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Is national governance quality a key moderator of the boardroom gender diversity–firm performance relationship? International evidence from a multi-hierarchical analysis

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  • Nguyen, Tuan
  • Nguyen, An
  • Nguyen, Mau
  • Truong, Thuyen

Abstract

This research argues that the inconclusive evidence on the board gender diversity–firm performance relationship across nations may be due to the moderating effect of national governance quality. Applying a multi-hierarchical modeling technique on a dataset containing 15,051 firm-year observations from 2931 companies in 46 countries, the results generally confirm this Hypothesis. Specifically, board gender diversity only seems to positively affect the performance of companies operating in countries with above-average levels of national governance quality. The effect of gender diversity on firm performance decreases and turns negative as national governance quality drops. The results are robust to different measures of national governance quality and firm performance, changes in methods of estimation, changes in sample structure, and tokenism.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:reveco:v:73:y:2021:i:c:p:370-390
    DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2021.01.013
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