IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v170y2021i3d10.1007_s10551-019-04336-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Carrot or the Stick: Self-Regulation for Gender-Diverse Boards via Codes of Good Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Heike Mensi-Klarbach

    (WU Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Stephan Leixnering

    (WU Vienna University of Economics and Business)

  • Michael Schiffinger

    (WU Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Abstract

Scholars have emphasized the potential of self-regulation, realized through ‘codes of good governance’, to improve gender diversity on boards. Yet, unconvinced of the effectiveness of this self-regulation, many regulators have implemented mandatory quota laws. Our study sheds light on this dilemma. Seeking to broaden our conceptual knowledge of how such ‘codes’ work in the specific case of gender diversity on boards, we ask: Under which conditions is self-regulation via voluntary principles of good governance effective? Expanding recent institutional-theory perspectives from the literature of women on boards, we show that, in the case of Austria, self-regulation via code recommendations is ineffective unless supported by additional forces. The primary reason for this, we argue, is that nominators do not expect benefits from gender-diverse boards. Furthermore, non-compliant companies face little pressure to change due to the small number of companies that have already adopted respective code recommendations. We identify two potential alternatives to boost the effectiveness of voluntary self-regulation for gender-diverse boards: First, the introduction of concrete targets for female representation and the public monitoring of fulfillment; and, second, the establishment of a credible threat that mandatory quotas will be imposed if diversity goals are not achieved. Drawing on longitudinal data from 2006 to 2016 on listed and state-owned companies in Austria, we give an empirical account of the conditions that assure effective self-regulation. Arguing that codes suffer from what we call ‘opportunity bias’, we conclude that political goals (such as gender equality) based on ethical rather than instrumental considerations are unlikely to be effectively implemented solely by codes of good governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Heike Mensi-Klarbach & Stephan Leixnering & Michael Schiffinger, 2021. "The Carrot or the Stick: Self-Regulation for Gender-Diverse Boards via Codes of Good Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(3), pages 577-593, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:170:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04336-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04336-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-019-04336-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-019-04336-z?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. Kevin E. Staub, 2009. "Simple tests for exogeneity of a binary explanatory variable in count data regression models," SOI - Working Papers 0904, Socioeconomic Institute - University of Zurich.
    2. Amalia Carrasco & Claude Francoeur & Réal Labelle & Joaquina Laffarga & Emiliano Ruiz-Barbadillo, 2015. "Appointing Women to Boards: Is There a Cultural Bias?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 129(2), pages 429-444, June.
    3. Cathrine Seierstad & Gillian Warner-Søderholm & Mariateresa Torchia & Morten Huse, 2017. "Increasing the Number of Women on Boards: The Role of Actors and Processes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 289-315, March.
    4. Seierstad, Cathrine & Opsahl, Tore, 2011. "For the few not the many? The effects of affirmative action on presence, prominence, and social capital of women directors in Norway," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 44-54, March.
    5. repec:ces:ifodic:v:12:y:2014:i:2:p:19116215 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. John Antonakis & Samuel Bendahan & Philippe Jacquart & Rafael Lalive, 2010. "On making causal claims : A review and recommendations," Post-Print hal-02313119, HAL.
    7. Elisabeth K. Kelan, 2008. "The Discursive Construction of Gender in Contemporary Management Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(2), pages 427-445, August.
    8. Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenael Roudaut, 2017. "Gender Quota and Inequalities inside the Boardroom," Working Papers hal-01618949, HAL.
    9. Ian Gregory‐Smith & Brian G.M. Main & Charles A. O'Reilly III, 2014. "Appointments, Pay and Performance in UK Boardrooms by Gender," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 124(574), pages 109-128, February.
    10. Alice Klettner & Thomas Clarke & Martijn Boersma, 2016. "Strategic and Regulatory Approaches to Increasing Women in Leadership: Multilevel Targets and Mandatory Quotas as Levers for Cultural Change," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 395-419, February.
    11. Marianne Bertrand & Sandra E Black & Sissel Jensen & Adriana Lleras-Muney, 2019. "Breaking the Glass Ceiling? The Effect of Board Quotas on Female Labour Market Outcomes in Norway," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(1), pages 191-239.
    12. Nina Smith, 2014. "Quota Regulations of Gender Composition on Boards of Directors," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(02), pages 42-48, July.
    13. Mingzhu Wang & Elisabeth Kelan, 2013. "The Gender Quota and Female Leadership: Effects of the Norwegian Gender Quota on Board Chairs and CEOs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(3), pages 449-466, October.
    14. Aleksandra Gregorič & Lars Oxelheim & Trond Randøy & Steen Thomsen, 2017. "Resistance to Change in the Corporate Elite: Female Directors’ Appointments onto Nordic Boards," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 267-287, March.
    15. Mento, Anthony J. & Steel, Robert P. & Karren, Ronald J., 1987. "A meta-analytic study of the effects of goal setting on task performance: 1966-1984," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 52-83, February.
    16. Héritier, Adrienne & Eckert, Sandra, 2008. "New Modes of Governance in the Shadow of Hierarchy: Self-regulation by Industry in Europe," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 113-138, April.
    17. Héritier, Adrienne & Lehmkuhl, Dirk, 2008. "The Shadow of Hierarchy and New Modes of Governance," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 28(1), pages 1-17, April.
    18. Réal Labelle & Claude Francoeur & Faten Lakhal, 2015. "To Regulate Or Not To Regulate? Early Evidence on the Means Used Around the World to Promote Gender Diversity in the Boardroom," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(4), pages 339-363, July.
    19. Thams, Yannick & Bendell, Bari L. & Terjesen, Siri, 2018. "Explaining women's presence on corporate boards: The institutionalization of progressive gender-related policies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 130-140.
    20. Susan Hart, 2010. "Self-regulation, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Business Case: Do they Work in Achieving Workplace Equality and Safety?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 92(4), pages 585-600, April.
    21. Reinhard Steurer, 2013. "Disentangling governance: a synoptic view of regulation by government, business and civil society," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 46(4), pages 387-410, December.
    22. Nina Smith, 2014. "Quota Regulations of Gender Composition on Boards of Directors," ifo DICE Report, ifo Institute - Leibniz Institute for Economic Research at the University of Munich, vol. 12(2), pages 42-48, 07.
    23. Steven A. Brieger & Claude Francoeur & Christian Welzel & Walid Ben-Amar, 2019. "Empowering Women: The Role of Emancipative Forces in Board Gender Diversity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 495-511, March.
    24. Rick L. Williams, 2000. "A Note on Robust Variance Estimation for Cluster-Correlated Data," Biometrics, The International Biometric Society, vol. 56(2), pages 645-646, June.
    25. Elise Perrault, 2015. "Why Does Board Gender Diversity Matter and How Do We Get There? The Role of Shareholder Activism in Deinstitutionalizing Old Boys’ Networks," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 149-165, April.
    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. IWASAKI, Ichiro & MA, Xinxin & MIZOBATA, Satoshi, 2024. "Board Gender Diversity in China and Eastern Europe," CEI Working Paper Series 2023-09, Center for Economic Institutions, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    2. Conde-Ruiz, J. Ignacio & Ganuza, Juan José & Profeta, Paola, 2022. "Statistical discrimination and committees," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).

