Search results

This study aims to evaluate changes in the presence of women on Spanish boards after the Unified Good Governance Code of Listed Companies (2006) and the Organic Law 3/2007 on Gender Equality, and this study compares the educational background of women and men directors. Also, this study analyses the influence of gender diversity and educational background of women directors on economic performance, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and, ultimately, firm value. In addition, this study explores the differences in board gender composition and its effect on firm value during the crisis and post-crisis periods. Finally, this study analyses the different influence of women directors depending on their typology.

This study uses a system of structural equations and a sample of 4,101 directors of 30 Spanish companies listed on IBEX-35 over 2008–2017.

The results show that women’s presence on boards has grown since 2008, and they have higher educational background than men. This study finds that women directors improve economic performance and CSR, though results are non-significant for firm value. Women directors with a bachelor’s or master’s degree increase economic and social performance but reduce firm value. Women directors with business or industry-related studies positively influence CSR but business specialisation negatively affects economic performance and firm value.

This study analyses the direct and indirect effect of women directors on firm value, the influence of their educational background and the potential differences arising from the economic situation (crisis) and the type of board position they hold.

The study aims to analyze for the Spanish context the influence of the involvement of several generations in the firm's management on family firm internationalization. The authors also respond to the call in the literature to consider the influence of SEW on family firm internationalizations by analyzing the moderating effect of the importance family managers attach to each of the socioemotional wealth (SEW) dimensions – enrichment, continuity and prominence on the relationship between multiple generations involved in management and family firm internationalization.

The information was obtained by means of a questionnaire sent to the CEOs of family businesses. The authors’ sample consists of 147 Spanish family firms.

The authors find that the involvement of multiple generations in management is positively related to the internationalization of family firms. Furthermore, the importance that family CEOs attribute to the enrichment dimension of SEW reduces the intensity of the effect of the involvement of several generations in management on family firm internationalization.

The authors’ results, for the Spanish context, complement previous studies (Meneses et al., 2014) showing that the entry of new generations into the family business opens a window of opportunity for the internationalization of the family business. Furthermore, their study shows that the diverse family objectives by CEOs can have different, even conflicting effects on the internationalization decision. These results suggest that the enrichment dimension, which focuses on the short-term family goals may restrain the internationalization of the family business. However, continuity and prominence dimensions, which are related with long term family objectives and jointly enable the fulfillment of nonfamily stakeholders’ objectives, do not influence the internationalization of the family firms analyzed.