Open AccessWomen with STEM qualifications on supervisory boards. Does a high women quota in supervisory boards influence firm success?
Author(s) -
Bettina Binder,
Hochschule Pforzheim
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
europeana accounting and management review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2385-3921
DOI - 10.26595/eamr.2014.7.1.2
Subject(s) - supervisory board , scrutiny , accounting , context (archaeology) , earnings , business , representation (politics) , corporate governance , finance , political science , law , paleontology , politics , biology
Many large companies in Europe include mainly men in supervisory boards and the women quota is often lower than 20 %. In Germany an optional women quota of 30 % in supervisory boards was proposed for capital market oriented companies in 2016. Some assume that without a gender quota the earnings of enterprises would shrink as male and female members in supervisory teams do not work in such a harmonized and structured way. Others think that a women quota in supervisory boards should be requested by law and should not remain optional. In this context, conducting research and analyzing the impact of the women’s presence in supervisory boards on the success of companies appear as a necessary topic. The present article looks at the companies of EURO STOXX 50 in the year 2015 and their success and tries to establish whether this success can be related to the percentage of female members in supervisory positions. It replicates in this way the study of Binder, Alonso-Almeida and Bremser (2016) which analyzed the relationship between female’s representation in the management board (executive board) and firm performance (measured by earnings before taxes – EBT) of the EURO STOXX 50 companies in 2014. It is in the same time an extension of the original study as the supervisory board is brought under scrutiny and a closer look at women qualifications, and especially women with STEM qualifications is provided.