Searching for a Perfect Composition for a Board of Directors

Background: When one hears that company X achieved success, adopted a strategy, or struggles with difficulties, there is always a company board behind this news. Typically, a company board is a reflection of decisions taken by the owner; in practice, there is no rule as to how to appoint a company board. However, if we consider the long-term interest of the company, we may suggest a few ideas that will allow the company to better adapt to the market; they may also help to build the competitive advantage and have a positive impact on the company’s market position. This article presents a belief that the company board composition should evolve from merely reflecting the goals of the owner and the professionalism of the members, into a board, whose structure reflects employees and the market in which the company operates. This approach stems from the need to adapt to the market condi-tions, which is easier when the process of change starts with the company board. To illustrate these ideas, a fictitious example of a limited liability company will be used, for which we developed various board models based on the market situation.Purpose: The aim of this article is to develop a new approach to board of directors’ creation, through the lens of decision-making theory, sustainable development and business performance.Design / methodology / approach: To build a new model of a board of directors, a critical-realistic approach was used along with a case study of a fictitious limited liability company. Hypo-thetical-deductive technique was a base of the analysis.Findings: Conceptual models of a board of directors – which reflected human capital of the company and market structure – were developed.Research and practical limitations/implications: A guidance for businesspeople on how to compose a board of directors is provid-ed. As this is a theoretical work, it may be a base for future market/ real testing of the presented ideas.Originality/value: The article responds to a lack of research and wider works on connections between a board of directors and developing company performance, so this paper will be of par-ticular value to those involved in the appointment of directors. In conclusions, we propose how to create better boards of directors.Paper type: Conceptual article

Gender equality in parliaments - where do we stand in Europe? Considerations from the economic development and society’s masculinity index point of view

It is often emphasized in literature that women constitute half of all societies, but their needs and rights are not reflected in social decisions. The UN and other international institutions aim at changing the position of women in the world, which was reflected in the so called Millennium Development Goals, and currently in the Sustainable Development Goals, one of the latter being promoting gender equality and empowering women. Authors of gender and development literature often write about women as an untapped factor of economic growth. In this paper, we want to reverse the point of view and look at women whose activity is conditioned by the economic development of the country. Therefore, this article presents a certain diagnosis of the current state, but on the other hand, it looks for an explanation of some dependencies. Today, the reasons for women’s presence or absence in politics are unclear; therefore, we want to inspect the basic determinants, which, in our opinion, are the wealth of the society and its character (masculinity vs. femininity). Consequently, the aim of the following article is to determine women’s participation in European parliaments and to verify the hypothesis that the presence of women in European parliaments is directly proportional to the economic development, measured by GDP per capita. Apart from the main hypothesis, the auxiliary one regarding the masculinity of society is also examined (Hofstede model). The conducted analysis allows us to conclude that the participation of women in European parliaments remains low and it is on average 28.04%, and no European country reached 50%. The calculations confirmed the statistical significance of both hypotheses, so we can say that the presence of women in European parliaments depends on the economic development of a given country and the type of society. These determinants are difficult to change, which is why Europe is facing further challenges. It is obvious that changes occur relatively slowly (although the upward trend is visible) and have their causes. Our analyses show that the main ones include the level of economic development and the nature of society. No relationship was found between the number of women in parliaments and other economic factors, such as unemployment

Annotation of the M. tuberculosis Hypothetical Orfeome: Adding Functional Information to More than Half of the Uncharacterized Proteins

The genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv) contains 4,019 protein coding genes, of which more than thousand have been categorized as ‘hypothetical’ implying that for these not even weak functional associations could be identified so far. We here predict reliable functional indications for half of this large hypothetical orfeome: 497 genes can be annotated based on orthology, and another 125 can be linked to interacting proteins via integrated genomic context analysis and literature mining. The assignments include newly identified clusters of interacting proteins, hypothetical genes that are associated to well known pathways and putative disease-relevant targets. All together, we have raised the fraction of the proteome with at least some functional annotation to 88% which should considerably enhance the interpretation of large-scale experiments targeting this medically important organism

