Are gender diverse boards more cautious? The impact of board gender diversity on sentiment in earnings press releases

Paul Mather, Dinithi Ranasinghe and Luisa A. Unda

Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, 2021, vol. 17, issue 3

Abstract: We examine the impact of board gender diversity on the sentiment in earnings press releases. Managers may use press releases to manage readers’ perceptions of corporate performance and we posit that gender diverse boards actively monitor managerial disclosures and tend to favour more cautious language in the press releases. Using a sample from ASX top 200 company voluntary disclosures and natural language text extraction processes, we find that board gender diversity is associated with the use of more cautious sentiments and less positive sentiments in earnings press releases. Further robustness tests validate our findings. We provide insights to practitioners and regulators by contributing to an ongoing regulatory debate on board gender diversity.

Keywords: Gender diversity; Sentiment; Tone; Text extraction; Corporate governance; Earnings Press releases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G34 M14 M41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jocaae:v:17:y:2021:i:3:s1815566921000369

DOI: 10.1016/j.jcae.2021.100278

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