IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/usm/journl/aamjaf01301_41-62.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Gender Diversity and Firms’ Financial Performance in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Irean Yap Lee-Kuen

    (Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

  • Chan Sok-Gee

    (Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

  • Rozaimah Zainudin

    (Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the relationship between gender diversity in a firm’s board of directors and financial performance of firms listed on Bursa Malaysia for the period between 2009 and 2013. Using unbalanced panel data analysis, we tested whether gender diversity in the boardroom may influence the firm’s performance, as measured by Tobin’s Q. We employed four different proxies for gender diversity (the dummy variable for women, the percentage of women on the board, the Blau index, and the Shannon index) to provide a more comprehensive measure of gender diversity. This study suggests that a higher degree of female representation on the board increases a firm’s financial performance. Positive discrimination favouring female boardroom appointment is therefore likely to persist as a feature of the corporate governance landscape in Malaysia.

Suggested Citation

  • Irean Yap Lee-Kuen & Chan Sok-Gee & Rozaimah Zainudin, 2017. "Gender Diversity and Firms’ Financial Performance in Malaysia," Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF), Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia, vol. 13(1), pages 41-62.
    • Handle: RePEc:usm:journl:aamjaf01301_41-62
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://web.usm.my/journal/aamjaf/aamjaf13012017/aamjaf13012017_2.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nina Smith & Valdemar Smith & Mette Verner, 2006. "Do women in top management affect firm performance?A panel study of 2,500 Danish firms," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 55(7), pages 569-593, October.
    2. Zélia Serrasqueiro & Paulo Maçãs Nunes, 2008. "Performance and size: empirical evidence from Portuguese SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 31(2), pages 195-217, August.
    3. Kevin Campbell & Antonio Mínguez-Vera, 2008. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Financial Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 435-451, December.
    4. J.H. Marinova & J. Plantenga & C.L.H.S. Remery, 2010. "Gender Diversity and Firm Performance: Evidence from Dutch and Danish Boardrooms," Working Papers 10-03, Utrecht School of Economics.
    5. Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2012. "Does Gender Diversity in the Boardroom Improve Firm Performance?," HUI Working Papers 60, HUI Research.
    6. Yermack, David, 1996. "Higher market valuation of companies with a small board of directors," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 185-211, February.
    7. Hanwen Chen & Jeff Zeyun Chen & Gerald J. Lobo & Yanyan Wang, 2011. "Effects of Audit Quality on Earnings Management and Cost of Equity Capital: Evidence from China," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(3), pages 892-925, September.
    8. 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.
    9. Demsetz, Harold & Villalonga, Belen, 2001. "Ownership structure and corporate performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 209-233, September.
    10. 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.
    11. Farrell, Kathleen A. & Hersch, Philip L., 2005. "Additions to corporate boards: the effect of gender," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 85-106, March.
    12. Caspar Rose, 2007. "Does female board representation influence firm performance? The Danish evidence," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 404-413, March.
    13. Liao, Lin & Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2015. "Gender diversity, board independence, environmental committee and greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 409-424.
    14. Niclas L. Erhardt & James D. Werbel & Charles B. Shrader, 2003. "Board of Director Diversity and Firm Financial Performance," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(2), pages 102-111, April.
    15. David A. Carter & Betty J. Simkins & W. Gary Simpson, 2003. "Corporate Governance, Board Diversity, and Firm Value," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 38(1), pages 33-53, February.
    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. Lee Siew Tee & Ismail Nizam, 2020. "The Influence of Corporate Governance on Financial Performance Mediated by Gender Diversity," Journal of Asian Business Strategy, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 10(1), pages 61-79, January.

    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. 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.
    2. Darmadi, Salim, 2010. "Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performance? Evidence from Indonesia," MPRA Paper 38743, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Darmadi, Salim, 2010. "Board diversity and firm performance: the Indonesian evidence," MPRA Paper 38721, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Akshita Arora, 2022. "Gender diversity in boardroom and its impact on firm performance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(3), pages 735-755, September.
    5. Nguyen, Tuan & Nguyen, An & Nguyen, Mau & Truong, Thuyen, 2021. "Is national governance quality a key moderator of the boardroom gender diversity–firm performance relationship? International evidence from a multi-hierarchical analysis," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 370-390.
    6. Helena Isidro & Márcia Sobral, 2015. "The Effects of Women on Corporate Boards on Firm Value, Financial Performance, and Ethical and Social Compliance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 1-19, November.
    7. Mareva Sabatier, 2015. "A women's boom in the boardroom: effects on performance?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(26), pages 2717-2727, June.
    8. Naeem Tabassum & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Corporate Governance and Organisational Performance," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-030-48527-6, September.
    9. Collins Ntim, 2015. "Board diversity and organizational valuation: unravelling the effects of ethnicity and gender," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(1), pages 167-195, February.
    10. Sabrina Wieland & Benjamin Flavel, 2015. "The influence of gender diverse corporate boards on employee-orientation," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(4), pages 825-848, November.
    11. Nguyen, Tuan & Locke, Stuart & Reddy, Krishna, 2014. "A dynamic estimation of governance structures and financial performance for Singaporean companies," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-11.
    12. Gulamhussen, Mohamed Azzim & Santa, Sílvia Fonte, 2015. "Female directors in bank boardrooms and their influence on performance and risk-taking," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(C), pages 10-23.
    13. Alireza Vafaei & Kamran Ahmed & Paul Mather, 2015. "Board Diversity and Financial Performance in the Top 500 Australian Firms," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 25(4), pages 413-427, December.
    14. Adeel Mustafa & Abubakr Saeed & Muhammad Awais & Shahab Aziz, 2020. "Board-Gender Diversity, Family Ownership, and Dividend Announcement: Evidence from Asian Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, March.
    15. Mauro Romano & Alessandro Cirillo & Christian Favino & Antonio Netti, 2020. "ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Performance and Board Gender Diversity: The Moderating Role of CEO Duality," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-16, November.
    16. Víctor Alonso Baldrich Mora, 2019. "Mujeres en juntas directivas en Colombia y su efecto sobre el desempeno financiero de las empresas," Documentos CEDE 17140, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.
    17. Michael Olbrich & Anna E. Nikolis & David J. Rapp & Katrin V. Weber, 2016. "Do Political Parties Play Dirty in the Discussion on Gender Balanced Boards? Evidence from Germany," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(3), pages 361-399, December.
    18. Parveen P. Gupta & Kevin C. K. Lam & Heibatollah Sami & Haiyan Zhou, 2023. "Boardroom gender diversity and long-term firm performance," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(2), pages 119-137, June.
    19. Jasmin Joecks & Kerstin Pull & Karin Vetter, 2013. "Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Firm Performance: What Exactly Constitutes a “Critical Mass?”," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(1), pages 61-72, November.
    20. Nguyen, Tuan & Locke, Stuart & Reddy, Krishna, 2015. "Does boardroom gender diversity matter? Evidence from a transitional economy," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 184-202.

    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:usm:journl:aamjaf01301_41-62. 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: Journal Division, Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aammmea.html .

    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.