La influencia del género en la dirección de las sociedades cooperativas españolas sobre la rentabilidad y el endeudamiento: un análisis empírico

In this paper the claim for the market for a new business management to ensure the presence of women in decision -making to respond to new social needs addressed. Thus, this paper analyzes the influence of gender diversity of the directors on the profitability and the level of debt for a sample of 5,199 Spanish cooperatives. Unlike capitalist societies, these organizations have a number of peculiarities in their government, and that the partners are themselves major time, agents and customers. The study focuses on the Spanish context, where there is an open debate on the importance of women's business management, as in other countries, driven by the proliferation of legislation on gender equality, being, in addition, Spain, the pioneer in having specific legislation on Social Economy. The results show that cooperatives with greater female representation in theirs Boards have higher profitability. On the other hand, those Boards with a higher percentage of women show a lower level of indebtedness.En el presente trabajo se aborda la reclamación por el mercado de una nueva gestión empresarial que asegure la presencia de la mujer en la toma de decisiones para dar respuesta a las nuevas necesidades sociales. Así, este trabajo analiza la influencia de la diversidad de género de los consejeros sobre la rentabilidad y el nivel de endeudamiento para una muestra de 5.199 cooperativas españolas. A diferencia de las sociedades capitalistas, estas organizaciones presentan una serie de peculiaridades en su gobierno, ya que los socios son a su vez principales, agentes y clientes. El estudio se centra en el contexto español, donde existe un debate abierto sobre la importancia de la gestión empresarial femenina impulsado, como en otros países, por la proliferación de legislación sobre la igualdad de género, siendo, además, España el país pionero en contar con una legislación específica sobre Economía Social. Los resultados muestran que las cooperativas con mayor representación femenina en su Consejo Rector presentan una mayor rentabilidad. Por otro lado, en aquellos consejos con un mayor porcentaje de mujeres muestran un menor nivel de endeudamiento

Assessment of insurance coverage and claims in rainfall related risks in processing tomato in Western Spain

An extension of guarantees related to rainfall-related risks in the insurance of processing tomato crops has been accompanied with a large increase in claims in Western Spain, suggesting that damages may have been underestimated in previous years. A database was built by linking agricultural insurance records, meteorological data from local weather stations, and topographic data. The risk of rainfall-related damages in processing tomato in the Extremenian Guadiana river basin (W Spain) was studied using a logistic model. Risks during the growth of the crop and at harvesting were modelled separately. First, the risk related to rainfall was modelled as a function of meteorological, terrain and management variables. The resulting models were used to identify the variables responsible for rainfall-related damages, with a view to assess the potential impact of extending insurance coverage, and to develop an index to express the suitability of the cropping system for insurance. The analyses reveal that damages at different stages of crop development correspond to different hazards. The geographic dependence of the risk influences the scale at which the model might have validity, which together with the year dependency, the possibility of implementing index based insurances is questioned

Female directors and firm performance in Italian and Spanish listed firms. Does masculinity matter?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between women on the board of directors and firm performance in a comparative analysis between Italy and Spain. Design/methodology/approach The generalized method of moment is employed to examine this relationship in a sample of 1,393 firm-year observations. Findings The results show that the presence of women on the board has a positive impact on the performance of Italian and Spanish firms. However, when the whole sample is divided into Italy and Spain, some results are remarkable. For Spain, the presence of women on the board has a positive influence on firm performance, whereas for Italy the authors find a negative and significant effect on firm performance. This study also finds that the “masculinity” dimension has a negative impact on firm performance. Practical implications The results of this study have several practical implications. First, masculinity differences within the countries can have a large impact on firm performance and can explain some differences between similar countries. Second, the legal system of countries might not explain adequately some differences in the decision-making process. Third, cultural values and thinking styles, in terms of masculinity, might better explain why the results on the relationship between female directors and firm performance are mixed. Fourth, the findings suggest that it is very important to promote gender equality, not only by passing laws but also taking action about the educational system. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that investigates the relationship between female directors and firm performance between Italy and Spain considering the cultural differences in term of “masculinity.

