1Assistant Professor, SSSVS Government PG College, Chunar, Mirzapur, Uttar Pradesh231304, manjularscommerce@outlook.com, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1313-1803
2Assistant Professor, Arya Mahila PG College, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, 221010, piyushpandey2592@gmail.com, ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3976-5356
Online Published on 25 January, 2023.
The present study analyses the effect of gender diversity on boards and in the top management on firm performance of Indian companies. The study extends to analyse the possible presence of ‘cohesiveness’ between female directors and female managers in the organisation and evaluates the moderating effect of the presence of women CEO or CFO in the company on firm performance. The present study has been performed on BSE 100 companies for a period of 13 years. As a proxy for firm performance, two financial indicators viz. ROA and ROCE have been used. Gender diversity on board has been measured by Blau's index and as proportion of women directors on board. Presence or absence of women CEO or CFO has been measured with a dummy variable. Various other variables that have been proved by previous researches to have an effect on firm performance viz. firm age, firm size, leverage, CEO duality, etc. have been used as control variables. The results of panel data regression analysis reveals that gender diversity on board has a positive and significant effect on firm performance. Presence of women executives in the top management positions of the firm does not have a significant effect on the financial performance of the firm. Concomitant presence of women executives in the company insignificantly but positively moderates the effect of gender diversity on firm performance. This implies that an inprovement in representation of women managers in upper echleons of management may bring about significant cohesion and support amongst women leaders which may lead to better firm performance.
Gender diversity, Top management, CEO, CFO, Firm performance
