Gender Diversity and Firms’ Financial Performance in Malaysia

Irean Yap Lee-Kuen, Sok-Gee Chan and Rozaimah Zainudin ()
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Irean Yap Lee-Kuen: Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Rozaimah Zainudin: Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Asian Academy of Management Journal of Accounting and Finance (AAMJAF), 2017, vol. 13, issue 1, 41-62

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the relationship between gender diversity in a firm’s board of directors and financial performance of firms listed on Bursa Malaysia for the period between 2009 and 2013. Using unbalanced panel data analysis, we tested whether gender diversity in the boardroom may influence the firm’s performance, as measured by Tobin’s Q. We employed four different proxies for gender diversity (the dummy variable for women, the percentage of women on the board, the Blau index, and the Shannon index) to provide a more comprehensive measure of gender diversity. This study suggests that a higher degree of female representation on the board increases a firm’s financial performance. Positive discrimination favouring female boardroom appointment is therefore likely to persist as a feature of the corporate governance landscape in Malaysia.

Keywords: gender diversity; board of directors; firm performance; corporate governance; Shannon index; Blau index; panel data; Malaysia; board composition; female representation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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