BABELOMICS: a systems biology perspective in the functional annotation of genome-scale experiments

We present a new version of Babelomics, a complete suite of web tools for functional analysis of genome-scale experiments, with new and improved tools. New functionally relevant terms have been included such as CisRed motifs or bioentities obtained by text-mining procedures. An improved indexing has considerably speeded up several of the modules. An improved version of the FatiScan method for studying the coordinate behaviour of groups of functionally related genes is presented, along with a similar tool, the Gene Set Enrichment Analysis. Babelomics is now more oriented to test systems biology inspired hypotheses. Babelomics can be found at

Comparison of commercial enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for diagnosis of contagious agalactia caused by Mycoplasma agalactiae

© 2022 A. Sánchez et al. This document is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ This document is the Accepted version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Journal of Veterinary Research. To access the final edited and published work see https://doi.org/10.2478/jvetres-2022-0010Introduction: Contagious agalactia (CA) is a disease affecting small ruminants with worldwide distribution and caused by several mycoplasmas, especially M. agalactiae. The main option for systematic diagnosis under monitoring control programmes is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) test. Material and Methods: This study was designed to appraise the performance of two commercial indirect ELISA tests using M. agalactiae p48 protein and one using total protein, for antibody detection in small ruminants after natural infection with different M. agalactiae strains. We carried out the test evaluation using sera of confirmed M. agalactiae-positive goats with clinical signs. In addition, test agreement was assessed by kappa between the three commercial ELISA tests. Results: All three ELISA tests showed high validity scores (Youden’s J: 72.9–84%). The sensitivity values for the P48 protein-based tests were 76.9% and 84.6%, and was 79% for the total protein-based test. The specificity of all tests was 100%. In addition, between the total protein-based ELISA test and the other two ELISA tests based on the P48 protein, the agreement was substantial (kappa: 0.762–0.763) and the agreement between the latter two tests was almost perfect (kappa: 0.93). Conclusion: The validity parameters for all tests allowed their application for diagnostic purposes in lactating goats excreting M. agalactiae in milk and presenting clinical signs

Executive directors' compensation and monitoring: the influence of gender diversity on Spanish boards

This study presents evidence of the influence of gender diversity on the pay system and the monitoring of executives in Spain. In this country/context, characterized by a few male dominant shareholders acting simultaneously as executives, there is an ongoing discussion regarding the enactment of laws to promote gender equality on the boards of directors of large listed companies. This paper presents several contributions. On the one hand, the scarce previous evidence on this topic is focused on US firms. On the other hand, this study includes the role of ownership structure as a factor that indirectly moderates the relationships between gender diversity on board and monitoring effectiveness in terms of executive directors’ compensation. Furthermore, this paper makes an important effort to control endogeneity. The sample examined includes 120 companies listed on the Spanish stock market during the period 2004–2011. The results show a positive and highly significant effect of the presence of women independent directors on the proportion of variable pay in the compensation of executive directors. Our findings also point out the negative moderating effect of ownership concentration: the more concentrated is ownership in the hands of internal majority shareholder, the less is the link between board diversity and pay-for-performance systems

Next station in microarray data analysis: GEPAS

The Gene Expression Profile Analysis Suite (GEPAS) has been running for more than four years. During this time it has evolved to keep pace with the new interests and trends in the still changing world of microarray data analysis. GEPAS has been designed to provide an intuitive although powerful web-based interface that offers diverse analysis options from the early step of preprocessing (normalization of Affymetrix and two-colour microarray experiments and other preprocessing options), to the final step of the functional annotation of the experiment (using Gene Ontology, pathways, PubMed abstracts etc.), and include different possibilities for clustering, gene selection, class prediction and array-comparative genomic hybridization management. GEPAS is extensively used by researchers of many countries and its records indicate an average usage rate of 400 experiments per day. The web-based pipeline for microarray gene expression data, GEPAS, is available at