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The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the gender of the top executives is associated with the strength of corporate governance mechanisms within a firm.

The paper uses panel and instrumental variable regressions on an eight-year sample of the S&P 1,500 firms.

The results indicate that firms with female Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Financial Officers have higher quality governance practices. Moreover, female CEOs are documented to have the most significant influence on the governance attributes related to the board of directors and takeover defenses mechanisms.

Overall, these findings indicate that the gender of the firm’s executives may have important implications for the strength of corporate governance. The paper promotes the importance of the recent national policies in numerous countries on gender quotas at the executive level.

This study aims to holistically explore the academic literature on female leaders to identify the key topics and dynamics of the field.

The authors systematically review 532 papers to explore the research on female leaders; based on objective and replicable criteria, the authors identify relevant papers and thus ensure the quality of the analysis. The bibliometric analysis and visualization support us in recognizing trends in this topic.

This study outlines the state of the art over the past decade by synthesizing theoretical contexts and critically discussing the main streams of research on sustainability, firm outcomes and barriers preventing women from reaching the upper echelons. The authors also explore empirical issues and highlight areas that entail new paths for future scholars.

The research provides novel evidence of the attempt internationally to increase female participation at the top of the firm hierarchy by analyzing firm outcomes, sustainability and the constraints faced by women in achieving these careers.

The results show that the participation of women in leadership roles is not (only) a matter of compliance with current regulations. Through their ability to monitor key social and environmental issues from a long-term perspective and their attention to the internal control systems, companies more effectively pursue their financial and nonfinancial aims.

Using bibliographic and narrative analyses, this study reviews the literature on women at the top of the firm hierarchy with a focus on business research. The authors extend prior studies by investigating a larger pool of firm roles to provide a comprehensive understanding of this widely discussed topic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between earnings management and the gender of the firm's executives.

Panel regressions of discretionary accruals on a set of female executive dummies and firm‐specific controls.

The results provide considerable evidence to suggest that firms with female chief financial officers (CFOs) are associated with income‐decreasing discretionary accruals, thereby implying that female CFOs are following more conservative earnings management strategies.

In general, the findings indicate that gender‐based differences in conservatism, risk‐aversion, and managerial opportunism may have important implications for financial reporting and corporate governance.

This paper extends prior research by addressing the potential effects of female executives on earnings management. The findings reported in this paper provide novel insights to the empirical financial accounting literature.

A burgeoning body of evidence points out the importance of spatial proximity in influencing firm efficiency besides internal characteristics. Nevertheless, the family status of the firm has been traditionally overlooked in that debate. Therefore, this study aims to investigate productivity spillovers stemming from the geographical closeness to innovators and family firms.

Using secondary data on Italian technology-intensive manufacturing firms, the paper exploits spatial econometric models to estimate productivity spillovers across firms.

As regards the presence of spatial dependence, this study reveals that a firm's level of efficiency and productivity is influenced by that of nearby firms. Specifically, three main results emerge. First, spatial proximity to innovators is beneficial for the productivity of neighbouring firms. Second, closeness to family firms is a source of negative externalities for spatially proximate firms. However, and this is the third result, the adverse effect vanishes when the nearby family firms are also innovators.

As the study relies on cross-sectional data, future research should explore productivity spillovers in a longitudinal setting. Additionally, the channels through which productivity spillovers occur should be measured.

The study highlights the importance of co-location for public policy initiatives to strengthen the competitiveness of firms and, indirectly, that of localities and regions. Moreover, the findings show the crucial role of innovation in mitigating the productivity gap between family and non-family firms.

Notwithstanding the advent of the digital era, spatial proximity and localized social relationships are still a relevant factor affecting firms' performance.

By exploring the role of family firms in influencing the advantages of geographical proximity, this study contributes to the growing efforts to explore family enterprises across spatial settings.