What have we learnt about board gender diversity as a business strategy? The appointment of board subcommittees
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: What have we learnt about board gender diversity as a business strategy? The appointment of board subcommittees, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2226. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This paper explores whether a board's gender diversity influences the voluntary formation of its board subcommittees. Female board directorship may become a business strategy for firms if it affects the appointment of board subcommittees. We hypothesize that the voluntary creation of board subcommittees is affe…
Corporate social and environmental disclosure as a sustainable development tool provided by board sub-committees: Do women directors play a relevant moderating role?
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Corporate social and environmental disclosure as a sustainable development tool provided by board sub-committees: Do women directors play a relevant moderating role?, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2815. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions The aim of this research is to examine the impact of three audit committee characteristics on corporate social and environmental responsibility (CSR) disclosure: the existence of an audit committee, audit committee independence, and audit committee financial …
External investigations and disciplinary sanctions against auditors: the impact on audit quality
In this paper, we provide empirical evidence for the impact of disciplinary sanctions imposed on Spanish auditing firms and their engagement partners. The disciplinary sanctions resulted from external investigations, which revealed misapplications of auditing standards. In particular, we evaluate (a) the efficacy of the external supervisory board in identifying low-quality auditors and (b) the effectiveness of the disciplinary system in improving the quality of subsequent statutory audits performed by the sanctioned auditors. We employ two earnings management indicators as proxies for audit quality: loss avoidance through extraordinary items and abnormal accruals. And we compare these measu…
The Impact of Audit Committee Characteristics on the Enhancement of the Quality of Financial Reporting: an empirical study in the Spanish context
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relationship between the likelihood that a company will receive a qualified audit report (as a measure of the quality of financial information) and the existence and characteristics of the audit committee (AC). For listed companies that voluntarily created an AC in the period following the publication in 1998 of the Spanish Code of Corporate Governance, known as the Olivencia Code, we find that ACs size, the percentage of independent members in ACs, company size, losses reported in either or both of the previous two years, receiving the same qualified audit opinion as in the previous year and ownership concentration affect the likelihood of receiv…
Cultural environments and the appointment of females directors on boards: An analysis from a global perspective
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Cultural environments and the appointment of female directors on boards: An analysis from a global perspective, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2065. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. Hofstede's six cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long‐term orientation and indulgence) has received little attention concerning the presence of female directors on boards. Moreover, past research has only focussed on four or five of these six cultural dimensi…
Board structures, liberal countries, and developed market economies. Do they matter in environmental reporting? An international outlook
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Board structures, liberal countries, and developed market economies. Do they matter in environmental reporting? An international outlook, which has been published in final form at: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2275. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. Previous empirical evidence has shown the effect of most corporate governance mechanisms on corporate social responsibility and environmental disclosure. However, there is scant empirical evidence that examines the influence of liberal countries, developed market economies, and board s…
Female Institutional Directors on Boards and Firm Value
The aim of this research is to examine what impact female institutional directors on boards have on corporate performance. Previous research shows that institutional female directors cannot be considered as a homogeneous group since they represent investors who may or may not maintain business relations with the companies on whose corporate boards they sit. Thus, it is not only the effect of female institutional directors as a whole on firm value that has been analysed, but also the impact of pressure-resistant female directors, who represent institutional investors (investment, pension and mutual funds) that only invest in the company, and do not maintain a business relation with the firm.…
Varietes of capitalism, corporata governance mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement: An overview of coordinated and liberal market economies
This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Varieties of capitalism, corporate governance mechanisms, and stakeholder engagement: An overview of coordinated and liberal market economies, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1840. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This paper examines those aspects of national institutions that affect corporate governance mechanisms at international level. The study uses the “varieties of capitalism” approach, which is concerned with the way companies interact strategically to solve the coordination problems …
Commitment of independent and institutional women directors to corporate social responsibility reporting
This paper examines how independent and institutional women directors on boards affect corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR) reporting. Most of the previous empirical evidence has shown a linear association between female directors and CSR disclosure, but to the best of our knowledge, no research has investigated the individual effect of independent and institutional female directors on CSR reporting. Therefore, the analysis of how the disclosure of CSR information is affected by independent and institutional women directors in a separate way merits our attention. Thus, we posit that there is a nonlinear association, concretely quadratic, between independent and institutional fema…
Is Board Gender Diversity a Driver of CEO Compensation?: Examining the Leadership Style of Institutional Women Directors
In this investigation, we aim at examining the influence of institutional female directors on CEO compensation. Specifically, we investigate the impact of institutional female directors as a whole, differentiating by whether female directors have business ties with the firms’ boards on which they sit (pressure-sensitive female directors) or do not have business links (pressure-resistant female directors). We hypothesize that there is a nonlinear association, specifically quadratic, between institutional, pressureresistant and pressure-sensitive female directors on boards, and CEO compensation. Our findings show that CEO compensation decreases with low levels of institutional female director…
The board of directors and dividenc policy: the effect of gender diversity
In this article, we aim to study the impact on dividends policy of gender diversity on the board of directors (hereinafter BD). We hypothesize that the proportion of women directors, the proportion of independent, institutional, and executive female directors, and the percentage of shares held by female directors on BD, have an impact on the dividends policy of Spanish companies. Our findings, analyzing the whole sample, show that the proportion of female directors and shares held by female directors are positively associated with dividend payout, while the percentage of institutional female directors has a negative impact. The percentage of independent and executive female directors has no…
Does stakeholder engagement encourage environmental reporting? The mediating role of firm performance
Stakeholder engagement policies have become a relevant strategy in firms because they may signal to stakeholders the commitment of the firm to the stakeholder’s needs and demands. In this research, we aim to examine whether firms with stakeholder engagement policies tend to disclose more environmental information. Additionally, we analyse the moderating role played by firm performance on the association between stakeholder engagement and environmental disclosure. As far as we know, previous research has not addressed these two questions. Our evidence shows that firms with stakeholder engagement policies are more likely to report environmental information, while firm performance negatively m…
The association between board gender diversity and financial reporting quality, corporate performance and corporate social responsibility disclosure : A literature review
Purpose (mandatory) Companies, politicians, the mass media, legislators, scholars and society in general have shown a growing interest in how board gender diversity affects a firm’s decisions. This concept has been developed because some nations have introduced voluntary policies to regulate and increase the proportion of female directors on corporate boards. Thus, the aim of this study is to review previous research based on board gender diversity as a corporate governance mechanism and its effect on some firms’ business decisions: Financial reporting quality (FRQ), firm performance and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting. Design/methodology/approach (mandatory) We focus on age…