Female leadership, performance, and governance in microfinance institutions

Reidar Strøm, Bert D’espallier and Roy Mersland

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Abstract: This paper investigates the relations between female leadership, firm performance, and corporate governance in a global panel of 329 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 73 countries covering the years 1998 to 2008. The microfinance industry is particularly suited for studying the impact of female leadership on governance and performance because of its mission orientation, its entrepreneurial nature, diverse institutional conditions, and high percentage of female leaders. We find female leadership to be significantly associated with larger boards, younger firms, a non-commercial legal status, and more female clientele. Furthermore, we find that a female chief executive officer and a female chairman of the board are positively related to MFI performance, but this result is not driven by improved governance.

Keywords: Female leadership financial performance microfinance MFIs cross-country panel data Female leadership financial performance microfinance MFIs cross-country panel data. JEL codes: G32 G34; Female leadership; financial performance; microfinance; MFIs; cross-country panel data Female leadership; cross-country panel data. JEL codes: G32; G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-05220872v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published in Journal of banking & finance = Journal of banking and finance, 2014, 42, pp.60-75. ⟨10.1016/j.jbankfin.2014.01.014⟩

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Journal Article: Female leadership, performance, and governance in microfinance institutions (2014)
Journal Article: Female leadership, performance, and governance in microfinance institutions (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05220872

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2014.01.014

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