Firm-level determinants of gender diversity in the boardrooms: Evidence from some emerging markets

•Motivated by the importance of a country’s institutions to women board representation, we assess the role of institutional environment in determining board gender diversification in emerging countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC) Specifically, we address two fundamental questions.•The results show evidence that firm size, corporate risk, family ownership and state ownership are common factors in all countries which effect women representation on boards. Notably, board gender diversity is positively related to firm size, and it is inversely related to corporate risk across both emerging and developed countries. However, there are country specific differences in the impact of family and state ownership on board gender diversity.•This research provides understanding of the determinants of female representation on boards in emerging economies (BRIC). A study on BRIC countries is theoretically and empirically interesting, because most of our understanding on board gender diversity comes from single country studies that focus on developed countries. As such this study will shed lights into how institutional environment affect board diversity.•Unlike the extant studies, we develop our hypotheses drawing on institutional theory. Historically, the resource-dependency and agency theories (Hillman et al., 2007; Mateos de Cabo et al., 2012) of the firm have been key theories employed in literature examining predictors of female presence on boards because access to resources and benefits associated with diversity is central to the success of a firm. While resources are certainly important, but the issues such as culture, legal environment, and economic situation all can also impact firm level factors and in turn shape the board gender composition. Considering these institutional differences, this article draws on the institutional theory to explore the extent to which institutional elements influence determinants of board gender diversity in emerging economies.

This paper examines the determinants of board gender diversity in the context of emerging economies. Specifically, we investigate the impact of organizational characteristics on gender diversity in the boardrooms of Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese firms and compare our findings with a control sample from US and UK. Analysing data for 1002 firms between a period of 2005 and 2012, we find some similarities between developed and emerging economies on the factors determining women representation on boards. In particular, we observe board gender diversity is positively related to the firm size, and it is inversely related to corporate risk across both emerging and developed economies. Family control affects positively board gender diversity only in India, China, UK and US. However, in contrast to developed countries, there is some evidence to suggest that state ownership has a negative effect on board gender diversity in India and Russia.