Suchergebnisse

The underrepresentation of women on corporate boards and its influencers is an under-researched area in Asia, with the absence of standard scales measuring the catalysts and cordons for women's career progression to boards. The research paper aims to develop and validate a multidimensional scale to measure the influences impacting women's representation on boards in the Indian context. A pool of items was generated after a thorough review of existing literature and discussion with the experts. The Women on Boards Scale (WOBS) was constructed and validated based on a quantitative study of 509 female and male employees working in companies in Delhi and NCR. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis techniques were applied for the study. The study confirms the structure of major barriers as individual, societal, and organisational barriers, along with the entry barriers that women face during entry or re-entry into the organization and enablers as well for women to reach boards. A comprehensive scale was constructed with significant psychometric properties to measure the barriers and enablers for women to reach boards. The scale provides a robust and useful tool for policymakers and corporations to improve gender diversity on corporate boards.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the impact of ownership structure and corporate governance on dividend policy in emerging markets, like India. The study also analyses the moderation effects of board independence between ownership and dividend payout.Design/methodology/approachThe data set of 1,546 Indian firms over the period of 2006-2017 has been used in this study. Tobit and logistic regression methods has been used. The data used in this study are collected from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) Prowess database. The sample firms are listed on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE).FindingsFirst, the study finds a significant positive influence of corporate governance on the decision to pay dividend and is an important determinant of the payout decision. Second, the study finds a significant negative relationship of family ownership with dividend payout decisions which indicates that family firms pay lower dividend. Finally, the result from the interaction effect of board independence with family ownership has significant positive influence on dividend policy.Originality/valueThis is one of the first attempt to show that there is an interaction between independent board and ownership structure. It shows that more independent and non-executive directors in the board of family controlled firms are likely to pay more dividends.

Innovation enables firms to face increasing competition in the global environment, but there is variation in innovation investments across firms due to the inherent uncertainty involved in innovative activities. The strategic role of board, therefore, becomes crucial in overseeing innovation decisions. This study, hence, examines whether the relation between R&D investment and firm's performance would vary based on the board characteristics of the company. It empirically explores this interrelationship in publicly listed Indian companies, by assessing the moderation effect of board using fixed effect regression analysis and conditional effects on a panel data of 9,031 firm years across twelve years. Board size, board meetings, proportion of women director and board leadership are found to negatively moderate the relationship between innovation and financial performance (ROE), however none of them moderates the relation between innovation and firm value (Tobin's Q). It signifies that though board characteristics play an important role in relationship between innovation and ROE, investors fail to recognise it. Companies should focus on creating the right kind of board, investors must appreciate board's influence in the success of R&D investments without being driven by mere compliance. Policy makers should deliberate upon the desirability of present structure of stringent laws.