Purpose

This study examines whether female directorship on board is related to firm's risk-taking behavior in India.

Design/methodology/approach

The study considers the top 500 listed companies in India during the period 2013 to 2018 for the analysis. The paper employs fixed effects as well as a dynamic panel data model to address the bias in the fixed effects model when the lagged risk outcome is included as an explanatory variable.

Findings

The study finds that the presence of female directors on board is unrelated to the firm's risk-outcomes and the risk-adjusted return earned by the shareholders. The results are in line with the tokenism theory of board diversity. Having a higher share of female independent directors is also unrelated to the risk-taking behavior of firms. The findings are in contrast to the critical mass theory and the agency theory of gender diversity. The study does not rule out the possibility of female directors' risk-preferences being similar to those of male directors.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that regulations related to having independent female directors may not add value for the shareholders in the short run. The business case for such stringent regulations in India on the gender diversity of boards remains unclear.

Originality/value

This is the first study to analyze the relationship between gender diversity of boards and firm-level risk in India. Most of the studies have focused on gender diversity and firm performance in India. However, modern portfolio theory suggests that both risk and return are important as shareholders care about risk-adjusted returns.

中文翻译：

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女性董事与印度企业的冒险行为

目的

本研究考察了董事会中的女性董事是否与印度公司的冒险行为有关。

设计/方法/方法

该研究考虑了 2013 年至 2018 年期间印度排名前 500 的上市公司进行分析。本文采用固定效应和动态面板数据模型来解决将滞后风险结果作为解释变量时固定效应模型中的偏差。

发现

研究发现，董事会中女性董事的存在与公司的风险结果和股东获得的风险调整回报无关。结果符合董事会多元化的象征主义理论。女性独立董事比例较高也与企业的冒险行为无关。研究结果与临界质量理论和性别多样性代理理论形成对比。该研究不排除女性董事的风险偏好与男性董事相似的可能性。

实际影响

调查结果表明，与独立女性董事有关的规定在短期内可能不会为股东增加价值。印度对董事会性别多样性进行如此严格规定的商业案例尚不清楚。

原创性/价值

这是第一项分析印度董事会性别多样性与公司层面风险之间关系的研究。大多数研究都集中在印度的性别多样性和公司绩效上。然而，现代投资组合理论表明，风险和回报都很重要，因为股东关心风险调整后的回报。