The association between gender diversity, directors' qualification and the performance of Australian listed companies

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of two important diversity characteristics of board members, namely gender and qualification and expertise on the performance of Australian organisations measured by Tobin's Q, Return on Assets (ROA) and Return on Equity (ROE). While it is recognized by many researchers that female empowerment can lead to a positive contribution to the organisation it is still a controversial research topic with inconclusive and mixed findings (Liu, Wei, & Xie, 2014). The key motivation for this study is to address the issue of mixed findings regarding the impact of gender diversity on organisation performance and to provide insights into the impact of directors' qualification. The study uses agency theory and stewardship theory, with data for this study collected from SIRCA and DataStream resulting in the 509 Australian organisations for the period 2010-2014 used in this study. A panel data regression was applied to observe the influence of gender diversity and directors' qualification and expertise on the financial performance of organisations in Australian context. This study finds that gender diversity, directors' qualification and expertise are positively associated with organisation performance proxy by Tobin's Q, ROA and ROE. Various gender diversity proxies such as proportion of female directors, number of female directors, female chair, female CEO and female director in audit committee are positively associated with Tobin's Q, ROA and ROE respectively. Directors' education at master level improves Tobin's Q and ROE. Further, directors' qualifications in the legal and mining disciplines are positively associated with Tobin's Q and ROA respectively. Similarly, directors' mining expertise positively impacts the ROA. Hence, the study concludes that female directors, their qualification and expertise are valuable to the organisation. The findings of this study have policy implications, and policy makers may use the findings of this study in setting regulations relating to board membership. Organisations may also use these findings in deciding the composition and selecting board of directors.