Female counsellors in the Spanish multinational listed companies (2012-2014)

Abstract

One of the most important corporate governance controls widely studies the role performed by the board of directors and its consequences on the financial performance of companies. Different approaches analyse how a firm can improve its financial future and today parity on boards of directors represents a new research line. The presence of female counsellors may depend on legal and cultural approaches. As the institutional theory establishes, firms must be adapted to the countries where they operate in order to success when accessing financial markets. In this respect, this paper ads a new line of research based on whether a listed company operates in multiple countries or not and analyses the linkage between the multinational character of a company, the gender diversity of the board and the financial 2 performance of the firm. This paper focuses on Spain, which could be ground-breaking on female presence on boards, as Norway is, but only follow light recommendations. The method used is simple regression analysis. The results show that the multinational characteristic of listed companies has no effect on gender diversity but that gender has a negative relation with the financial performance of these firms. Our study also opens various lines of future research