Women representation on boards: a South African perspective

Abstract

Purpose By looking at both theoretical and empirical findings, this study aims to investigate whether gender diversity results in improved corporate governance and financial performance for companies. Design/methodology/approach An analysis of the board composition of the Johannesburg Securities Exchange Top 40 companies as at 30 June 2013 and a comparison of the financial performance of the company were conducted. Findings Female directors were found to make up, on average, 18.78 per cent of the board of directors, with the majority of these women being in non-executive positions. Women representation appears to influence company performance positively when using accounting-based measures of performance (such as return on assets and return on equity), but negatively when using market-based measures (such as Tobin’s Q). The critical mass concept is also assessed and is found to have a positive effect. Originality/value These findings are of relevance to the boards of directors adhering to corporate governance requirements by challenging the role of women on the board of directors, as well as that of investors and those in practice, to understand the current status of women representation.

Board Structure, Ownership Structure, and Performance of Thai Listed Companies

“…Diversity on the board improves board effectiveness and meeting frequency, especially in the presence of female directors (Adams and Ferreira, 2004). From a legitimacy theory perspective, companies may adopt CSR reporting as a legitimation strategy, and there is some evidence that female directors on the board facilitate this (Majeed et al, 2015;Willows and van der Linde, 2016). Female representation on the board may also increase board effectiveness, improve board discussion, enhance the quality of decisionmaking, and improve reporting practices (Carter et al, 2003;Sartawi et al, 2014).…”

“…Board characteristics is an important corporate governance factor that determines the level of social and environmental disclosures. The extant literature suggests that the presence of female directors on the board may increase a company's connection with stakeholders (Bear et al, 2010;Willows and van der Linde, 2016). In this regard, Liao et al (2016) argued that stakeholders might view boards with gender diversity as an indicator that these companies have higher levels of social responsibility and management accountability.…”

A review of accounting research in internationalising journals in the South African region

“…Qualitative methods involve action research (Kirstein & Kunz 2015), case studies (Kirstein & Kunz 2016), focus group discussions (Barac et al 2016), and interviews (Atkins & Maroun 2015). Quantitative methods include survey and questionnaires (Oberholster et al 2015;Del Sordo et al 2016), regression analysis (Ryu et al 2016;Willows & van der Linde 2016) or other descriptive statistics and graphical descriptions (de Jager & Frick 2016;Pududu & de Villiers 2016). Content analysis could be either employed qualitatively by interpreting the text (Abeydeera et al 2016), or quantitatively by quantifying the text to data for statistical analysis (Borghei et al 2016).…”

“…Studies relevant to managers are those, for instance, related to identifying aspects or factors to consider to improve corporate disclosures (Atkins & Maroun 2015), corporate policies (Khlif et al 2015), and corporate governance (Willows & van der Linde 2016).…”

Board of Commissioners Involvement and Shareholder’s Wealth

“…The presence women on board increases financial performance and better corporate governance practice (Willows & Linde, 2016). According to Abad, Lucas-pérez, Minguez-vera, and Yagüe (2017), the presence women on board will produce full information to stakeholders and reduce information asymmetry in the market participants.…”