IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v117y2020icp484-496.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

This cloud has a silver lining: Gender diversity, managerial ability, and firm performance

Author

Listed:
  • Fernando, Guy D.
  • Jain, Shalini Sarin
  • Tripathy, Arindam

Abstract

In this study we explore the mediating role of managerial ability in the relationship between gender diversity and firm performance. Drawing on diversity, gender, and upper echelon theories, we propose that the addition of unique female perspectives and leadership styles will afford gender-diverse TMTs a managerial capability advantage over equally talented yet homogeneous male teams; and this link between gender diversity and managerial capability will be more pronounced in times of crisis. Our results confirm our hypotheses. Our key finding is that increasing female representation in TMTs has a substantial and direct influence on overall managerial capabilities and elicits positive performance effects both in times of stability and more so, in times of crisis. Notably, and unique to this study, we show that managerial ability completely (partially) mediates the gender diversity-performance link suggesting that feminine traits and transformational leadership styles are more efficacious in contemporary leadership contexts than generally believed.

Suggested Citation

  • Fernando, Guy D. & Jain, Shalini Sarin & Tripathy, Arindam, 2020. "This cloud has a silver lining: Gender diversity, managerial ability, and firm performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 484-496.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:484-496
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.042
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296320303490
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.05.042?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Harald Dale-Olsen & Pål Schøne & Mette Verner, 2013. "Diversity among Norwegian Boards of Directors: Does a Quota for Women Improve Firm Performance?," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 110-135, October.
    2. Song, Wei-Ling & Wan, Kam-Ming, 2019. "Does CEO compensation reflect managerial ability or managerial power? Evidence from the compensation of powerful CEOs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 1-14.
    3. Michael D. Hurd & Susann Rohwedder, 2010. "Effects of the Financial Crisis and Great Recession on American Households," NBER Working Papers 16407, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2011. "Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 101(3), pages 635-639, May.
    5. Christy Glass & Alison Cook & Alicia R. Ingersoll, 2016. "Do Women Leaders Promote Sustainability? Analyzing the Effect of Corporate Governance Composition on Environmental Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(7), pages 495-511, November.
    6. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    7. Peter Demerjian & Baruch Lev & Sarah McVay, 2012. "Quantifying Managerial Ability: A New Measure and Validity Tests," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(7), pages 1229-1248, July.
    8. Shamsul N. Abdullah & Ku Nor Izah Ku Ismail & Lilac Nachum, 2016. "Does having women on boards create value? The impact of societal perceptions and corporate governance in emerging markets," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(3), pages 466-476, March.
    9. Cristian L. Dezsö & David Gaddis Ross, 2012. "Does female representation in top management improve firm performance? A panel data investigation," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(9), pages 1072-1089, September.
    10. Ajay Palvia & Emilia Vähämaa & Sami Vähämaa, 2015. "Are Female CEOs and Chairwomen More Conservative and Risk Averse? Evidence from the Banking Industry During the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 577-594, October.
    11. Upadhyay, Arun & Zeng, Hongchao, 2014. "Gender and ethnic diversity on boards and corporate information environment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(11), pages 2456-2463.
    12. Tekleab, Amanuel G. & Karaca, Ayse & Quigley, Narda R. & Tsang, Eric W.K., 2016. "Re-examining the functional diversity–performance relationship: The roles of behavioral integration, team cohesion, and team learning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3500-3507.
    13. Baixauli-Soler, J. Samuel & Belda-Ruiz, Maria & Sanchez-Marin, Gregorio, 2015. "Executive stock options, gender diversity in the top management team, and firm risk taking," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 451-463.
    14. Lisa Hope Pelled, 1996. "Demographic Diversity, Conflict, and Work Group Outcomes: An Intervening Process Theory," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 7(6), pages 615-631, December.
    15. Perryman, Alexa A. & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam, 2016. "Do gender differences persist? An examination of gender diversity on firm performance, risk, and executive compensation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 579-586.
    16. Huang, Jiekun & Kisgen, Darren J., 2013. "Gender and corporate finance: Are male executives overconfident relative to female executives?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(3), pages 822-839.
    17. Levi, Maurice & Li, Kai & Zhang, Feng, 2014. "Director gender and mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 185-200.
    18. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Paeglis, Imants & Simonyan, Karen, 2009. "Management Quality, Financial and Investment Policies, and Asymmetric Information," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(5), pages 1045-1079, October.
