GENDER DIVERSITY IN LARGE LISTED INDIAN COMPANIES

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of gender diverse boards on financial performance in large listed Indian companies by taking a resource dependency perspective. Gender diverse board is measured by presence of the independent female director on the board. Further, financial performance is measured by the market performance measure taking Tobin’s Q. This relationship is examined by collecting information for eleven financial years from 2003-13. Panel regression model is employed to assess the proposed relationship. The analysis confirms that independent gender diverse boards significantly affect financial performance. Another important revelation of the study is that the financial performance of company having gender diverse boards increases with board size.