Board gender diversity and performance in family firms: exploring the faultline of family ties

Emma García-Meca () and Domingo J. Santana-Martín ()
Additional contact information
Emma García-Meca: Technical University of Cartagena
Domingo J. Santana-Martín: University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Review of Managerial Science, 2023, vol. 17, issue 5, No 2, 1559-1594

Abstract: Abstract Using a sample of 1134 firm-year observations of non-financial family firms listed on the Spanish stock market in the period 2003–2020, we explore how women directors affect company performance, distinguishing between family and non-family female members on the board. We believe there might be faultlines between family and non-family women on boards that may well impair performance due to differences in agency conflicts and socioemotional links with the family firm. As the number of female family directors grows, we reveal that conflicts with non-family sub-groups become more prevalent, impairing firm performance. Opening boards to non-family women does, however, seem to be an effective way of enhancing firm performance when there is a critical mass of female directors. The results are robust to alternative measures of board gender diversity and different econometric specifications.

Keywords: Board of directors; Gender diversity; Female directors; Family firms; Family ties; Critical mass; 91-XX (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11846-022-00563-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:rvmgts:v:17:y:2023:i:5:d:10.1007_s11846-022-00563-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/business/journal/11846

DOI: 10.1007/s11846-022-00563-3

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Managerial Science is currently edited by R. Ewert and W. Kürsten

More articles in Review of Managerial Science from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().