Female board members and company performance : Do companies with female directors perform better than companies without females on their boards? Evidence from Sweden.

Abstract: Background: Females are underrepresented in Swedish boards, and in 2016 females represented 29 % of all board members. Many researchers have studied the relationship between the gender composition of company boards and company performance, but they have not managed to reach consensus in explaining the relationship. Pure shareholder theory suggests that the company philosophy is to focus on profitability and shareholder maximization. If the gender distribution in the board affects the performance of the company, some companies may underperform because of their board composition. If so, this is an issue that should be solved according to the shareholder theory and some adjustments to the composition should be done.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not companies with female directors on their boards perform better than companies without female directors on their boards. The target group of the study is Swedish listed companies with a statutory domicile in Sweden.   Method: For conducting this research, data for a period of three years (2013-2015) are collected from a sample of 94 Swedish listed companies. The performance measurements investigated are the ratios; ROE, profit margin, ROCE, EBIT margin and EPS. As for control variables, the board size and company size are used. An independent samples t-test is conducted, as well as a correlation matrix analysis and a regression analysis, to fulfil the purpose of this study.   Conclusion: The results show that there is a significant positive correlation between female representation in the boardroom and the ratio EBIT margin. However, the correlation strength is so weak that it is not fair to draw the conclusion that female representation has a positive effect on the financial performance of the companies. Also, the regression analysis shows no relationship between the two variables. However, this study contributes by showing that there is no negative correlation between the presence of females on boards and the financial performance of the companies.