The impact of executive board gender diversity, R&D investment, marketing expenses on company performance in the healthcare industry

Figures & data

Figure 1. The conceptual model.

Table

Gender of Board Chair + CEO	Interaction Variable
1. a female board chair with a female CEO (F + F)	homogenous coded as 1
2. a female board chair with a male CEO (F + M)	heterogenous coded as 2
3. a male board chair with a male CEO (M + M)	homogenous coded as 1
4. a male board chair with a female CEO (M + F)	heterogenous coded as 2

Table 1. Exogenous and endogenous variables.

Variable	Description
Exogenous variables
Gender of board chair (CHRG)	It represents a male board chair or a female board chair in a listed healthcare company.
Gender of CEO (CEOG)	It represents a male CEO or a female CEO in a listed healthcare company.
Endogenous variables
Interaction of gender of board chair and CEO (ICCG)	We mix the gender of male and female of board chair with the gender of male and female CEO in listed healthcare companies. There are four different gender mixes of board chairs. A female board chair with a female CEO coded as 1, A female board chair with a male CEO coded as 2, A male board chair with a male CEO coded as 1, A male board chair with a female CEO coded as 2.
R&D investment (R&DI)	All the costs related to the development of new offerings, i.e., products and services, comprising software investments, amortization of software investments, company-sponsored R&D. However, R&D investment do not include government or customer sponsored R&D investments. This study adopts the total investment in the Research and Development of products in listed healthcare companies.
Sales as an indicator of performance (SALES)	The total sales yielded by listed healthcare companies.
Marketing expenses (MKTE)	The total expenses spent on advertising, sales promotion, and related marketing activities, including selling, general, and administrative expenses (SGA) in marketing in listed healthcare companies.

Figure 2. Structural model assessment procedure.

Table 2. Descriptive statistics and correlation coefficient matrix (N = 305).

	Mean	Std. Deviation	CEOG	CHRG	ICCG	LnRD	LnMKTE
CEOG*	1.22	1.045	1
CHRG	1.08	0.275	0.007	1
ICCG	1.65	0.479	0.127**	0.121**	1
LnRD	17.68	1.76	−0.061	−0.089	−0.008	1
LnMKTE	19.71	0.946	0.04	0.005	0.049	0.23**	1
LSALES	21.02	1.287	−0.028	0.106**	0.209**	0.008	0.111**

*Variables before standardization.

**p < 0.05.

Figure 3. Estimated path coefficients of the conceptual model.

Table 3. Mediation analysis using PLS-SEM.

Hypothesis	Procedure	Path	Path coefficient	Indirect effect	STDEV	Total effect	Variance accounted For (VAF)	p-Value (one-tailed)	Hypothesis (the type of mediation)
H4	Step 1:	Sobel’s Z-test: Z = 3.886						p < 0.001
	Step 2: Direct effect (without MKTE)	R&DI → PERF	0.273	n/a				p < 0.000	Significant
	Step 3: Indirect Effect (with MKTE)	R&DI → SALES	−0.148	n/a		0.722	0.795**	t = 13.09 p < 0.000	Accepted (Significant mediation)
		R&DI → MKTE	0.724	0.574	0.044
		MKTE → SALES	0.793

Table 4. Results of hypotheses testing.

Hypothesis	Path Coefficient	R-square	Supported/rejected
H1 CHRG →ICCG	0.741 (p < 0.001)	0.590	Supported
H2 CEOG → ICCG	0.195 (p < 0.001)	N.A.	Supported
H3 ICCG→R&DI	−0.083 (p < 0.001)	0.007	Supported
H4a R&DI → SALES	0.184 (p < 0.147)	0.451	Rejected
H4b R&DI → MKTE	0.739 (p < 0.001)	0.525	Supported
H4c MKTE→ SALES	0.793 (p < 0.001)	0.451	Supported

Table 5. Total effects of the model.

Path (Total Effect)	t-Statistic	p-Value
CEOG → ICCG	2.748	0.006
CEOG → MKTE	3.588	0.000
CEOG → R&DI	2.579	0.010
CEOG → SALES	2.679	0.007
CHRG → ICCG	2.135	0.033
CHRG → MKTE	23.015	0.000
CHRG → R&DI	4.383	0.000
CHRG → SALES	4.645	0.000
ICCG → MKTE	3.056	0.002
ICCG → R&DI	4.427	0.000
ICCG → SALES	4.699	0.000
MKTE → SALES	3.070	0.002
R&DI → MKTE	5.979	0.000
R&DI → SALES	16.432	0.000

Table 6. Specific indirect effects.

Path	T value	p-Value
CEOG → ICCG → R&DI → MKTE	2.579	0.010
ICCG → R&DI → MKTE	4.427	0.000
CHRG → ICCG → R&DI → MKTE	4.383	0.000
CEOG → ICCG → R&DI	2.679	0.007
CHRG → ICCG → R&DI	4.645	0.000
CEOG → ICCG → R&DI → MKTE → SALES	2.123	0.034
R&DI → MKTE → SALES	4.636	0.000
ICCG → R&DI → MKTE → Sales	3.177	0.001
CHRG → ICCG → R&DI → MKTE → SALES	3.173	0.002
CEOG → ICCG → R&DI → SALES	1.123	0.261
ICCG → R&D → SALES	1.373	0.170
CHRG → ICCG → R&DI → SALES	1.378	0.168

Table 7. Two-sample cross-validation.

Path Coefficients-diff (S1–S2)		p-Value original (S1 vs. S2)	p-Value new (S1 vs. 2)
R&DI → SALES	−0.077	0.595	0.810
R&DI → MKTE	−0.054	0.687	0.627
MKTE → SALES	−0.198	0.811	0.377
ICCG → R&DI	0.028	0.218	0.437
CHRG → ICCG	−0.003	0.520	0.961
CEOG → ICCG	0.097	0.486	0.972

Table 8. f Square endogenous variables.

Exogenous variable	Endogenous variable
	ICCG	MKTE	R&DI	SALES
R&DI		1.147		0.029
MKTE				0.544
ICCG			0.007
CHRG	1.339
CEOG	0.093

Table 9. Q² values for predictive relevance.

	SSO	SSE	Q² (=1-SSE/SSO)
CEOG	305.000	305.000
CHRG	305.000	305.000
ICCG	305.000	129.032	0.577
MKTE	305.000	146.055	0.521
R&DI	305.000	302.946	0.007
SALES	305.000	197.736	0.352

Table 10. q² effect size for relative predictive relevance.

	CEOG Q^2(excluded) = 0.541	CHRG Q^2(excluded) = 0.037	MKTE Q^2(excluded) = 0.109	R&DI Q^2(excluded) = 0.336
ICCG Q^2(included) = 0.557	0.0361	1.173
MKTE Q^2(included) = 0.521
R&DI Q^2(included) = 0.007
SALES Q^2(included) = 0.515			0.8371	0.369