    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. Irma Martinez-Garcia & Silvia Gomez-Anson, 2020. "Regulación de género en los consejos de administración: El papel moderador del entorno institucional," CNMV Documentos de Trabajo CNMV Documentos de Trabaj, CNMV- Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores - Departamento de Estudios y Estadísticas.
    2. Paul B. McGuinness & João Paulo Vieito & Mingzhu Wang, 2020. "Proactive government intervention, board gender balance, and stakeholder engagement in China and Europe," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 719-762, September.
    3. 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.
    4. Gillian Warner-Søderholm & Patricia Gabaldon Quinones & Cathrine Seierstad & Carl Åberg, 2023. "Getting More Women on Boards: Cultural and Institutional Antecedents That Matter," SAGE Open, , vol. 13(3), pages 21582440231, August.
    5. 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).
    6. Antoine Rebérioux & Gwenaël Roudaut, 2016. "Gender Quota inside the Boardroom: Female Directors as New Key Players?," Working Papers hal-01297884, HAL.
    7. 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.
    8. Katarzyna Burzynska & Gabriela Contreras, 2020. "Affirmative action programs and network benefits in the number of board positions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(8), pages 1-26, August.
    9. Liu, Haiming & Liang, Quanxi & Ling, Leng, 2022. "Underrepresentation of female CEOs in China: The role of culture, market forces, and foreign experience of directors," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    10. Saudi‐Yulieth Enciso‐Alfaro & Salma Marhroub & Pedro‐José Martínez‐Córdoba & Isabel‐María García‐Sánchez, 2024. "The effect of COVID‐19 on employment: A bibliometric review of a she‐cession," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(4), pages 3444-3467, July.
    11. Alessandra Rigolini & Morten Huse, 2021. "Women and Multiple Board Memberships: Social Capital and Institutional Pressure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 443-459, March.
    12. Wang, Liang & Xie, Zaiyang & Abdi, Majid & Lee, June Y. & Li, Stan Xiao, 2024. "The rise of female board representation in China as a glocalization process (2010–2018)," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    13. Chiara Pronzato & Paola Profeta & Valeria Ferraro & Giulia Ferrari, 2016. "Gender Quotas: Challenging the Boards, Performance, and the Stock Market," Working Papers id:11411, eSocialSciences.
    14. Ivan Bozhikin & Nikolay Dentchev, 2018. "Discovering a Wilderness of Regulatory Mechanisms for Corporate Social Responsibility: Literature Review," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 145-174, June.
    15. Cathrine Seierstad & Gillian Warner-Søderholm & Mariateresa Torchia & Morten Huse, 2017. "Increasing the Number of Women on Boards: The Role of Actors and Processes," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(2), pages 289-315, March.
    16. Paola Belingheri & Filippo Chiarello & Andrea Fronzetti Colladon & Paola Rovelli, 2021. "Twenty years of gender equality research: A scoping review based on a new semantic indicatorr," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(9), pages 1-27, September.
    17. Krista B. Lewellyn & Maureen I. Muller-Kahle, 2020. "The Corporate Board Glass Ceiling: The Role of Empowerment and Culture in Shaping Board Gender Diversity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 165(2), pages 329-346, August.
    18. Pipke, David & Pönitzsch, Gert, 2015. "Effekte der Frauenquote in Aufsichtsräten: Ein Ausblick für Deutschland," Kiel Policy Brief 93, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    19. Hanen Khemakhem & Manel Maalej, 2024. "The gender gap: what about board members’ perspective?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 28(2), pages 483-506, June.
    20. Giulia Ferrari & Valeria Ferraro & Paola Profeta & Chiara Pronzato, 2022. "Do Board Gender Quotas Matter? Selection, Performance, and Stock Market Effects," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(8), pages 5618-5643, August.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:170:y:2021:i:3:d:10.1007_s10551-019-04336-z. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.