Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

Postprint

Publication Date

2-2016

Abstract

This study examines the impact of female board representation on firm-level strategic behavior within the domain of mergers and acquisitions (M&A). We build on social identity theory to predict that greater female representation on a firm's board will be negatively associated with both the number of acquisitions the firm engages in and, conditional on doing a deal, acquisition size. Using a comprehensive, multi-year sample of U.S. public firms, we find strong support for our hypotheses. We demonstrate the robustness of our findings through the use of a difference-in-differences analysis on a sub-sample of firms that experienced exogenous changes in board gender composition as a result of director deaths

Keywords

Board characteristics, director gender, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, strategic leadership

Discipline

Accounting | Corporate Finance | Human Resources Management

Research Areas

Corporate Governance, Auditing and Risk Management

Publication

Strategic Management Journal

Volume

37

Issue

2

First Page

303

Last Page

313

ISSN

0143-2095

Identifier

10.1002/smj.2323

Publisher

Wiley

Additional URL

http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/smj.2323

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