Gender diversity inclusive board structure and firm performance: Evidence from West Africa

• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Siele Jean Tuo,Li Chang,Mebrahtu Tesfagebreal,Akadje Jean Roland Edjoukou
• Date: 01 October 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/jcaf.22519

Received:  June  Revised:  August Accepted:  August

DOI: ./jcaf.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Gender diversity inclusive board structure and firm

performance: Evidence from West Africa

Siele Jean TuoLi ChangMebrahtu TesfagebrealAkadje Jean Roland Edjoukou

School of Accounting, Dongbei University

of Finance and Economics, Dalian,

P.R.China

Correspondence

SieleJean Tuo, School of Accounting,

DongbeiUniversity of Finance and Eco -

nomics,No.  Jianshan Street, Shahekou

District,Dalian , P.R. China.

Email:tuosiele@gmail.com

Abstract

We analyze the relationshipof board structure features with non-financial firm’s

performance among West African listed companies. The data was collected

though content analysis of annual reports and audited financial statement of

 West African listed companies over – by utilized three financial

performance proxies, namely return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin Q.

We employed several model specification tests and regression methods includ-

ing pooled OLS, fixed effects and GMM two stage models. The results indicate

statistically positive relationship between board size and firm performance but

only significant with Tobin’s Q and positive significant effect of women direc-

torship and women chief executive officer on firm performance. Independent

director has statistically positive significant effect on firm financial performance.

Paradoxically, women independent directors has negative significant impact on

financial performance. Findings imply that corporations should have a board

structure including women executives’ directors,woman CEO and men indepen-

dent directors as a way to enhance firm’s performance. This paper contributes

to developing countries scant literature on determinants financial performance

and corporate governance practices by provides evidence on why and how cor-

poration should have independent directors andg ender diversityinclusive board

structure to enhance firm’s performance ones in developing countries.

KEYWORDS

board structure, corporate governance, financial performance, gender diversity, women CEO

1 INTRODUCTION

The main reasons of corporate performance are located

in the good practices of corporate governance, because

corporate governance is the set of mechanisms that aims to

direct managerial decisions and helps improve the firm’s

performance (Jarboul et al., ). The big concern for all

corporate executives has always been summarizing in the

following question: How to practice corporate governance

to get excellent profit and business operation advantage?

Corporate governance discussions are always based on the

following hypothesis: Leaders are able to overcome the

control mechanisms put in place for them. Often times,

business leaders are the detriment of shareholders and

other partners of the company (stakeholders). We must

recognize that the debate on corporate governance is part

of a current of thought from the United States, where lead-

ers have reliable power against a dispersed shareholding.

It is a question of seeking the conditions that will ensure

the running of shareholder governance, prioritizing the

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