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ABSTRACT
This paper examines the effect of female corporate financial officers (CFOs) on corporate financial policies in industries with different rates of growth. In general, we find that female CFOs in China show more risk aversion and conservatism across a broad set of financial decisions. Furthermore, we document that female CFOs emphasize different corporate financial policies in high-growth versus low-growth industries. We find that female CFOs emphasize restraint in expansion decisions in high-growth industries but attach more weight to efficiency management in low-growth industries. Finally, we find that the conservative characteristics of female CFOs are more beneficial for financial performance in low-growth industries. Our findings enhance understanding of female CFOs’ roles under different growth conditions in emerging markets.
Acknowledgments
Ying Hao gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71872017).
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. See Krause, Semadeni, and Cannella JR (Citation2013), Aktas, Croci, and Petmezas (Citation2015), Hoitash, Hoitash, and Kurt (Citation2016).
2. Trianna et al. (Citation2014) show that gender diversity can drive or impede strategic changes, depending on firm performance and the power of female directors.
3. Given that manufacturing (First industry code = C) is the largest industry in China and firms in this industry account for more than half the full sample, it is further divided into 10 sub-industries by the second industry code.