IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jrisks/v13y2025i3p45-d1601806.html

Board Gender Diversity, Information Asymmetry, and Investment Efficiency: Do Female Voices Make a Difference?

Author

Listed:
  • Ngeyan N. Almutairi

    (Department of Financial Management, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Al-Majma’ah 11952, Saudi Arabia)

  • Maged M. Albaz

    (Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Al-Majma’ah 11952, Saudi Arabia
    Department of Accounting and Auditing, Faculty of Commerce, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt)

  • Tarek M. Hashad

    (Department of Accounting, College of Business Administration, Majmaah University, Al-Majma’ah 11952, Saudi Arabia
    Department of Accounting, Faculty of Commerce, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Kom 32512, Egypt)

Abstract

This paper investigates how board gender diversity (BGD) impacts information asymmetry (IA) and investment efficiency (IE), in addition to the moderating role of board gender diversity on the nexus between information asymmetry and investment efficiency in Egypt, motivated by the unclear lens and mixed evidence in the previous literature within this area, especially in developing countries. Thus, the paper followed a deductive research approach for 84 listed firms on the Egyptian Exchange from 2014 to 2023. The findings present new evidence that differs from the common findings in the literature, such as a U-shaped non-linear impact that was found regarding the impact of BGD on both IA (20.71% turning point) and IE (20.38% turning point). However, the IA shows a U-shaped non-linear effect on IE, and the incorporation of BGD as a moderator cause shifting from a (U) shape curve to an inverted (U) shape curve. Our findings from Egypt can motivate future academic research to re-examine the role of BGD from other perspectives in other countries and circumstances. In addition, this paper gives professional authorities and regulators insights into the optimal level of BGD and its critical role in corporate governance and performance, not just the benefits of increasing the diversity ratio, and can also help promote gender equality in corporate management, which can have social and economic benefits.

Suggested Citation

  • Ngeyan N. Almutairi & Maged M. Albaz & Tarek M. Hashad, 2025. "Board Gender Diversity, Information Asymmetry, and Investment Efficiency: Do Female Voices Make a Difference?," Risks, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-24, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jrisks:v:13:y:2025:i:3:p:45-:d:1601806
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/13/3/45/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9091/13/3/45/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:eme:maj000:maj-04-2018-1863 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Muhammad Usman & Muhammad Umar Farooq & Junrui Zhang & Muhammad Abdul Majid Makki & Muhammad Kaleem Khan, 2019. "Female directors and the cost of debt: does gender diversity in the boardroom matter to lenders?," Managerial Auditing Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 34(4), pages 374-392, April.
    3. Beng Wee Goh & Jimmy Lee & Jeffrey Ng & Kevin Ow Yong, 2016. "The Effect of Board Independence on Information Asymmetry," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 155-182, May.
    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. Qinna Zhao & Wenhui Zhang, 2026. "How Does “Female‐Power” in the Boardroom Contribute to Corporate ESG?—An Examination Based on a Dual Machine Learning Method," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 806-821, 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. Waseem Subhani & Ali Amin & Muhammad Azeem Naz & Nasir Sultan & Sumaira Aslam, 2024. "Board Gender Diversity and Firm Value: A Case of PSX," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 237-245.
    2. Muhammad Nadeem & Ernest Gyapong & Ammad Ahmed, 2020. "Board gender diversity and environmental, social, and economic value creation: Does family ownership matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1268-1284, March.
    3. Garcia-Blandon, Josep & Josep Maria, Argilés-Bosch & Diego, Ravenda, 2024. "Female directors and the firm's cost of debt: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 224-232.
    4. Birindelli, Giuliana & Chiappini, Helen & Jalal, Raja Nabeel-Ud-Din, 2024. "Greenwashing, bank financial performance and the moderating role of gender diversity," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    5. Sajid Ullah & Farman Ullah Khan & Laura-Mariana Cismaș & Muhammad Usman & Andra Miculescu, 2022. "Do Tournament Incentives Matter for CEOs to Be Environmentally Responsible? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-20, January.
    6. Rasha Mahboub, 2024. "Corporate Governance and Obfuscation in Chairmen’s Letters: The Case of MENA Banks," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-19, December.
    7. Hanh Minh Thai & Thanh Thi Phuong Nguyen & Rezaul Kabir, 2026. "Effects of Corporate Governance Code on Corporate Governance Practices and Firm Performance in Vietnam," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 26(2), June.
    8. Karavitis, Panagiotis & Kokas, Sotirios & Tsoukas, Serafeim, 2021. "Gender board diversity and the cost of bank loans," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    9. Farooq, Muhammad Umar & Gyapong, Ernest & Gull, Ammar Ali & Usman, Muhammad & Javed, Muzhar & Tawiah, Vincent, 2025. "Do women directors influence CEO performance-induced turnover in China?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    10. McGuinness, Paul B., 2021. "Board member age, stock seasoning and the evolution of capital structure in Chinese firms," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(3).
    11. Musah Mohammed Saeed, 2025. "The Impact of Women on Corporate Boards on Intellectual Capital Efficiency and Business Performance in Sub‐Saharan Africa," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(3), pages 789-800, April.
    12. Abdullah S. Karaman & Ali Meftah Gerged & Ali Uyar, 2025. "Do creditors care about greening in corporations? Do contingencies matter?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(2), pages 1583-1609, April.
    13. Jili Liu & Muhammad Ishfaq Ahmad & Muneeb Ahmad & Giulia Nevi & Nicola Cucari, 2025. "Corporate Governance and Cost of Debt: Mediating Role of Environmental, Social, and Governance Disclosure," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(4), pages 5458-5469, August.
    14. Chen, Jie & Mishra, Tapas & Song, Wei & Zhang, Qingjing & Zhang, Zhuang, 2024. "The impact of bank mergers on corporate tax aggressiveness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. Mohit Pathak & Arti Chandani & Prashant Ubarhande & Sonali J. Bagade, 2026. "Board composition, executive compensation, and capital structure: panel evidence from India," International Journal of Disclosure and Governance, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(2), pages 502-518, June.
    16. Aiyang Yin & Yun Shen & Liang Han, 2026. "Is the capital market walking the walk on board gender diversity? Evidence from stock price crash risk," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 66(3), pages 1215-1252, April.
    17. Nidal Zaqeeba & Takiah Mohd Iskandar, 2020. "Mediating Effect of Tax Management on the Relationship Between Board of Directors Characteristics and Firm Performance," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(01), pages 1-17, March.
    18. Alhababsah, Salem & Yekini, Sina, 2021. "Audit committee and audit quality: An empirical analysis considering industry expertise, legal expertise and gender diversity," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    19. Ibrahim M. Menshawy & Rohaida Basiruddin & Nor‐Aiza Mohd‐Zamil & Khaled Hussainey, 2023. "Strive towards investment efficiency among Egyptian companies: Do board characteristics and information asymmetry matter?," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(3), pages 2382-2403, July.
    20. Muhammad Nadeem & Stephen Bahadar & Ammar Ali Gull & Umer Iqbal, 2020. "Are women eco‐friendly? Board gender diversity and environmental innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3146-3161, December.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:gam:jrisks:v:13:y:2025:i:3:p:45-:d:1601806. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.