Board Gender Diversity and Firm Performance: Evidence from Listed Energy Firms in Vietnam

Abstract

This study is motivated by the fact that Vietnam has the highest proportion of women serving on business boards in the ASEAN area. Moreover, the energy sector in Vietnam has been overgrowing and transitioning to renewable energy. Therefore, it is worth testing the relationship between board gender diversity and the performance of listed energy firms in Vietnam, a transition economy in Asia. We employ the Generalized Least Squares with fixed firms and period effects to analyze a sample of 35 listed energy enterprises in Vietnam from 2011 to 2020. Our empirical results indicate that board gender diversity positively affects energy firms' performance. The results show that board gender diversity increases ROE by 5.1% compared with other energy firms. Our findings are robust even though we employ alternative proxies of firm performance, such as ROA. Our study contributes implications for managers to encourage the higher participation of female executives on boards to develop firm performance. Our findings align with agency theory, social psychological theory, and prior literature.