Gender dynamics in moroccan listed family firms are women the missing link in governance and performance

Abstract

Corporate governance has become a crucial oversight mechanism at investors’ disposal to protect their interests. Moreover, family businesses are generally known for the significant presence of the owning family members in the different governance bodies. Recently, gender diversity as a research topic has gained more importance in most leading scientific journals at the international level. In Morocco, the diversity dilemma in corporate governance in the Casablanca stock exchange has become one of the most debated themes by experts insofar as the feminization of governance bodies is perceived today as one of the most effective governance practices at the organizational level. Within this framework, this research aims to study the impact of gender diversity on the financial performance of listed Moroccan family companies. Through the theoretical part of our scientific contribution, we propose a conceptual research model integrating the "Gender" dimension in the dynamic configuration framing the Governance-Performance relationship in the context of family companies listed on the Casablanca Stock Exchange. Our empirical study is based on dynamic regression equations estimated using the GMM modelling technique to address endogeneity in governance research. Our results provide significant insights into gender diversity attributes within the governance bodies of 42 listed family companies. Our empirical contribution highlights a result that tends towards a constructive logic behind the increased female directors’ presence in the governance structures of these heterogeneous entities that are the subject of our study. Keywords : Governance; Gender diversity; Family firms; Sys-GMM; Financial Performance.