Does Gender Diversity Matter at the Board Level? Firm’s Financial Performance and Gender Diversity in Sri Lankan-Listed Firms

The generally accepted practices and the governance-driven context influence enhancement through board independence and governance, a vital dimension in the 21st century. Additionally, board diversity has been heavily emphasized with the director heterogeneity, which includes a mix of age, gender, education, ethnicity and other diverse characteristics to be present in directors. Although increasing levels of diversity are evident worldwide, “Board Gender Diversity” within the Sri Lankan context remains low with only 8.4% of female representation on boards. Despite various benefits recognized by scholars globally by having females on boards, it is expected to achieve inclusion of better firm reputation, greater board independence and better firm performances; still it is observed that representation of women remains low in many entities under consideration. Vulnerabilities of female representation at the board level on the performance have been the research problem and it is to explore reasons for the poor female representation. The study conducted aligned with the deductive approach and it is to explore a survey strategy to formulate the research the sample has been recognised from the public companies listed on the Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) from 2019 to 2022. This research presents empirical evidence and carefully calculated and examined evidence of whether board diversity is associated with improved financial performance in line with the research conducted in Western countries. It further reviewed that there is a greater impact of female participation at the board level over the performance of the entities in Sri Lanka.行业普遍认可的实践与治理导向的制度语境，均通过董事会独立性与治理机制推动效能提升——这是21世纪企业治理的核心维度之一。此外，董事会多元化（board diversity）因董事异质性（director heterogeneity）而备受重视，后者要求董事团队需兼具年龄、性别、教育背景、种族等多元特征。尽管全球范围内董事会多元化水平已有显著提升，但斯里兰卡语境下的董事会性别多元化（Board Gender Diversity）仍处于低位，董事会女性董事占比仅为8.4%。尽管全球学界已证实董事会吸纳女性成员可带来多重利好，包括提升企业声誉、强化董事会独立性以及改善企业绩效，但当前受研究关注的诸多企业中，女性董事占比依旧偏低。学界针对董事会女性代表席位不足对企业绩效的影响尚存研究缺口，这一议题正是本研究的核心，旨在探明女性董事占比偏低的根源。本研究采用演绎式研究范式，以调研法作为数据收集策略，研究样本取自2019至2022年间在科伦坡证券交易所（Colombo Stock Exchange, CSE）上市的公众公司。本研究提供了经严谨测算与检验的实证证据，证实董事会多元化与企业财务绩效提升之间存在关联，这与西方国家的相关研究结论相符。此外，本研究进一步发现，董事会女性成员参与度对斯里兰卡企业的绩效具有更为显著的正向影响。