    19. Martin Kilduff & Reinhard Angelmar & Ajay Mehra, 2000. "Top Management-Team Diversity and Firm Performance: Examining the Role of Cognitions," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 11(1), pages 21-34, February.
    20. Conyon, Martin J. & He, Lerong, 2017. "Firm performance and boardroom gender diversity: A quantile regression approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 198-211.
    21. Andreou, Panayiotis C. & Karasamani, Isabella & Louca, Christodoulos & Ehrlich, Daphna, 2017. "The impact of managerial ability on crisis-period corporate investment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 107-122.
    22. Bai, Yuntao & Lin, Li & Li, Peter Ping, 2016. "How to enable employee creativity in a team context: A cross-level mediating process of transformational leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3240-3250.
    23. Yuk Ying Chang & Sudipto Dasgupta & Gilles Hilary, 2010. "CEO Ability, Pay, and Firm Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(10), pages 1633-1652, October.
    24. Kenneth R. Ahern & Amy K. Dittmar, 2012. "The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 137-197.
    25. Heitor Almeida & Chang‐Soo Kim & Hwanki Brian Kim, 2015. "Internal Capital Markets in Business Groups: Evidence from the Asian Financial Crisis," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(6), pages 2539-2586, December.
    26. Panayiotis C. Andreou & Dennis Philip & Peter Robejsek, 2016. "Bank Liquidity Creation and Risk-Taking: Does Managerial Ability Matter?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1-2), pages 226-259, January.
    27. Wang, Xiao-Hua (Frank) & Kim, Tae-Yeol & Lee, Deog-Ro, 2016. "Cognitive diversity and team creativity: Effects of team intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3231-3239.
    28. Carl F. Falk & Jeremy C. Biesanz, 2016. "Two Cross-Platform Programs for Inferences and Interval Estimation About Indirect Effects in Mediational Models," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(1), pages 21582440156, January.
    29. Jurkus, Anthony F. & Park, Jung Chul & Woodard, Lorraine S., 2011. "Women in top management and agency costs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 180-186, February.
    30. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2011. "Chipping Away at the Glass Ceiling: Gender Spillovers in Corporate Leadership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, pages 635-639.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zarei, Mohammad & Supphellen, Magne & Bagozzi, Richard P., 2022. "Servant leadership in marketing: A critical review and a model of creativity-effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 172-184.
    2. Pan, Xiaozhen & Tang, Hongfei, 2021. "Are both managerial morality and talent important to firm performance? Evidence from Chinese public firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    3. Samuel Baixauli-Soler, J. & Belda-Ruiz, María & Sánchez-Marín, Gregorio, 2021. "Socioemotional wealth and financial decisions in private family SMEs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 657-668.
    4. Irene Wei Kiong Ting & Imen Tebourbi & Wen-Min Lu & Qian Long Kweh, 2021. "The effects of managerial ability on firm performance and the mediating role of capital structure: evidence from Taiwan," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 7(1), pages 1-23, December.
    5. Raheel Mumtaz & Muhammad Farooq Rehan & Quaisar Ijaz Khan & Rubab Zaidi, 2021. "Board Gender Diversity, Firm Performance and Risk-Taking: The Case of Non-Financial Firms of Pakistan," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 3(3), pages 354-367, December.
    6. Zahoor, Nadia & Zopiatis, Anastasios & Adomako, Samuel & Lamprinakos, Grigorios, 2023. "The micro-foundations of digitally transforming SMEs: How digital literacy and technology interact with managerial attributes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    7. Shadrack Muthami Mwatu, 2022. "Institutions and export performance: firm level evidence from Kenya," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 69(4), pages 487-506, December.
    8. Tunyi, Abongeh A. & Areneke, Geofry & Tob-Ogu, Abiye & Khalid, Sharif, 2023. "Doing more with more: Women on the board and firm employment," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    9. Javed, Muzhar & Wang, Fangjun & Usman, Muhammad & Ali Gull, Ammar & Uz Zaman, Qamar, 2023. "Female CEOs and green innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    10. Jain, Shalini Sarin & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam & Bhatia, Sandhya, 2021. "Closing the gender gap in top management teams: An examination of diversity and compensation parity in family and non-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4).
    11. Puspita Ghaniy Anggraini & Mahfud Sholihin, 2023. "What do we know about managerial ability? A systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(1), pages 1-30, February.
    12. Lee, Sang Mook & Bazel-Shoham, Ofra & Tarba, Shlomo Y. & Shoham, Amir, 2022. "The effect of economic freedom on board diversity," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 833-849.
    13. Bauweraerts, Jonathan & Arzubiaga, Unai & Diaz-Moriana, Vanessa, 2022. "Going greener, performing better? The case of private family firms," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    14. Baghdadi, Ghasan A. & Safiullah, Md & Heyden, Mariano L.M., 2023. "Do gender diverse boards enhance managerial ability?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    15. Allison, Lee & Liu, Yu & Murtinu, Samuele & Wei, Zuobao, 2023. "Gender and firm performance around the world: The roles of finance, technology and labor," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    16. Olayinka Oyekola & Olapeju C. Ogunmokun & Martha A. Omolo & Samuel Odewunmi, 2023. "Gender, Legal Origin, and Accounting Disclosure: Evidence from More Than 140,000 Firms," Discussion Papers 2313, University of Exeter, Department of Economics.
