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The textiles and clothing sector is one of India's most important economic sectors, next to the agriculture sector in terms of industrial output and employment, providing employment to more than 30 million people. Many studies predict that India will get a significant share of the world textiles and clothing trade due to the advantage of cheap labor and other factor resources but India's slower growth rate, as compared to other low‐cost competitors, indicates otherwise. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the comparative advantage of India and Bangladesh for the clothing sector in the world export trade with the help of Balassa's index of Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA). The study highlights the shift in comparative advantage for India and Bangladesh between two periods. The study also points out constraints restricting the growth of export share of India in world market and offers suggestions to policy makers for enhancing India's export share in the world clothing trade.

RCA indices have been calculated for various clothing product categories (under Harmonized System) up to four digit classification with the help of Balassa's relative measure for India and Bangladesh. Tables have been prepared for India and Bangladesh, highlighting products having comparatively higher revealed comparative advantage. For calculation of RCA indices, the export data have been taken from “UN Comtrade”, an electronic database of the United Nations and from the database of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Further, Spearman rank correlation coefficient has been calculated for analyzing the changes over the period 1995‐2003 for India and Bangladesh.

Findings reveal that the number of products for which India enjoyed the comparative advantage increased from 23 products to 25 products between 1995 and 2003 and for Bangladesh, this number increased from 21 products to 29 products between 1995 and 2003. Clothing exports of India and Bangladesh are classified on the basis of comparative advantage at the HS 4‐digit level for the years 1995 and 2003 and the comparative position is given on the basis of a measure of structural change in exports of India and Bangladesh. The products in which India and Bangladesh have comparative advantage in garment exports are highlighted.

This paper has calculated and compared revealed comparative advantage indices over a period of time up to four digits classification of HS product categories. Also, this paper highlights constraints, and offer suggestions which would be helpful to exporters and policy makers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the crucial question of whether gender diversity in boardroom is associated with CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link.

The authors used the data of companies listed on the Pakistan Stock Exchange for a sample consisting of KSE-100 index companies for the period of five years. The authors used the ordinary least square regression technique to test the developed hypotheses. The authors also used the two-step Heckman selection model, two-stage least square regression and propensity score matching method to control the problem of endogeneity.

The authors find reliable evidence of a negative association between gender diversity and CEO pay and of board gender diversity’s strengthening the relationship between CEO pay and firm performance. The authors also find that women director are more effective in setting the optimal contract in non-family-owned firms and firms with dispersed ownership structure as compared to family-owned firms and firms with concentrated ownership structure. Moreover, results also reflect that the influence of board diversity on both CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link is stronger when gender diversity goes beyond tokenism.

The findings have implications in terms of providing the basis for policy makers to accord the same level of importance to gender diversity in the boardroom as well as contributing to the current debate on the desirability of mandating or recommending gender diversity on boardrooms.

This study is among the few studies which investigate the moderating role of boardroom gender diversity on the CEO pay-performance link. In addition, this study contributes to the institutional theory by providing the empirical evidence that the effect boardroom gender diversity on CEO pay and CEO pay-performance link varies by type of ownership.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between corporate debt-like compensation and the value of excess cash holdings.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure score provided by Bloomberg is used as a proxy for the extent of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The empirical analysis is based on a sample of 379 firms that made up the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index over the period 2010-2015. In order to take into account the endogeneity problem between board gender diversity and ESG disclosure, a fixed effect model with lagged board variables is used.

Two main results arise from this study. First, no significant relationship is found between board gender diversity and ESG disclosure. Second, the evidence also partially confirms critical mass theory, as below three female directors the relationship between board gender diversity and ESG disclosure is not statistically significant. However, beyond that, no significant relationship was found.

Reasonable theoretical arguments drawn from stakeholder theory suggest that board gender diversity may have a positive effect on ESG disclosure. The empirical evidence presented neither supports, nor denies stakeholder theory. However, the results may be improved by enlarging the frontiers of this research in time and space, increasing the perimeter of qualitative data integrated in this investigation.

