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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use insights from role congruity theory to explore how organizational context moderates the relationship between the representation of women on boards and corporate social performance (CSP). Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested using a panel of S&P 500 firms observed from 2001 to 2011. The authors utilize the generalized estimating equations technique with Heckman’s two-stage approach to correct for endogeneity. Findings The findings reveal that four firm-level variables – voluntary initiative membership, deviation from prior financial performance, internationalization and product diversification – moderate the relationship between the representation of women on boards and CSP. These findings suggest that women directors have the ability to prioritize and advocate for social issues in the boardroom to a greater extent when firms provide a context that values their communal orientation. In contrast, the relationship between women directors and CSP weakens when the context encourages a focus on the bottom line. Originality/value This study reconciles mixed findings from previous research and contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between women directors and social performance by providing a theory-driven perspective of the circumstances under which women directors have a stronger or weaker impact on CSP. The authors extend role congruity theory by integrating contextual factors that may either diminish or amplify the effects of the expected directors’ gender roles on their behavior and decision making.

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Purpose The purpose of this study is to explain how factors relating to resource availability affect managerial risk-taking with regard to the geographic and institutional proximity of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) targets. The paper further considers the impact of organizational learning by testing the moderating effect of the acquiring firms’ prior international M&A experience. Design/methodology/approach This study uses linear regression with robust standard errors to account for dependence among clustered observations at the firm level. The authors used country and industry fixed-effects specifications to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Findings The results suggest that when internal and external resources are more abundant, firms pursue cross-border M&As that are more geographically and institutionally distant. The findings further indicate that a firm’s prior international M&A experience positively moderates the aforementioned relationships.. Research limitations/implications Extending the behavioral theory of the firm beyond organizational slack resources, the results highlight the importance of taking a multi-level, open-systems perspective of the strategic impact of resource availability. The authors’ theory and findings also provide a more nuanced view of the critical role organizational learning plays in the relationship between resource availability and organizational outcomes. Originality/value This is the first study to the authors’ knowledge that develops and tests a theoretical model exploring the impact of both internal (organizational slack) and external (environmental munificence at both the industry and home-country levels) resource availability, as well as prior organizational experience on an important multinational business practice.

Purpose This paper aims to draw on insights from team learning theory and stakeholder theory to examine the influence of board composition on firms’ stakeholder management practices. The authors posit that board diversity is likely to enhance stakeholder management by shaping organizational goals by placing emphasis on the interests of a wide variety of stakeholders and providing firms with relevant knowledge to enhance their ability manage these interests. The authors further theorize on the moderating role of boards’ learning environment, which they conceptualized as an important complementary governance-related factor, likely to further boards’ ability to enhance stakeholder management. Design/methodology/approach The authors test these predictions using the generalized estimating equations (GEE) technique on a panel of S&P 500 firms observed from 2001 to 2011. Findings The findings provide evidence that more diverse boards in terms of gender, nationality and race/ethnicity are generally associated with more effective stakeholder management. Further, the findings also suggest that boards’ co-working experience moderates the relationship between gender and national diversity and stakeholder management. Originality/value While corporate governance research surveys many strategic implications of board composition, limited attention has been paid to the interplay of board characteristics with stakeholder management. This study is among the first to the authors’ knowledge to explore the impact of board diversity on stakeholder management using team learning research, thus drawing attention to the role of boards’ co-working experience in shaping their ability to impact firms’ outcomes.