Programa del congreso

This paper analyses the relationship between the characteristics of boards of directors (size, independence, gender diversity and CEO duality) and supplier financing. To do so, we employ a large international sample of 6,462 listed companies across 46 countries for the period 2007-2018, ending with a total of 32,146 firm-year observations. The empirical results show that the supervisory and control roles of companies’ boards of directors are important since they facilitate access to external financing, in this case, the financing received from suppliers. Specifically, we find that board size and non-executive (external) board directors positively influence the trade credit received, while an increased presence of women on boards is negatively associated with trade credit.

Resilience is at the forefront in companies striving to build immunity against adverse shocks. Insurance through ESG is the focus of much research, yet it has thus far been dominated by a somewhat static approach. We embrace a longitudinal approach by accounting for two aspects of a firm’s ESG engagement: its degree of regularity over time (ESG consistency), and the extent to which each firm reallocates its ESG engagement across pillars (ESG adaptability). We examine how these characteristics of the ESG strategy affect firm resilience, split into two dimensions: stability (the maximum economic loss suffered following the shock), and flexibility (time to recovery). Using a sample of U.S. listed firms, our empirical context is the COVID-19 shock. Our evidence suggests that ESG consistency and ESG adaptability improve resilience stability, but that they have no significant impact on the flexibility dimension. We further find that such dynamic aspects of ESG become more important vis-à-vis strengthening the resilience of poorer ESG-engaged companies, for which signalling the sincerity of their ESG actions plays a crucial role in prompting stakeholder support. Overall, this evidence is consistent with the view that ESG engagement is a long-term commitment in terms of providing a pay-off for firms.

•Purpose-The paper investigates the influence of gender diversity on boards of directors on operating profitability, operating income and expenses, taking into account the moderating impact of prevailing patriarchal attitudes in different countries and years. Similarly, it analyzes the influence of diversity on financial profitability, financial income and financial expenses, taking into account how firm risk may affect the effect of diversity on the various financial components.

•Design/methodology/approach-The international sample analyzed is composed of listed firms from 17 European countries for the period of 2005–2019. We use a two-step system GMM approach to contrast our hypotheses.

•Findings-Our findings reveal a positive effect of gender diversity on profitability and operating income, while the effect on operating expenses is negative. Furthermore, we find that the negative moderating effect of patriarchal attitudes attenuates and reverses the positive or negative relationship between gender diversity and operating variables. We also find that gender diversity reduces profitability and financial income while increasing financial expenses. As for the effect of risk aversion, we find that it exerts an enhancing effect on the impact of diversity on financial variables.

•Implications-Confirming the positive effect of gender diversity makes the role of women within firms more visible and legitimate.

El trabajo tiene como objetivo determinar la influencia que tienen ciertas variables tecnológicas de carácter empresarial en la eficiencia de las empresas de restauración ubicadas en la Andalucía rural. Para ello, se realizó un estudio en el que se analizó la eficiencia de las empresas de restauración incluyendo y sin incluir la variable reputación online. Más concretamente, se realizaron tres análisis envolventes de datos (DEA), con lo que se demuestra por separado la ineficiencia económica y la eficiencia tecnológica de las empresas del estudio. Sin embargo, cuando se combinan tanto variables económicas como tecnológicas la eficiencia de dichas empresas mejora. Para demostrar la relación existente entre las variables económicas y tecnológicas se realiza un modelo reflectivo de ecuaciones estructurales (PLS-SEM). Finalmente, se llegó a la conclusión de que es necesario mejorar la eficiencia de las empresas de restauración desde la doble perspectiva económica-tecnológica.