The Effect of C-Suite Top Executive Gender Diversity on Firm Performance

: A Cross-country Analysis

Abstract

This thesis primarily aims to examine the c-suite top executive gender diversity effect on firm performance. The thesis focuses on the c-suite top executive age dissimilarity, the c-suite top executive power gap, dividend payout decisions, and firm sources of financing decisions. This study is progressively significant considering that, globally, there is extreme female underrepresentation within the c-suite executive positions while existing literature predominantly focuses on board gender diversity. Using the Multiple Linear Regression Models on Panel Data, this study is a cross-country analysis involving the United States of America (USA), the United Kingdom (UK), and the Eurozone countries for the period between 2000 and 2022 that reflect the epic years for corporate gender equality campaign. This study investigate the impact of the c-suite top executive gender diversity using Agency Theory, Stakeholder Theory, and Similarity-Attraction Theory. This thesis highlights the crucial role of CFO in the analysis while constructs and recommends new measures of the c-suite top executive power gap index. This thesis argues that the presence of female executive(s) in the board and within the c-suite top executive management will lead to better corporate governance aligned with a wide range of stakeholders’ interests, and better-informed board monitoring to enhance firm performance and shareholders’ wealth maximisation. The results show that the c-suite top executive gender diversity has a significant positive association with firm performance. In addition, the c-suite top executive gender diversity neutralize the negative effect of the c-suite top executive age dissimilarity. Besides, the results show that the c-suite top executive gender diversity has a significant negative association with dividend payout decisions. Then, the results suggest that the c-suite top executive gender diversity significantly influences firm sources of financing decisions. The results are significant, consistent, and endure a series of rigorous robustness tests. This thesisemphasizes on the important role of shareholder’s wealth maximisation instigated by the c-suite top executive gender diversity within the firm while providing academic direct evidence on the corporate governance area and helps stakeholders and policymakers make informed decisions to enhance female representation within the c-suite top executive management.

Date of Award	May 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Coventry University
Supervisor	Ahmed Elmasry (Supervisor), Ahmed Saleh (Supervisor) & Mei Yu (Supervisor)