Do female CEOs handle crisis better? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17811/ebl.13.3.2024.158-171Keywords:
COVID-19, female CEOs, firm performanceAbstract
We examine whether firm performance in response to the shock of the COVID pandemic differed depending upon whether the CEO was female or male. We find that though female CEOs do not consistently demonstrate better management across all periods, following the shock, firms run by female CEOs were more profitable, more highly valued and more risk averse than firms run by male CEOs.
References
Adams, R.B. and Ferreira, D. (2009) Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance, Journal of Financial Economics, 94(2), 291-309.
Bartunek, J.M., Walsh, K and Lacey, C.A. (2000) Dynamics and dilemmas of women leading women, Organization Science, 11(6), 589-610.
Batson, C.D., Sympson, S.C., Hindman, J.L, Decruz, P., Todd, R.M., Weeks, J.L. and Burns, C.T. (1996) I’ve been there, too: effect on empathy of prior experience with a need, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22(5), 474-482.
Belenzon, S., Shamshur, A. and Zarutskie, R. (2019) CEO's age and the performance of closely held firms, Strategic Management Journal, 40(6), 917-944.
Bose, S., Shams, S., Ali, M.J. and Mihret, D. (2022) COVID-19 impact, sustainability performance and firm value: international evidence. Accounting and Finance, 62(1), 597-643.
Bruce, R., Cavgias, A., Meloni, L. and Remígio, M. (2022) Under pressure: women’s leadership during the COVID-19 crisis, Journal of Development Economics, 154, 102761.
Byron, K. and Khazanchi, S. (2012) Rewards and creative performance: a meta-analytic test of theoretically derived hypotheses, Psychological Bulletin, 138, 809-830.
Campbell, K. and Mínguez-Vera, A. (2008) Gender diversity in the boardroom and firm financial performance, Journal of Business Ethics, 83(3), 435-451.
Combs, J.G., Ketchen Jr, D.J., Perryman, A.A. and Donahue, M.S. (2007) The moderating effect of CEO power on the board composition–firm performance relationship, Journal of Managements Studies, 44(8), 1299–1323.
Eagly, A.H. and Johnson, B.T. (1990) Gender and leadership style: a meta-analysis, Psychological Bulletin, 108(2), 233-256.
El-Khatib, R., Fogel, K. and Jandik, T. (2015) CEO network centrality and merger performance, Journal of Financial Economics, 116(2), 349–382.
Faccio, M., Marchica, M-T. and Mura, R. (2016) CEO gender, corporate risk-taking, and the efficiency of capital allocation, Journal of Corporate Finance, 39, 192-209.
Farooq, M.U., Su, K., Boubaker, S. and Gull, A.A. (2022) Does gender promote ethical and risk-averse behavior among CEOs? An illustration through related-party transactions, Finance Research Letters, 47(Part B), 102730.
Fogel, K., Ma, L. and Morck, R. (2021) Powerful independent directors, Financial Management, 50(4), 935-983.
Francoeur, C., Labelle, R. and Sinclair-Desgagné, B. (2008) Gender diversity in corporate governance and top management, Journal of Business Ethics, 81(1), 83-95.
Garikipati, S. and Kambhampati, U. (2021) Leading the fight against the pandemic: does gender really matter? Feminist Economics, 27(1-2), 401–418.
Hall. M. and Weiss, L. (1967) Firm size and profitability, The Review of Economics and Statistics, 49(3), 319 – 331.
Ho, S.S., Li, A.Y., Tam, K. and Zhang, F. (2015) CEO gender, ethical leadership, and accounting conservatism, Journal of Business Ethics, 127, 351-370.
Hu, S. and Zhang, Y. (2021) COVID-19 pandemic and firm performance: cross-country evidence, International Review of Economics and Finance, 74, 365-372.
Huang, J. and Kisgen, D.J. (2013), Gender and corporate finance: are male executives overconfident relative to female executives? Journal of Financial Economics, 108(3), 822-839.