This paper offers theoretical and empirical arguments for the feminization of corporate boards, not only in the name of equality between women and men and organizational justice, but also in the light of organizational performance (examined through the prism of governance). Transparency, analyzed using the proxy of ESG disclosure, is strongly and positively correlated with a feminization of boards, if the proportion of women is significant and sufficient to be able to prevent and surpass the “invisibilization” phenomenon, which is based on the marginalization of passive ultra-minorities, reduction to silence, marginalization (disqualification of women voice or exit strategy), assimilation or the endorsement of stigma.

First, this makes a theoretical contribution to the diversity and governance literature by examining the effect of WOCB on ESG disclosure through the stakeholder theory (Freeman, 2010). Second, the authors contribute to the CSR literature (cf. Byron and Post, 2016) by documenting specifically the effect of board gender diversity on CSR disclosures through ESG. Indeed, ESG research mainly concentrates on firm financial performance (Galbreath, 2013). No study has examined the relationship between WOCB and ESG disclosure. Finally, from an empirical standpoint, an FE model with lagged board variables (Liu et al., 2014) is used to fully address the endogeneity problems in the relationship between WOCB and ESG disclosure that may occur because of differences in unobservable characteristics across firms or reverse causality (Boulouta, 2013).

This study aims to provide insights into gender diversity in Pakistani boardrooms, particularly for the dominant family business type, which is strongly guided by (non-financial) family-related objectives when making business decisions, such as the appointment of board members. Pakistani companies operate within the framework of weak legal institutions and a traditionally highly patriarchal environment. This study examines how corporate decisions regarding the appointment of female board members play out in this socio-political and cultural environment.

Board composition and board characteristics were examined using hand-collected data from 213 listed family firms and non-family firms on the Pakistan Stock Exchange from 2003 to 2017. Univariate analyses, probit regressions and robustness tests were performed.

Pakistani family firms have a significantly higher proportion of women on their boards than do non-family firms. They are also significantly more likely to appoint women to top positions, such as CEO or chairs.

Evidently, women are allowed to enter boards through family affiliations. Gender quotas appear an ineffective instrument for breaking through the “glass ceiling” in this socio-cultural environment. Thus, gender parity must entail the comprehensive promotion of women and the enforcement of legal reforms for structural and cultural change.

The analysis focuses on a Muslim-majority emerging Asian market that has been scarcely researched, thus offering new perspectives and insights into board composition and corporate governance that go beyond the well-studied Western countries.

The purpose of this paper is to test the relative contribution of work environment factors as well as individual difference variables on the degree of work interfering with family (WIF) and other mental health outcomes, namely, emotional exhaustion, life satisfaction, and family interfering with work (FIW).

Self‐report measures of the constructs of interest will be completed by a random sample of 539 health care professionals (Study 1: n=314; Study 2: n=128). In Study 1, it is hypothesized that work environment factors namely, work stressors and a supportive work environment characterized by perceived support from the supervisor, the organization, and co‐workers' supportive behaviors will be positively and negatively associated with WIF, respectively.

Findings document positive links between task‐related stressors and WIF and negative links between perceived support from the organization and WIF. In addition, both task‐related stressors and WIF are positive predictors of emotional exhaustion. In Study 2, the relative impact of two individual difference variables (i.e. time management and global self‐determination) on WIF and other mental health outcomes are examined, above and beyond the impact of the work environment factors. Task‐related stressors remainean important predictor of WIF and global self‐determination accounts for additional variance in this outcome variable.

Theoretical and practical implications that may guide future theory and research in this domain are discussed.

Findings from both studies provide insight as to potential sources, namely work environment factors and individual difference variables, which may accentuate or mitigate the degree of WIF.

This paper aims to investigate how gender diversity in top management – i.e. boardroom and top management positions – affects business performance among Colombian public businesses.

Building on the upper echelon theory which emphasizes that gender in an important characteristic that influences top management’s decision-making, panel data models are used on a sample of 54 Colombian public businesses for the period 2008-2015 to test the proposed hypotheses relating to gender diversity and subsequent business performance.

