IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp1708.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performance? A Panel Study of 2500 Danish Firms

Author

Listed:
  • Smith, Nina

    (Aarhus University)

  • Smith, Valdemar

    (Aarhus School of Business)

  • Verner, Mette

    (Danish School of Media and Journalism)

Abstract

Corporate governance literature argues that board diversity is potentially positively related to firm performance. This study examines the relationship in the case of women in top executive jobs and on boards of directors. We use data for the 2500 largest Danish firms observed during the period 1993-­2001 and find that the proportion of women in top management jobs tends to have positive effects on firm performance, even after controlling for numerous characteristics of the firm and direction of causality. The results show that the positive effects of women in top management depend on the qualifications of female top managers.

Suggested Citation

  • Smith, Nina & Smith, Valdemar & Verner, Mette, 2005. "Do Women in Top Management Affect Firm Performance? A Panel Study of 2500 Danish Firms," IZA Discussion Papers 1708, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp1708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp1708.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Du Rietz, Anita & Henrekson, Magnus, 2000. "Testing the Female Underperformance Hypothesis," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 1-10, February.
    2. Joe S. Bain, 1951. "Relation of Profit Rate to Industry Concentration: American Manufacturing, 1936–1940," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 65(3), pages 293-324.
    3. Bennedsen, Morten & Nielsen, Kasper & Pérez-González, Francisco & Wolfenzon, Daniel, 2005. "Inside the Family Firm," Working Papers 21-2005, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Economics.
    4. Bell, Linda A., 2005. "Women-Led Firms and the Gender Gap in Top Executive Jobs," IZA Discussion Papers 1689, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Karen A. Bantel & Susan E. Jackson, 1989. "Top management and innovations in banking: Does the composition of the top team make a difference?," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(S1), pages 107-124, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Morten Bennedsen & Kasper Nielsen & Francisco Pérez-González & Daniel Wolfenzon, 2005. "Inside the Family Firm: The Role of Families in Succession Decisions and Performance," CIE Discussion Papers 2005-13, University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. Centre for Industrial Economics, revised Sep 2005.
    8. Val Singh & Susan Vinnicombe, 2004. "Why So Few Women Directors in Top UK Boardrooms? Evidence and Theoretical Explanations," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(4), pages 479-488, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Daunfeldt, Sven-Olov & Rudholm, Niklas, 2012. "Does Gender Diversity in the Boardroom Improve Firm Performance?," HUI Working Papers 60, HUI Research.
    2. Reinert, Regina M. & Weigert, Florian & Winnefeld, Christoph H., 2015. "Does Female Management Influence Firm Performance? Evidence from Luxembourg Banks," Working Papers on Finance 1501, University of St. Gallen, School of Finance.
    3. Regina M. Reinert & Florian Weigert & Christoph H. Winnefeld, 2016. "Does female management influence firm performance? Evidence from Luxembourg banks," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 30(2), pages 113-136, May.
    4. Nicholas Bloom & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Do Private Equity Owned Firms Have Better Management Practices?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(5), pages 442-446, May.
    5. Nadia Loukil & Ouidad Yousfi, 2022. "Do CEO’s traits matter in innovation outcomes?," Journal of International Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 375-403, September.
    6. Nicholas Bloom & John Van Reenen, 2007. "Measuring and Explaining Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 122(4), pages 1351-1408.
    7. 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.
    8. David A. Matsa & Amalia R. Miller, 2014. "Workforce Reductions at Women-Owned Businesses in the United States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 67(2), pages 422-452, April.
    9. Leonardo Gambacorta & Alessio Reghezza & Martina Spaggiari & Livia Pancotto, 2022. "Gender diversity in bank boardrooms and green lending: evidence from euro area credit register data," BIS Working Papers 1044, Bank for International Settlements.
    10. Ammar Ali Gull & Ammar Abid & Rashid Latief & Muhammad Usman, 2021. "Women on board and auditors’ assessment of the risk of material misstatement," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 11(4), pages 679-708, December.
    11. Talavera, Oleksandr & Yin, Shuxing & Zhang, Mao, 2016. "Managing the diversity: board age diversity, directors’ personal values, and bank performance," MPRA Paper 71927, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. Vega Catena, Pedro Jesús & Santero Sánchez, Rosa & Castro Núñez, Belén & Gómez Gómez, Nuria Elena, 2016. "Participación femenina en puestos directivos y desigualdad salarial. Un análisis en el mercado laboral español/Women Directors, Critical Mass and Gender Wage Gap. Evidence for Spain," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 34, pages 155-178, Enero.
    13. Rivas, Jose Luis, 2012. "Diversity & internationalization: The case of boards and TMT's," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 1-12.
    14. 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.
    15. Mijntje Lückerath-Rovers, 2013. "Women on boards and firm performance," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 17(2), pages 491-509, May.
    16. repec:ipg:wpaper:2014-054 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Ahmed Bouteska & Mehdi Mili, 2022. "Women’s leadership impact on risks and financial performance in banking: evidence from the Southeast Asian Countries," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 26(4), pages 1213-1244, December.
    18. Kara, Alper & Nanteza, Aziidah & Ozkan, Aydin & Yildiz, Yilmaz, 2022. "Board gender diversity and responsible banking during the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).
    19. García Lara, Juan Manuel & García Osma, Beatriz & Mora, Araceli & Scapin, Mariano, 2017. "The monitoring role of female directors over accounting quality," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 651-668.
    20. Low, Daniel C.M. & Roberts, Helen & Whiting, Rosalind H., 2015. "Board gender diversity and firm performance: Empirical evidence from Hong Kong, South Korea, Malaysia and Singapore," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(PA), pages 381-401.
    21. Mojambo, Gabriel A.M. & Tulung, Joy Elly & Saerang, Regina Trivena, 2020. "The Influence of Top Management Team (TMT) Characteristics Toward Indonesian Banks Financial Performance During The Digital Era (2014-2018)," MPRA Paper 108783, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    female CEOs; firm performance; gender diversity; board diversity;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izadps:dp1708. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.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.