Female and environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms. Evidence from India

Purpose This study aims to use the gender socialization theory, critical mass theory and legitimacy theory to examine the female gender and environmental disclosure of family and non-family-controlled firms in India. Design/methodology/approach A sample size of 783 and 177 firm-year observations for family and non-family-controlled firms, respectively, between 2009 and 2020 uses descriptive statistics, a test of difference in means and panel regression with random effect assumptions for data interpretation. Findings The descriptive statistics show a significant mean difference between family-controlled firms and non-family-controlled firms in India. The first findings show that female chief executive officers (CEOs) and CEO duality have a positive and statistically significant association with environmental disclosure in a family-controlled firm but not in non-family-controlled firms in India. The second findings show that independent female directors have no significant association with environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The fourth findings with critical mass theory confirm the insignificant association of female directors on environmental disclosure of family and non-family firms in India. The results are robust to controlling firm-level variables. Practical implications Firms in the Indian context, through this study, assure stakeholders that family firms are better at improving stakeholder’s expectation of environmental accountability than non-family firms, especially where female CEOs are in charge. Originality/value This study adds the family perspective of the relationship between female CEOs and the environmental disclosure of listed firms in India. Also, female CEO duality and environmental disclosure add novelty to the research studies on gender and environmental disclosure.

When Do Women Speak? A Comparative Analysis of the Role of Gender in Legislative Debates

Do female representatives participate less often in legislative debates, and does it matter which topic is debated? Drawing on the role incongruity theory, we hypothesise that women take the parliamentary floor less often because of the gender stereotypes that are likely to guide the behaviour of party representatives. Such underrepresentation is less likely to be present when debates are dealing with policy areas that can be characterised as feminine. By referring to critical mass theory, we expect women to participate less in debates if they are members of parties with fewer female representatives. The results of an analysis of speechmaking among members of parliament in seven European countries show that female members of parliament are less represented in legislative debates, especially when debates deal with topics that can be characterised as masculine. Furthermore, the effect of gender on speechmaking clearly varies across parties. However, the pattern does not follow the logic derived from critical mass theory. Instead, female members of parliament take the floor less often when they are members of parties with many female representatives.

A Meta-Analysis of Gender Proportionality Effects on Job Performance

Critical mass theory and the tokenism hypothesis propose that females’ job performance is adversely affected by perceptions and experiences that stem from females comprising a smaller proportion of organizations than males. Although belief in the gender token effect appears to be widely held, empirical evidence of this effect is relatively scarce; furthermore, the evidence that does exist is somewhat inconsistent. The purpose of the present study was to provide a meta-analytic test of the gender token effect by examining the extent to which the proportion of females in organizations relates to male–female differences in job performance. Meta-analytic results based on data from 158 independent studies ( N = 101,071) reveal that (a) females tend to demonstrate higher job performance than males ( d = −.10), and (b) this difference does not appear to vary based on the proportion of females in organizations. We found similar results for subjective task performance (e.g., supervisory ratings), organizational citizenship behaviors, and objective task performance (e.g., sales). Overall, this study’s results demonstrate almost no support for the gender token effect on job performance, which challenges the prevailing assumptions of critical mass theory and the tokenism hypothesis.

Critical Mass in the Boardroom of Croatian Banks

This paper investigates the influence of gender diversity in the boardroom of Croatian banks on their performance. Specifically, we deal with both management and supervisory boards. Moreover, based on critical mass theory, the authors try to find out what constitutes critical mass. Using a static panel analysis on a sample of all commercial banks that operated in the period 2002-2014, three models were estimated with return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM) as dependent variables. Board structure variables include gender of the chairperson, size of the board, share of women on the board and four dummy variables constructed on critical mass theory, specifically uniform group, skewed group, tilted group and balanced group. Other controls employed in the model include capital adequacy, the growth rate of assets at the bank level, ownership, age and a crisis dummy. The main finding is that when a critical mass of 20%-40% of women on the management board has been reached, bank performance improves.

A few good (wo)men? Gender diversity on Australian boards

This article examines the relation between gender diversity and earnings quality for Australian firms from 2005 to 2013. We draw on the work of Kanter, highlighting the importance of the proportion of women on the board when measuring diversity. We show that all-male and skewed boards have lower earnings quality while that of tilted and balanced boards is higher. In addition, a critical mass of women is achieved when some 30% of directors are females. Performance and risk do not influence the relation. We contribute by presenting evidence supporting critical mass theory. Furthermore, our work adds to the recent debate on whether the association between gender diversity and earnings quality is U-shaped, rather than linear. Our results have implications for regulation and practice. We identify the need for a critical mass of women, rather than tokens, to enhance earnings quality.