Women on corporate boards moderate managerial earnings management practices of firms

What is it about?

Gender equality or equity has featured prominently on the global development agenda for more than two decades. Despite the universal appeal of its rhetoric and regular policy conversations on the topic, progress in terms of gender diversity on corporate boards, especially in Africa, have been slow and rife with tokenism. We demonstrate how a gender-diverse board moderates opportunistic behaviour by managers such as earnings management, which consequently results in favourable performance outcomes.

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Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The marginalization of women, especially in business and corporate affairs, is widely being recognised as a grave weakness in corporate governance. There is evidence to suggest that, women on boards are capable of checking managerial excesses in wanton pursuit of their self-interest which often bubbles up in devastating corporate consequences. Our paper which demonstrates the moderating role of women with regards to firms' earnings management behaviour, contributes to the advocacy for women representation on corporate boards so as to benefit from their essential features and characteristics which enhances the value of firms.

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