The Influence Of Board Diversity On Company Performance Of South African Companies

ABSTRACT

A board of directors forms one of the pillars of a robust corporate governance framework. Board diversity can offer both challenges and opportunities for a company. In this article we investigate whether diversity of a board influences company performance as well as the change in company performance for the Top 100 South African companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange in 2013–2015. Tobin’s Q and Return on Assets are used as performance measures. Our findings show that the proportion of women on a board, the number of directors with a business qualification and board size are significantly positively related with the performance of South African companies, whereas the ethnic diversity of a board is significantly negatively related with the performance of South African companies.

KEYWORDS:

• Board composition
• board diversity
• company performance
• corporate governance
• institutional ownership

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.