The results support that gender diversity is positively associated with subsequent business performance. More concretely, the relationship between gender diversity at the top of the corporate hierarchy – in the present case, as CEO and in the top management team – and subsequent performance becomes more evident when performance is linked to business operations (ROA), whereas the positive effect of women’s representation in the boardroom and subsequent performance is significant when performance is measured via shareholder-oriented metrics (ROE).

Few studies have addressed the role of gender diversity on performance in developing economies. This study contributes to better understand how gender diversity affects performance in contexts where women are underrepresented in the top management, and where the appointment of women directors or managers is not driven by regulatory pressures.

The purpose of this paper is to analyzes how board’s gender diversity, and more specifically a gender-balanced configuration – i.e. a proportion of women in the boardroom ranging between 40 and 60 percent – affects economic and risk-oriented performance in financial firms.

The empirical application uses a rich data set that includes detailed accounting and organizational information for all financial firms in the Costa Rican industry during the period 2000–2012. The proposed hypotheses are tested using panel data (fixed-effects) regression models that emphasize that bank performance is affected by various dimensions of the banks’ gender diversity.

The longitudinal analysis of the Costa Rican banking industry reveals that, unlike a proportion indicating a particular critical mass of women on the board, a balanced gender configuration yields superior economic performance (ROA and net intermediation margin). Additionally, the findings show that the performance benefits of gender diversity only exists in the presence of a gender-balanced board configuration, and that this positive effect is not conditioned by the presence of women leadership in the corporate hierarchy (Chair or CEO).

The paper further explores the influence of board gender diversity on organizational performance by adopting an approach to the gender diversity–performance relationship that goes beyond the mere representation of women within the corporate hierarchy.

The purpose of this research is to examine whether board gender diversity reduces the agency costs of firms in the context of Chinese listed firms.

This paper uses a large sample of 23,340 firm-year observations of Chinese listed companies during 2004–2017. The authors use ordinary least squares regressions as the primary methodology with a wide range of methods to control for endogeneity and to check robustness, including the fixed-effect method, instrumental variable approach, lagged gender diversity measures, propensity score matching, Blau index, Shannon index and industry-adjusted measures of agency costs.

The evidence reveals that the participation of female directors in corporate board reduces agency costs, which correlates with conflicts of interest. Moreover, gender-diverse boards are more effective in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), in which agency issues are more severe. Female directors also provide better monitoring roles in more-developed areas. Finally, corporate boards that have a critical mass of female directors have a greater tendency to reduce agency costs as compared to their token participation. Overall, all findings support the validity of agency theory.

This study shows the economic benefit of female directors in the boardroom by reducing agency costs and by improving firms' governance structure. Regarding the government, which is gradually introducing board gender diversity policies, this study provides valuable pragmatic information for Chinese regulators on this issue.

This study extends the literature by providing evidence that gender diversity in boardroom matters for shareholders' wealth maximization. It provides novel evidence that a critical mass of female directors is more effective in reducing agency costs compared to a single female on the board, and that the effect of gender diversity varies in relation to ownership structure and region.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of board gender diversity on the transparency of corporate political disclosure (CPD).

Two empirical proxies, CPD transparency and policy transparency, are constructed from a data set jointly produced by the Center of Political Activity and the Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research. The CPD transparency score measures the level of transparency in voluntary corporate disclosure of the amount of political contributions and the identity of the recipients as well as the titles and names of the executives who authorize the political spending. The policy transparency score measures the level of transparency in the voluntary disclosure of the policies governing corporate political spending. Board gender diversity is measured by the percentage of women on the board of directors.

Higher proportions of female directors are associated with more transparent disclosure of political contributions after controlling for a set of corporate governance and firm-level variables.

This study is the first to examine whether and how gender-diversified boards enhance the transparency of CPD. It contributes to the literature by providing evidence that gender-diversified boards enhance corporate governance.