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- Title
Social Trust and Female Board Representation: Evidence from China.
- Authors
Qiu, Baoyin; Ren, Haohan; Zuo, Jingjing; Cheng, Bo
- Abstract
The underrepresentation of females on corporate boards is an important ethical issue that raises serious concerns about gender equality in senior management teams. Relying on a large sample of public firms from the Chinese market, we examine how social trust affects female board representation. We find that female board representation has a positive and significant relation with social trust. The effect is more pronounced in regions with a higher male-to-female sex ratio at birth, lower levels of education, lower GDP per capita, and in nonfamily firms. We also find that higher social trust is more likely to increase the number of non-independent female directors rather than independent ones. Further analyses show that increased female board representation is an important channel through which social trust improves corporate ESG ratings. Overall, our study suggests that social trust contributes positively to gender diversity in corporate management.
- Subjects
CHINA; WOMEN directors of corporations; TRUST; SEX discrimination in employment; ENVIRONMENTAL, social, &; governance factors; GENDER inequality; BOARDS of directors; BUSINESS ethics
- Publication
Journal of Business Ethics, 2023, Vol 188, Issue 1, p187
- ISSN
0167-4544
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10551-022-05298-5