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korean management review - Vol. 50 , No. 4

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korean management review - Vol. 50, No. 4, pp. 1107-1128
Abbreviation: kmr
ISSN: 1226-1874 (Print)
Print publication date 31 Aug 2021
Received 17 Jan 2021 Revised 15 Apr 2021 Accepted 26 Apr 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17287/kmr.2021.50.4.1107
The Impact of Board Gender Diversity and Institutional Blockholders on Firm Value
Chan-gu Jeon ; Hyangmi Choi
(First Author) (Korea Land and Housing Corporation (jcg@lh.or.kr)
(Corresponding Author) Chungnam National University (hmchoi@cnu.ac.kr)
이사회 성별 다양성과 기관투자자가 기업 가치에 미치는 영향

Copyright 2011 THE KOREAN ACADEMIC SOCIETY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0, which permits unrestricted, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The amended Act on Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act stipulates that listed firms with assets of 2 trillion won or more should have at least one woman on their boards. This study aims to explore the impact of board gender diversity on firm value and the role of institutional blockholders on the relationship. The results are as follows. First, the board gender diversity is positively related to firm value regardless of markets, firm size, industry. Second, foreign blockholders reinforce the positive relationship between board gender diversity and firm value, while domestic blockholders mitigate the relationship. Third, board gender diversity and firm value has an inverted U shape relationship. Firm value increases with the proportion of female directors to a certain level, after which it decreases. The optimal board structure was reached when the ratio of female directors was between 18 and 44 percent, up to conditions. This finding provides an insightful grounds on the effectiveness of the revised Act, regarding appointment of female directors and gives a guideline for policy makers by suggesting optimal level of board gender structure.


Keywords: Board Gender Diversity, Firm Value, Institutional Blockholders, Board of Directors

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∙ The author Chan-gu Jeon is a Ph.D. candidate majoring in financial management at Chungnam National University and serves as a general manager of the Finance & Accounting Office of the Korea Land and Housing Corporation.

∙ The author Hyangmi Choi is an associate professor at the school of Business of Chungnam National University. Her main research areas include international finance and corporate finance. She received a PhD in International Finance from Seoul National University.