Social Wellbeing, Board-Gender Diversity, and Financial Performance: Evidence From Chinese Fintech Companies

Abstract

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The main goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between female representation on board of directors and financial performance, using evidence from Chinese fintech companies, which are providing financial services using cutting-edge technologies. This research used fintech firms listed on the Shanghai and Shenzen Stock Exchange from 2010 to 2019 to test the research questions using regression analyses by SPSS v26. According to the data, the Blau index has a large and negative influence on Tobin's Q, which demonstrates that gender diversity harms the performance of Chinese enterprises. Furthermore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) is found to have a significant and positive moderating influence on Tobin's Q, implying that the adoption of CSR converts a negative to a positive effect. Diversified board members can improve the organization's control and monitoring operations, and female-represented board of directors can participate in the CSR activities that contribute to the organization's performance. The study contributes to the research of gender diversity by providing evidence that women on board of directors enhance firm performance, and the moderating function of CSR is examined with the link of female participation on the board of directors and financial performance.

Keywords

• corporate social performance
• financial technologies
• board gender diversity
• E-commerce
• institutional theory