Jiraporn, P., Jumreornvong, S., Jiraporn, N. and Singh, S. (2016) How do independent directors view powerful CEOs? Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment, Finance Research Letters, 16, 268-274.
Khan, W.A. and Vieito, J.P. (2013) CEO gender and firm performance, Journal of Economics and Business, 67, 55-66.
Krishnan, G.V. and Parsons, L.M. (2008) Getting to the bottom line: an exploration of gender and earning quality, Journal of Business Ethics, 78(1-2), 65-76.
Liu, Y., Wei, Z. and Xie, F. (2014) Do women directors improve firm performance in China? Journal of Corporate Finance, 28, 169-184.
Martin, A. D., Nishikawa, T. and Williams, M. A. (2009) CEO gender: effects on valuation and risk, Quarterly Journal of Finance and Accounting, 48(3), 23-40.
Palvia, A., Vähämaa, E. and Vähämaa, S. (2015) Are female CEOs and chairwomen more conservative and risk averse? Evidence from the banking industry during the financial crisis. Journal of Business Ethics, 131(3), 577-594.
Pearson, C.M. and Sommer, S.A. (2011) Infusing creativity into crisis management: an essential approach today, Organizational Dynamics, 40(1), 27-33.
Ryan, M.K., Haslam, S.A., Morgenroth, T., Rink, F., Stoker, J. and Peters, K. (2016) Getting on top of the glass cliff: reviewing a decade of evidence, explanations, and impact, The Leadership Quarterly, 27(3), 446-455.
Sergent, K. and Stajkovic, A.D., (2020) Women’s leadership is associated with fewer deaths during the COVID-19 crisis, Quantitative and qualitative analyses of United States governors, Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(8), 771–783.
Shin, H. and Park, S. (2023) Are firms with women executives better at surviving a crisis? Evidence from South Korea during the COVID-19 pandemic, Gender in Management, 38(1), 133-151.
Shropshire, C., Peterson, S., Bartels, A.L., Amanatullah, E.T. and Lee, P.M. (2021) Are female CEOs really more risk averse? Examining economic downturn and other orientation, Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, 28(2), 185-206.
Stock, J. and Yogo, M. (2005) Testing for weak instruments in IV regression. In: Andrews, D. and Stock, J. (Eds.): Identification and Inference for Econometric Models: A Festschrift in Honor of Thomas Rothenberg Cambridge University Press, 80-108.
Toussaint, L. and Webb, J.R. (2005) Gender differences in the relationship between empathy and forgiveness, The Journal of Social Psychology, 145(6), 673-685.
Vo, L.V., Nguyen, H.T.H. and Le, H.T.T. (2019) Do female CEOs make a difference in firm operations? Evidence from Vietnam, Accounting and Finance, 61(S1), 1489-1516.
Zeng, S. and Wang, L. (2015) CEO gender and corporate cash holdings. Are female CEOs more conservative? Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting and Economics, 22(4), 449-474.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
The works published in this journal are subject to the following terms:
1. Oviedo University Press (the publisher) retains the property rights (copyright) of published works, and encourages and enables the reuse of the same under the license specified in paragraph 2.
© Ediuno. Ediciones de la Universidad de Oviedo / Oviedo University Press
2. The works are published in the online edition of the journal under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Non Derives 3.0 Spain (legal text). You can copy, use, distribute, transmit and publicly display, provided that: i) you cite the author and the original source of publication (journal, publisher and URL of the work), ii) they are not used for commercial purposes, iii) mentions the existence and specifications of this license.
3. Conditions of self-archiving. The author can archive the post-print version of the article (publisher’s version) on the author’s personal website and/or on the web of the institution where he belong, including a link to the page of the journal and putting the way of citation of the work. Economics and Business Letters and its URL https://reunido.uniovi.es/index.php/EBL/index are the only authorized source for correctly giving the reference of the publisher’s version in every mention of the article.