Title: Women's leadership, performance and governance in Lebanese microfinance institutions

Authors: Miriam Aziz; Charbel Salloum; Laura Salloum; Ruba Younes Mhanna; Quentin Lefebvre; Nicolas Badaoui

Addresses: USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Lebanon ' USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Lebanon ' USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Lebanon ' USEK Business School, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Lebanon ' Paris 2 Panthéon Assas University, 1 Rue Guy de la Brosse, 75005 Paris, France ' School of Law and Political Sciences, Holy Spirit University of Kaslik, P.O. Box 446, Lebanon

Abstract: The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between women's leadership, performance and governance in Lebanese microfinance institutions (MFIs). The microfinance industry serves to highlight the significant relationship between women's leadership, performance and governance. The purpose of this study is to understand the effect of women's leadership on the governance and performance of MFIs due to their oriented mission toward women and poor families, their entrepreneurial nature and the high percentage of women leaders within the institutions. Using a regression analysis among a convenient sample of 51 MFIs over three years that contains 105 observations, our results suggest that CEO duality is more common when women occupy leadership positions, and there are fewer board meetings. Moreover, financial performance and governance are perhaps jointly related, although the correlation table does not show evidence of such a relationship in the case of MFIs. Our study provides important insights regarding women's leadership practices in Lebanon and more importantly, helps us to understand how entrepreneurial nature could lead to better governance.

Keywords: women's leadership; financial performance; corporate governance; microfinance institutions; MFIs.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCG.2020.110151

International Journal of Corporate Governance, 2020 Vol.11 No.2, pp.202 - 221

Received: 06 Apr 2019
Accepted: 18 Feb 2020
Published online: 07 Oct 2020 *

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