رئیس هیات مدیره زن و عملکرد شرکت: چه چیزی واقعا اهمیت دارد؟ ?Female Board Directorship and Firm Performance: What Really Matters

1. Introduction The abundant literature in recent years on the effect of gender diversity on corporate performance is not conclusive. Some studies find a positive (Campbell and Minguez-Vera, 2008; Terjesen et al., 2016, Liu et al., 2014), whereas others report a negative (Adams and Ferreira, 2009) or even non-existent (Carter et al., 2010) relationship between gender diversity and performance. In a meta-analysis of 140 articles studying the impact of gender diversity on corporate performance, Post and Byron (2015) report weaker relationship in lower shareholder protection environments. They argue that in countries with poor shareholder protection, board members have fewer incentives to monitor managers efficiently and to draw on their experience and skills in their advisory/decision-making missions. Similarly, Garcìa-Meca et al. (2015) report that gender diversity has less influence on international bank performances in environments characterized by lower investor protection. Furthermore, the potential impact of gender diversity on performance is sensitive to the company’s characteristics (Anderson et al., 2011) and different mediating variables (Miller and Triana, 2009). Johnson et al. (2013) propose the attributes of female directors as mediating variables. They argue that female directors’ attributes (experience, skills, and demographic characteristics) contribute to enhancing the effectiveness of the board’s monitoring, decision-making, and advisory processes. This paper investigates the relationship between gender diversity and corporate performance using a large sample of French companies. As in some European countries, the civil law system in France offers less protection to minority shareholders (La Porta et al., 2008). Hence, we comprehensively analyze the relationship between gender diversity and corporate performance in a particular environment. Additionally, we enter the black box of the association between gender diversity and performance by analyzing how the attributes of female directors might play mediating roles. Therefore, our research questions are: (1) Does the mere presence of female directors affect firm performance in a weak shareholder protection environment? (2) How do the attributes of female directors affect firm performance? By answering the second question, we can understand the channel through which gender diversity in the board can influence the decision-making and monitoring effectiveness of the board and consequently firm performance.