Article: Nomination committee-board gender diversity nexus in Ghana Journal: International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics (IJBGE) 2016 Vol.11 No.2 pp.135 - 158 Abstract: This study assesses the link between nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee and gender diversity in Ghanaian boardrooms. We use a dataset of 25 listed and 20 unlisted Ghanaian firms for January 2006 to December 2012; nine years after the Ghana Government endorsed an Affirmative Action Plan to achieve 40% representation of women on all boards by the year 2000. We employ probit and logit regressions to test our hypotheses. Listed firms and financial institutions are more likely to have more gender diverse boards. By contrast, we have no evidence to support the link between board gender diversity and board size, firm age, firm size, firm ownership, board composition and nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee. Overall, our results raise questions on the appropriateness of the continual use of both the agency and resource dependency theories in explaining board gender diversity in developing economies' perspective. This study is the first of its kind, particularly within developing economies. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Nomination committee-board gender diversity nexus in Ghana

Authors: Kingsley Opoku Appiah; Lawrence Adu Asamoah; Beatrice Osei

Addresses: School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana ' Department of Economics, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana ' School of Business, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

Abstract: This study assesses the link between nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee and gender diversity in Ghanaian boardrooms. We use a dataset of 25 listed and 20 unlisted Ghanaian firms for January 2006 to December 2012; nine years after the Ghana Government endorsed an Affirmative Action Plan to achieve 40% representation of women on all boards by the year 2000. We employ probit and logit regressions to test our hypotheses. Listed firms and financial institutions are more likely to have more gender diverse boards. By contrast, we have no evidence to support the link between board gender diversity and board size, firm age, firm size, firm ownership, board composition and nomination committees' presence and size as well as male directors on nomination committee. Overall, our results raise questions on the appropriateness of the continual use of both the agency and resource dependency theories in explaining board gender diversity in developing economies' perspective. This study is the first of its kind, particularly within developing economies.

Keywords: corporate governance; board composition; board committees; nomination committee; board gender diversity; agency theory; resource dependency theory; Ghana; board of directors; affirmative action; female representation; women; emerging economies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBGE.2016.078217

International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, 2016 Vol.11 No.2, pp.135 - 158

Accepted: 29 Apr 2016
Published online: 08 Aug 2016 *

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Title: Nomination committee-board gender diversity nexus in Ghana

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