Gender Diversity in the Boardroom and Risk Management: A Case of R&D Investment

Shimin Chen (First Author), Xu Ni (Participant Author), Jamie Y. Tong (Participant Author)

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal

69 Citations (Web of Science)

Abstract

Increasing gender diversity in the boardroom has been promoted as a way to enhance corporate governance and risk management. This study empirically examines whether boards with more female directors play a role in reducing R&D risk. We first show that female directors help to reduce the positive relationship between R&D investment and future performance volatility. We then report that firms with more gender-diverse boards exhibit a lower adverse effect of R&D on the cost of debt. These results are robust to endogeneity analysis, alternative measures of gender diversity and risky investment, and other sensitivity tests. Overall, our results suggest that female directors improve board effectiveness in risk management with respect to R&D investment.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)599-621
JournalJournal of Business Ethics
Volume136
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2015

Corresponding author email

cshimin@ceibs.edu

Project name

公司透明度提升的外部性:来自中国企业跨境上市的证据;;中国企业人力资源配置的现状、演化及其提升机制;;并购中的策略性信息披露:动机与制度

Project sponsor

国家自然科学基金

Project No.

公司透明度提升的外部性:来自中国企业跨境上市的证据: 71002058;; 中国企业人力资源配置的现状、演化及其提升机制: 71202090;;并购中的策略性信息披露:动机与制度: 71202091

Keywords

  • Diversity
  • Female director
  • R&D
  • Risk management

Indexed by

  • FT
  • ABDC-A
  • Scopus
  • SSCI

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