Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management· 2026Q1
Are Corporate Governance Choices Contagious? Peer Effects in Board Gender Diversity and Institutional Ownership
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- Q1SCImago
- 2026year
Short summary
Corporate governance practices, specifically board gender diversity and institutional ownership, spread among peer firms, with a rise in female directors in peers boosting representation in focal firms.
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Key points
- Corporate governance practices, including board gender diversity and institutional ownership, exhibit spillover effects among peer firms.
- An increase in female directors among peer firms positively influences female board representation in focal firms.
- Imitating peer corporate governance practices can negatively impact a firm's value and profitability.
- Firms with lower R&D investments and no financial constraints show a stronger peer effect in governance.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
ABSTRACT This research explores whether corporate governance has a comprehensive impact on peer firms, analyzing US companies via a sample of 15,494 observations from 2001 to 2018. The findings reveal that effective corporate governance produces positive spillover effects, leading to better overall governance across the industry. Specifically, a rise in the proportion of female directors among peer firms positively increases female board representation in focal firms. Similar spillover effect is also observed in patterns of institutional ownership. However, the study reveals that imitating corporate governance practices of peers can ultimately be detrimental to the value and profitability of the imitating firms. Finally, our results also indicate that the peer effect in corporate governance is more pronounced among firms with lower R&D investments and those without financial resource limitations. These findings highlight that a firm's ability or willingness to imitate peers' corporate governance is shaped by its internal resources and strategic capacity.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Gender Studies
Gender StudiesSocial Sciences