Gender Diversity in Nomination Committee: A way to Promote Gender Balance on Board?

The promotion of gender balance within corporate boards is considered one of the tools to support the gender diversity in the society as a whole. Women in directorial positions generally perform as independent directors considering that the independence must or can be the criteria for the members of special board’s committees. This paper, by means of a descriptive analysis, would be a first step of a research project giving a picture of the situation of women on committee boards within the Italian listed companies, with a particular focus on nomination committee. This last assesses and considers the composition of the board and helps to prepare the list of candidates for board positions, according both with the ‘voting list’ rule (L.262/2005), and the gender quotas (L.120/2011). The research, considering 264 listed Italian companies, will focus on the gender composition of the nomination committee, in relation with gender composition of the board, and regarding different industries. Basing on the results, the paper aims at being the base for a future research aimed at highlighting a possible relation between the number of women in nomination committee and the gender composition of board, starting from the next boards’ appointments, which will occur with the L.120/2011 expired. This paper intends to fill the existing gap in the literature about women on board, emphasizing the role of nomination committee. Furthermore, this paper is a starting point for future researches extended to other countries, with potential practical implications, suggesting regulators to focus attention on committees’ composition, not only with regard to number and status of independence, but also with regard to gender

Gender Diversity in Nomination Committee: A Way to Promote Gender Balance on Board?

The promotion of gender balance within corporate boards is considered one of the tools to support the gender diversity in the society as a whole. This paper would be a first step of a research project about the future of women on boards when the Italian L.120/2011, which imposes gender quotas in corporate governance bod-ies, will expire. In particular, the analysis focuses on the current board composition of the Italian-listed companies, with a particular focus on the nomination commit-tee. The main tasks of this committee are the assessment of the board composition and the proposal of candidates for board positions; therefore, it could have an important role in the promotion of more balanced board with regard to gender in the absence of binding rules. This paper aims first to fill the existing gap in the literature about the role of nomination committee for gender-balanced boards, also with regard to different industries. Furthermore, it is a starting point for future researches extended to other countries, with potential practical implications, suggesting regula-tors to focus their attention on committees’ composition, not only with regard to number and status of independence but also with regard to gender

Gender Diversity and Securities Fraud

We formulate theory on the effect of board of director gender diversity on the broad spectrum of securities fraud, and generate three key insights. First, based on ethicality, risk aversion, and diversity, we hypothesize that gender diversity on boards can operate as a significant moderator for the frequency of fraud. Second, we advance that the stock market response to fraud from a more gender-diverse board is significantly less pronounced. Third, we posit that women are more effective in male-dominated industries in reducing both the frequency and severity of fraud. Results of our novel empirical tests, based on data from a large sample of Chinese firms that committed securities fraud, are largely consistent with each of these hypotheses