There has been an increased interest in the studies on female entrepreneurship due to the changing sociocultural conditions at the global markets. Despite this trend, there is still a lack of understanding about the female entrepreneurs' role in the internationalization processes of firms and states. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of gender differences globally. The critical review of available literature and international reports on the topic revealed the research gap in the application of applied econometrics methods for the gender equality study. Noticing the critical shortage of data on the male/female differences in the economy and entrepreneurship we take Global Gender Gap index as the depictive indicator. The research rises six main questions that test the dependence of gender equality on the territorial affiliation of the country, the level of economic development of the country (income and GDP per capita), the unemployment rate in the country, the level of economy's shadowing, the educational level in the country and supporting of the research, mainly the involvement of women in science. The panel regressions show that in general the Global Gender Gap Index has been growing and will grow due to the internal factors. This means that in the long run, there are no incentives for most countries to accelerate its development. The only exception to this rule are African countries.

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This paper examines the difference that the assurance brings to the quality of CSR reports in the Chinese institutional setting, in particular, the difference in quality (proxy – RKS ranking) of assured and unassured CSR reports, as well as whether the high ownership concentration and corresponding to it “entrenchment effect” obstruct the positive impact the assurance exerts on the quality of CSR reports. The paper examines CSR reports on 2,292 firm-year observations of large Chinese companies over three years (2015–2018). The hypothesis development process predicates on the signaling and stakeholder theories, whilst this study applies regression analysis to test the hypotheses. Consistent with the predictions of signaling and stakeholder theories, the paper finds that assurance contributes to the higher quality of CSR reports. Moreover, the study finds that assured CSR reports have higher sub-scores in all four aspects of RKS ranking. However, as ownership concentration exceeds 50 per cent and reaches the majority, it thwarts the advancement in the quality of CSR reports through its assurance. The paper provides an initial empirical account of the role of assurance in the emerging CSR reporting practice in China. The paper contributes to the modest body of empirical research on the function of external assurance in the CSR area by explicating the role played both by the accounting (external assurance) and corporate governance (ownership concentration) infrastructure to ensure high quality of CSR reporting. The paper briefs local, international regulatory authorities and the business community about the importance of external assurance for the CSR reporting quality.

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