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The underrepresentation of females on corporate boards is an important ethical issue that raises serious concerns about gender equality in senior management teams. Relying on a large sample of public firms from the Chinese market, we examine how social trust affects female board representation. We find that female board representation has a positive and significant relation with social trust. The effect is more pronounced in regions with a higher male-to-female sex ratio at birth, lower levels of education, lower GDP per capita, and in nonfamily firms. We also find that higher social trust is more likely to increase the number of non-independent female directors rather than independent ones. Further analyses show that increased female board representation is an important channel through which social trust improves corporate ESG ratings. Overall, our study suggests that social trust contributes positively to gender diversity in corporate management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether gender diversity in the roles of executives, boards of supervisors and management impacts real earnings management during the bullish and bearish periods from 2000 to 2017. The sample is separated by bullish (11,616 firm‐year observations) and bearish (14,436 firm‐year observations) periods. The results suggest that female participation on supervisory boards and executives tend to kerb real earnings management during bearish and bullish periods. Another important finding is that female CEOs are more cautious in real earnings manipulation due to their risk‐averse nature during the bearish period, while female CFOs are more likely to constrain real earnings management in the bullish period. This study failed to find the relation of gender diversity on boards of management to real earnings management; however, the study has found that female executives (excluding CEOs and CFOs) who are also directors are more likely to limit earnings manipulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to investigate the influence of female directors on Intellectual Capital Performance (ICP) using a sample of manufacturing-listed companies in China. Our study investigates the link between having two or more female directors and the Modified Value-Added Intellectual Coefficient (MVAIC) methodology, employing the critical mass theory from 2004–2017. We find that having a critical mass of female directors (three or more) shows a significant positive impact on MVAIC and its components, including human capital efficiency, structural capital efficiency, relational capital efficiency, and physical capital efficiency, with physical capital being the critical driver. Our study reveals that the critical mass participation of female directors substantially influences the IC efficiency of privately owned companies compared to state-owned companies. Moreover, the number of female directors also affects the IC performance of manufacturing companies in multiple regions. Our findings support the validity of group classification identified by Kanter and Critical Mass Theory. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the few pieces of research that studies the role of female board directors in IC performance and Chinese manufacturing firms using MVAIC as an IC measure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the impact of green business practices (GBP) on firm financialization and, analyzes the moderating role of female directorship in China. A‐share listed non‐financial firms are sampled (total 1049 firms including 284 small and medium enterprises [SMEs]) from Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges from 2009 to 2020. OLS and fixed‐effects regression techniques are applied and the results show a significantly positive relationship between GBP and firms' financialization level (FIN) in the whole sample. Also, greater female directorship strengthens this relationship in Chinese firms. However, for SMEs in China, this study does not support a relationship between GBP and firm financialization. Nonetheless, the moderating role of female directorship is more significant among SMEs. The findings of this study may assist policymakers in devising policies tailored separately for SMEs and non‐SMEs in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines stories of migrant rural women in films by Chinese female directors, focusing on two films that span ten years of China's heightening urbanization and globalization: Women's Story (dir. Peng Xiaolian, 1989) and Out of Phoenix Bridge (dir. Li Hong, 1997). It analyses the gendered perspective the films bring to rural women's experience of migration and modernization, arguing that they challenge stereotypes of rural women as headstrong but uncivilized and less modern than urban residents. The films' depiction of women's resistance toward patriarchal norms and their participation in the market economy enhances the understanding of China's post-reform modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hooligan Sparrow breaks with many taboos in Chinese cinema. It is the first internationally acclaimed documentary by a Chinese female director to centre upon investigating the activities of Ye Haiyan, a Chinese sex and women's rights activist, as well as to address the politically sensitive topic of sexual assault in China. This is the first study to examine the cinematic contributions of Wang Nanfu and Ye Haiyan's activism and feminist writings posted on Ye's online social media accounts on Sina Weibo and Twitter. I unpack the power dynamics in this documentary as well as the interplay between the filmmaker's subjectivity and the female rights activist's subjectivity. This study also investigates how masculine aesthetic representations of sexual assault in Chinese cinema have blurred the issue of consent and shows how the subjectivities of female directors like Wang Nanfu and Vivian Qu bring more impactful representations of sexual violence in Chinese cinema. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to explore the possibility of a two-way relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and earnings management (accruals and real EM) with the moderating role of female and independent directors. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use STATA to test the generalized method of moments on a sample of Chinese listed firms data over the period 2009-2015. The unbalanced sample obtained 3,481 observations from China stock market and accounting research database and CSR rating provided by Rankins. Findings: The results indicate a significant negative relationship between two-way CSR and accrual-based EM. Moreover, female and independent directors moderate the two-way relationship between CSR and EM. Research limitations/implications: The present study does not include all financial, insurance and investment firms to impact on CSR and EM. Further research might consist of family ownership to enhance the evidence for an emerging market. Originality/value: This study primarily contributes to the literature on CSR, female and independent directors, and EM by providing evidence for the moderating role of female and independent directors on the two-way association between CSR and EM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As more and more females join boards of directors, their decisions concerning environmental innovation have also become the focus of scholars. Based on the upper echelons theory, feminist caring theory, and social role theory, this study constructed a relationship model between female directors and firms' environmental innovations and chose ownership type as the moderating variable. Selecting 688 listed companies in the Chinese manufacturing industry as the research sample and adopting multiple regression analysis methods, the study found that, when the proportion of female directors on the board of directors increased, the level of a firm's environmental innovation also increased significantly. After female directors were divided into independent and nonindependent directors, we found that female independent directors had a significant effect on the firms' environmental innovations. However, female chairpersons had no significant effect on the firms' environmental innovations. In addition, the effect of female directors and female independent directors on a firm's environmental innovation was stronger for state‐owned listed companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does a board with greater gender diversity make better investment decisions? Drawing on Austrian economic cycle theory and work groups theory, we argue that such board openness will help male board members to overcome gender biases, discrimination, and conflicts; integrate different perspectives under the economic cycle and crisis; and foster an environment in which better decisions are made. The results of an empirical study of 14,609 firm-quarter observations from 1,555 listed firms in China between 2007 and 2009 strongly support our arguments. We find that a Chinese board is more likely to accept female directorship during an economic crisis than during an economic prosperity stage. Boards with greater gender diversity are more likely to make tough, counter-cyclical investments to improve firm performance during a crisis. Our study enriches the board decision-making literature by exploring the impacts of board gender diversity on firm performance within the context of an economic crisis. The results of our study also carry significant managerial implications for overcoming gender stereotypes, biases, and prejudices on a board. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]