 Do female directors enhance R&D performance?Ru Chen, Jamie Yixing Tong, Zhang, Feida (Frank) and Zhou, Gaoguang (Stephen) International Review of Economics & Finance, 2021, vol. 74, issue C, 253-275 Abstract: This study examines whether and how female directors enhance innovation performance. Based on a sample of U.S. firms, this study shows that firms with more female directors on boards present a more pronounced positive association between R&D and future firm performance (measured by earnings and operating cash flow), suggesting a positive impact of female directors on R&D performance. We also examine how female directors affect two intermediate R&D performance indicators, namely innovation output and productivity. Our results show that a higher number of female directors are associated with higher innovation output (measured by the sensitivity of patents and patent citations to R&D) and higher R&D productivity (measured by the sensitivity of future sales to R&D). In the further analysis, we trace the committee that each female director sits on and find that the better R&D outcomes brought by female directors are mainly driven by their monitoring rather than advisory role. Additionally, female directors enhance the R&D outcomes by attending more board meetings. Keywords: Female directors; R&D; Performance (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:reveco:v:74:y:2021:i:c:p:253-275 DOI: 10.1016/j.iref.2021.03.003 Access Statistics for this article International Review of Economics & Finance is currently edited by H. Beladi and C. Chen More articles in International Review of Economics & Finance from Elsevier |
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