    17. Badrul Muttakin, Mohammad & Chatterjee, Bikram & Khan, Arifur & Getie Mihret, Dessalegn & Roy, Rajat & Yaftian, Ali, 2022. "Corporate political donations, board gender diversity, and corporate social responsibility: Evidence from Australia," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 152(C), pages 290-299.
    18. García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Aibar-Guzmán, Cristina & Núñez-Torrado, Miriam & Aibar-Guzmán, Beatriz, 2023. "Women leaders and female same-sex groups: The same 2030 Agenda objectives along different roads," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    19. Mehta, Nikhil & Mehta, Anju & Hassan, Yusuf & Buttner, Holly & RoyChowdhury, Sanchita, 2021. "Choices in CDO appointment and firm performance: Moving towards a Stakeholder-based approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 233-251.
    20. Usama Laique & Fahad Abdullah & Ijaz Ur Rehman & Bruno S. Sergi, 2023. "Two decades of research on board gender diversity and financial outcomes: Mapping heterogeneity and future research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2121-2144, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Allison, Lee & Liu, Yu & Murtinu, Samuele & Wei, Zuobao, 2023. "Gender and firm performance around the world: The roles of finance, technology and labor," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    2. Nguyen, Thi Hong Hanh & Ntim, Collins G. & Malagila, John K., 2020. "Women on corporate boards and corporate financial and non-financial performance: A systematic literature review and future research agenda," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    3. Syed Shafqat Mukarram & Abubakr Saeed & Shawkat Hammoudeh & Muhammad Mustafa Raziq, 2018. "Women on Indian boards and market performance: a role-congruity theory perspective," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 17(1), pages 4-36, February.
    4. Kubo, Katsuyuki & Nguyen, Thanh Thi Phuong, 2021. "Female CEOs on Japanese corporate boards and firm performance," Journal of the Japanese and International Economies, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Young Zik Shin & Jeung-Yoon Chang & Kyeongmin Jeon & Hyunpyo Kim, 2020. "Female directors on the board and investment efficiency: evidence from Korea," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 19(4), pages 438-479, September.
    6. Sanjukta Brahma & Chioma Nwafor & Agyenim Boateng, 2021. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: The UK evidence," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 5704-5719, October.
    7. Nguyen, Thanh Thi Phuong & Thai, Hanh Minh, 2022. "Effects of female directors on gender diversity at lower organization levels and CSR performance: Evidence in Japan," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    8. Lucas, Ryley & Gunasekarage, Abeyratna & Shams, Syed & Edirisuriya, Piyadasa, 2021. "Female directors and acquisitions: Australian evidence," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    9. Mario Daniele Amore & Orsola Garofalo & Alessandro Minichilli, 2014. "Gender Interactions Within the Family Firm," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 60(5), pages 1083-1097, May.
    10. Xing, Lu & Gonzalez, Angelica & Sila, Vathunyoo, 2021. "Does cooperation among women enhance or impede firm performance?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(4).
    11. Tyrowicz, Joanna & Terjesen, Siri & Mazurek, Jakub, 2020. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of European firms," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 634-645.
    12. Morikawa, Masayuki, 2016. "What types of companies have female directors? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 37, pages 1-7.
    13. Jain, Shalini Sarin & Fernando, Guy D. & Tripathy, Arindam & Bhatia, Sandhya, 2021. "Closing the gender gap in top management teams: An examination of diversity and compensation parity in family and non-family firms," Journal of Family Business Strategy, Elsevier, vol. 12(4).
    14. Joanna Tyrowicz & Siri Terjesen & Jakub Mazurek, 2017. "All on board? New evidence on board gender diversity from a large panel of firms," GRAPE Working Papers 5, GRAPE Group for Research in Applied Economics.
    15. Masayuki Morikawa, 2014. "What Types of Companies Have Female and Foreign Directors?," AJRC Working Papers 1404, Australia-Japan Research Centre, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University.
    16. Kent Baker, H. & Pandey, Nitesh & Kumar, Satish & Haldar, Arunima, 2020. "A bibliometric analysis of board diversity: Current status, development, and future research directions," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 232-246.
    17. Usama Laique & Fahad Abdullah & Ijaz Ur Rehman & Bruno S. Sergi, 2023. "Two decades of research on board gender diversity and financial outcomes: Mapping heterogeneity and future research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(5), pages 2121-2144, September.
    18. MORIKAWA Masayuki, 2014. "What Types of Company Have Female and Foreign Directors?," Discussion papers 14032, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    19. Palvia, Ajay & Vähämaa, Emilia & Vähämaa, Sami, 2020. "Female leadership and bank risk-taking: Evidence from the effects of real estate shocks on bank lending performance and default risk," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 117(C), pages 897-909.
    20. Raddant, Matthias & Takahashi, Hiroshi, 2022. "Interdependencies of female board member appointments," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:117:y:2020:i:c:p:484-496. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.