female CEOs over male CEOs because female CEOs are more likely to adopt stand-alone sustainability reporting.Originality/valueThe authors’ study adds novelty to research because previous studies have only examined a female CEO and sustainability. However, this study is the first to investigate female CEOs' and female board members' choice of sustainability report format.

The effects of chief executive officer gender on firm labor investment efficiency

This study examines the relationship between the gender of the chief executive officer (CEO) and a firm's labor investment efficiency. It evaluates whether firms led by a female CEO engage in more efficient labor-related investment decisions than those led by a male CEO. Using U.S. public companies as samples, we found that female CEOs make better employment-based investments by inhibiting a firm's overinvestment in labor. Furthermore, the results revealed that firms with a female CEO are more efficient at hiring employees. Additional analysis demonstrated that a female CEO's ability to reduce inefficiency in labor investments is greater for firms with more free cash flow. Thus, the results suggest that female CEOs are better at preventing suboptimal labor investment decisions, especially when hiring employees. This association is stronger when they have greater managerial power within a company.

Founder CEO, CEO Characteristics, and Firm Innovation Efficiency: An Empirical Study of China’s GEM-Listed Companies

While it is widely known that founder Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) can influence firm innovation, few studies have comprehensively examined how the founder CEO affects the firm’s innovation input, innovation output, and input-to-output conversion rate, and how these effects depend on the founder CEO’s demographic, cognitive, and corporate positional characteristics. We analyze the nine-year panel data of China’s Growth Enterprise Market (GEM)-listed companies to empirically study the relationship between founder CEO (vs. non-founder CEO), CEO characteristics, and firm innovation efficiency. Our analysis produces four major findings. First, founder CEO firms have a lower innovation input and higher innovation output than non-founder CEO firms. Second, compared with male founder CEOs, female founder CEOs can further reduce innovation input without sacrificing innovation output. Third, founder CEOs with a higher education level can also further reduce innovation input without sacrificing innovation output. Finally, compared with founder CEOs that are not the chairman of the board, the founder CEOs that take dual positions (CEO and chairman) allocate higher innovation input, but the innovation output does not increase. These findings have implications for both research and practice in helping firms achieve sustainable development.

"Burnt by the spotlight": How leadership endorsements impact the longevity of female leaders.

Women entering leadership positions such as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) role face barriers in the form of pervasive stereotypic expectations by which stakeholders implicitly evaluate their effectiveness. In this study, we examine the effects that a widely used organizational practice-leadership endorsements in the CEO succession announcement-has on female CEOs' longevity in the CEO role. In particular, we theorize that the leadership endorsements of incoming female CEOs that highlight their past achievements and competence violate stakeholders' prescriptive stereotypes, thereby increasing the likelihood of stakeholders viewing the female leaders through a stereotypical lens. Therefore, though well intentioned, leadership endorsements in female CEOs' succession announcements foment a stereotype threat situation that is likely to have long-term negative consequences for female leaders. We investigate and find support for this relationship using archival data for a sample of 91 female CEO successions among S&P 1500 and Fortune 500 firms between 1995 and 2012. Several post hoc analyses, including in-depth interviews with 31 female executives, further strengthen our findings and show that this effect does not occur among male CEO succession events. We also find that two key facets of the succession context work to ameliorate this negative relationship: the insider status of the female CEO and the number of female executives at the focal firm. Our findings suggest that ostensibly gender-neutral practices can have unintended negative consequences for female leaders. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications of our findings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).