Purpose

The objective of this paper is to leverage a two-sided view of social capital to develop a model of board gender diversity and firm performance using social capital data from Northeast Regional Center of Rural Development.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine a large sample of 2,322 US publicly listed firms over the period 1996 to 2009. The final sample consists of 14,634 firm-year observations.

Findings

The authors find that when a firm's social network is not supportive of gender diversity, corporate boards have lower levels of female representation. The strength of a social network's social ties exacerbates the relationship between social capital and board gender diversity. The authors also report a negative relationship between female board membership and firm performance in social networks that are not pro-diversity. Robustness tests reveal that the authors’ social capital view of board diversity also applies to board ethnic diversity.

Research limitations/implications

This study focuses primarily on blue chip firms due to data constraints. It will be interesting for future researchers to investigate a broader spectrum of firms from a broader perspective of diversity beyond the study’s gender and ethnicity findings. Furthermore, this study assesses the US context, and future research could investigate firm sociability in other national contexts.

Practical implications

This study contributes new insights to the discourse on gender diversity on corporate boards which stand to inform both policy and practice. The results of the study can inform the position of an industry association on board gender diversity, with guidance on how messaging across networks can be more effective should it account for the hidden bias that the authors uncover in the current study. From a manager's perspective, this study can help those managers and boards trying to enhance board gender diversity by providing a more complete understanding of the factors that can limit progress.

Originality/value

This study contributes a social capital view of board gender diversity to the growing literature of corporate governance, board diversity and local environmental influences on corporate policies.

中文翻译：

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妇女在董事会中的社会资本观及其对公司绩效的影响

目的

本文的目的是利用社会资本的双面观点，利用东北农村发展中心区域的社会资本数据，建立董事会性别多样性和公司绩效的模型。

设计/方法/方法

作者研究了1996年至2009年期间对2,322家美国上市公司的大量样本。最终样本包括14,634家公司年的观察值。

发现

作者发现，当公司的社交网络不支持性别多样性时，公司董事会的女性代表级别较低。社交网络的社会纽带的力量加剧了社会资本与董事会性别多样性之间的关系。作者还报告说，女性董事会成员与社交网络（非多元化）中的公司绩效之间存在负相关关系。健壮性测试表明，作者关于董事会多样性的社会资本观点也适用于董事会种族多样性。

研究局限/意义

由于数据限制，本研究主要针对蓝筹公司。对于未来的研究人员来说，从研究的性别和种族范围之外，从更广泛的多样性角度研究更广泛的公司将是很有趣的。此外，本研究评估了美国的情况，未来的研究可能会调查其他国家背景下的公司的社交能力。

实际影响

这项研究为公司董事会关于性别多样性的论述提供了新的见解，这些见解可为政策和实践提供参考。这项研究的结果可以说明行业协会在董事会性别多样性上的立场，并提供指导，说明如果考虑到作者在当前研究中发现的隐性偏见，如何通过网络进行消息传递更加有效。从管理者的角度来看，这项研究可以通过对限制进步的因素提供更完整的理解，从而帮助那些试图增强董事会性别多样性的管理者和董事会。

创意/价值

这项研究为董事会性别多元化的社会资本观点提供了越来越多的公司治理，董事会多元化以及当地环境对公司政策的影响的文献。