Hi Corinne:
This is an interesting thing to study. One aside, though, is that you may wish to consider differentiating studies which have just reported an estimate from those that have reported a consistent (i.e., causal) estimate.
Unfortunately, many studies will probably have not considered that companies chose to add or not women to the board. It possible that unobserved variance in predicting the choice correlates with unobserved variance in predicting firm performance. Also, it possible that firms that perform well add more women to the board. Thus, finding a correlation between gender composition and performance may be due to omitted variables. This correlation, thus, will be spurious, and fully due to the problem of endogeneity.
This problem of endogeneity, can be viewed as a selection problem that should be modeled, e.g, see:
Heckman, J. J. (1979). Sample Selection Bias as a Specification Error. Econometrica, 47(1), 153-161
Other papers taking about "instrumenting" or two-stage least squares will be useful too, see:
Bascle, G. (2008). Controlling for endogeneity with instrumental variables in strategic management research. Strategic Organization, 6(3), 285-327;
Hamilton, B. H., & Nickerson, J. A. (2003). Correcting for endogeneity in strategic management research. Strategic Organization, 1(1), 51-78.
Larcker, D. F., & Rusticus, T. O. (2010). On the use of instrumental variables in accounting research. Journal of Accounting and Economics, 49(3), 186-205.
Here are a couple of recent examples of what I think are pretty well done studies that have looked at this problem include (and you might be able to use this data in your meta-analysis too):
Adams, R. B., & Ferreira, D. (2009). Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance. Journal of Financial Economics, 94(2), 291-309.
Carter, D. A., D'Souza, F., Simkins, B. J., & Simpson, W. G. (2010). The Gender and Ethnic Diversity of US Boards and Board Committees and Firm Financial Performance. Corporate Governance-an International Review, 18(5), 396-414.
If you are interested in a nontechnical treatment of the endogeneity problem see Antonakis, J., Bendahan, S., Jacquart, P., & Lalive, R. (2010). On making causal claims: A review and recommendations. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(6), 1086-1120.
HTH,
J.
__________________________________________ Prof. John Antonakis Faculty of Business and Economics Department of Organizational Behavior University of Lausanne Internef #618 CH-1015 Lausanne-Dorigny Switzerland Tel ++41 (0)21 692-3438 Fax ++41 (0)21 692-3305 http://www.hec.unil.ch/people/jantonakis Associate Editor The Leadership Quarterly __________________________________________
On 27.04.2012 16:08, Corinne Post wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
Kris Byron and I are conducting a meta-analysis on the gender composition of boards of directors as it relates to firm performance, board behaviors, and predictors of board gender composition.
We are seeking unpublished studies (e.g. working papers, papers accepted for publication, dissertations, master's theses, etc.), conference presentations, proceedings publications, or book chapters reporting:
* the gender composition of boards and firm performance (e.g. financial indicators, social indicators, etc.).
* the gender composition of boards and board outcomes (e.g., attendance, interpersonal dynamics, board behaviors, etc.).
* the gender composition of boards and antecedents of gender composition (e.g., lawsuits, industry influence, organizational size, legal policies, etc.).
Please send any relevant efforts to Corinne Post (corinne.post@lehigh.edu).
Thank you in advance for your time,
Corinne Post & Kris Byron
Corinne Post, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Management
College of Business and Economics
Lehigh University
http://www4.lehigh.edu/business/post.aspx 621 Taylor Street
Bethlehem, PA 18015
610.758.5882 (campus office)
908.766.9366 (home office)