The Influence of Women and Minority Members of Corporate Boards of Directors on Firm Performance Measures

Abstract

In this paper, I review the growing and important literature examining the relationship between diversity, in terms of both gender and ethnic minorities, of the composition of corporate Boards of Directors and firm performance measures, including financial and corporate social responsibility. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the findings have been contradictory, and the exact nature of the relationship is still unclear. These contradictions may partly arise from a lack of clarity both theoretically and empirically of the term “diversity” as used by many study authors. My review conducts an extensive examination of the literature on the diversity-performance relationship, including almost 40 studies published on this topic. In addition, I outline several directions for future research.