Gendered brokerage and firm performance – An interlock analysis of the UK

Abstract

PurposeCorporate success depends partially on the quality of knowledge accessible to the executive board. One route of access to such knowledge is the appointment of directors who already hold directorships with prominent other corporate actors. Such director appointments provide interlocks to a corporate knowledge ecosystem (Haunschild and Beckman, 1998). The purpose of this paper is to examine how linkages between companies belonging to different sectors impact firm performance and to examine how linkages created by female directors, as opposed to male directors, shape performance.Design/methodology/approachThis paper investigates the interlocks created between UK FTSE 350 companies from 2010 to 2018. It draws on network analysis to map the roles that male and female directors play in linking firms with varying sector classifications. The paper provides an examination of the impact of these roles on firm performance, through a panel data regression analysis.FindingsThis paper finds that there is an increase of inter-industry brokers over the period, and that men are still dominant in both the network and creating inter-industry ties amongst companies. However, the role of women in establishing these ties appears to be changing, and women are more important when it comes to create inter-industry ties among key economic sectors.Originality/valueThis paper provides a novel approach to examine the interplay between gendered inter (and intra) sectoral linkages and firm performance. It provides an original application of the two-mode brokerage analysis framework proposed in Jasny and Lubell (2015).

Women Director Interlocks and Firm Performance Evidence from India

“…Yet, numerous studies on women directors contend that, compared to their male counterparts, women directors have attributes, strengths, linkages, and experiences distinct from that of men, which can add value to board deliberations, decision making and monitoring of management (Adams andFerreira, 2009, Davies , 2011;Rhode and Packel, 2014) 1 . For instance, drawing on resource dependence theories from a gendered perspective, it is argued that women directors by virtue of possessing unique behavioural characteristics, educational backgrounds and professional experiences and capabilities, have a wider range of social and human capital, a different chain of linkages with other firms, and a diverse set of opportunities (Sarabi et al, 2021;Hillman et al, 2007;Singh et al, 2008). 2 For instance, Hillman et al (2007) hypothesize that women directors, with their different experience sets, beliefs, and perspectives, can link firms to other female owned businesses which can act as suppliers, as well as to investors who are committed to gender diversity.…”

“…With regard to the strength of ties, too, it is not a priori clear whether women in managerial positions have weak or strong ties (Ibarra, 1993;1997;Talmud and Izraeli, 1999), and even for a particular type of ties, the direction of their effect on performance. For instance, if one starts with the premise that women directors, by virtue of their marginal presence on company boards are likely to have weak ties, then drawing on Granovetter's (1983) theory of the strength of weak ties, one can argue that such ties would perform a bridging function for the focal firm by bringing in instrumental benefits in the form of forging different chains of inter-industry and informational linkages with other firms, and making a diverse set of opportunities accessible compared to their male counterparts (Ibarra, 1993;Sarabi et al, 2021;Hillman et al, 2007;O'Hagan;2017). 5 This could have a positive impact on performance from the resource dependency point of view.…”