Environmental Performance of the Tourism Sector from a Gender Diversity Perspective

Yakira Fernández-Torres, Milagros Gutiérrez-Fernández and Clara Gallego-Sosa
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Yakira Fernández-Torres: Department of Financial Economics and Accounting, Faculty of Business, Finance and Tourism, University of Extremadura, 10071 Cáceres, Spain
Clara Gallego-Sosa: Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Extremadura, 06006 Badajoz, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 16, 1-26

Abstract: The tourism sector is a driver of economic development characterised by its environmental impact. It is a prevalent part of the 2030 Agenda, given its potential to help meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the same time, board gender diversity is considered essential for companies to implement environmentally sustainable initiatives. However, analysis of the relationship between the role of women on boards and environmental performance has been neglected in the tourism literature. This paper adopts a novel approach to the study of this sector by analysing the relationship between gender diversity on the board of directors and companies’ environmental practices. A fixed effects model is estimated using an international sample of 120 listed tourism companies for the period 2002 to 2019. The results show that boards that are more gender diverse and have a greater female presence are associated with poorer environmental performance and a weaker implementation of policies and practices to reduce resource use and emissions. However, board gender diversity aids performance in environmental innovation.

Keywords: Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); environmental performance; gender diversity; board of directors; tourism sector; critical mass (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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