Board gender diversity and performance in family firms: exploring the faultline of family ties

Abstract

Using a sample of 1134 frm-year observations of non-fnancial family frms listed on the Spanish stock market in the period 2003–2020, we explore how women directors afect company performance, distinguishing between family and non-family female members on the board. We believe there might be faultlines between family and non-family women on boards that may well impair performance due to diferences in agency conficts and socioemotional links with the family frm. As the number of female family directors grows, we reveal that conficts with non-family sub-groups become more prevalent, impairing frm performance. Opening boards to non-family women does, however, seem to be an efective way of enhancing frm performance when there is a critical mass of female directors. The results are robust to alternative measures of board gender diversity and diferent econometric specifcations.