The impact of female board members on green / environmental innovation

Abstract

This thesis empirically investigates the effect of female board membership on environmental innovation in 62 European and British listed companies from 2002 to 2022. We operate on a theoretical framework informed by upper echelon, gender socialization, and critical mass theory and formulate two hypotheses linking the proportion and absolute number of female board membership to innovative practices. Using data gathered from BoardEx, Refinitiv Workspace, and ORBIS IP databases, we run a series of panel regressions. The results suggest that neither the presence nor the quantity of women on boards significantly impact firms’ green initiatives. These results are robust to random regression models (clustered at the firm and country levels) and an alternative model (firm fixed effects model). Moreover, a positive relationship between environmental innovation and firm size and between environmental innovation and tenure are discovered, which is only significant in the clustered country level model. These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge in corporate finance and governance literature in the nexus between board composition and environmental practices.