Mirroring Gender Diversity: is Reporting a Reflection ofthe TMT? : A Quantitative Study of Gender Diversity Disclosure in Swedish State-Owned Enterprises

Abstract: Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explain how the gender diversity of the top management team affects the disclosure strategy regarding gender diversity, in state-owned enterprises. The study, in addition, tests if hybridity, conceptualized as conflicting institutional logics, has a moderating effect on this relationship. Theoretical perspectives: With its starting point in the upper echelon theory, the study uses both positive accounting theory and signaling theory to explain managers’ disclosure decision, where the intuitional logics approach represents the moderating decision-making context. Methodology: The study is based within the positivistic paradigm, following a deductive approach and quantitative methodology. Both the textual and visual diversity content of the annual reports of 30 state-owned enterprises over a 5-year period, is collected and analyzed using the Spearman correlation matrix and multiple regression analysis. The moderating effect of hybridity is tested through hierarchical moderated multiple regression analysis. Findings: The findings of the study provide partial support for the relationship between the gender diversity of the top management team and gender diversity disclosure, suggesting that the influence of management depends on the means of disclosure. No support is found for the claim that hybridity has a positive moderating effect on this relationship. However, incorporating hybridity stills indicates that integrating the institutional context into the upper-echelons model facilitates understanding about the relationship, by establishing conditional boundaries and identifying main effects.