Female Directors On Corporate Charitable Donation ——Empirical Research On Chinese Listed Private Enterprises

With the continuous progress of the women’s liberation movement,the educational level,social network and ability of female directors are constantly improving.Many countries in Europe have also promulgated quota policies for female directors,and it is the general trend for more and more female directors to join corporate boards.Some studies have shown that female directors can improve corporate governance and enhance corporate value,but the impact mechanism of female directors on corporate charitable donations has not been revealed.Based on the integration of gender socialisation theory,resource dependence theory and social identity theory,this paper systematically analyzes the influence and mechanism of female directors on corporate charitable donation from the perspective of corporate social responsibility.At the same time,due to the inconsistency between the gender stereotype of women and the agency characteristics required for leadership roles,women are considered unsuitable to become company directors.In the male dominated corporate boards,female directors in a weak position are facing the dilemma of "losing their voice".This paper further explores two different paths:whether increasing the influence or legitimacy of female directors on the boards can break this dilemma and further adjust the relationship between female directors and corporate charitable donations.This paper selects the private enterprises listed on A-shares in Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets from 2007 to 2017 as the research object,and uses the two-step Heckman selection model to test and analyze these hypotheses.The results show that there is an inverted U-shaped curve between female directors and the scale of charitable donations of private enterprises.On the one hand,because female directors pay more attention to social welfare and are more inclined to show morality and altruism,when the proportion of female directors is appropriate,they can supplement the decision-making information network and perspective of the boards,which is more conducive to corporate charitable donation and shows the resource effect.On the other hand,when the proportion of female directors is too high,the board is divided into two subgroups due to gender differences,resulting in group preference,undermining the decision-making process of charity strategy,causing decision-making conflict and hindering the ability of the team to reach consensus,which is not conducive to the formulation and implementation of corporate charity strategy,showing conflict effect.In addition,when female directors have higher power or board informal hierarchy,female directors have stronger influence on the decision-making of the board,which not only improves the resource effect of female directors,but also intensifies the conflict effect,thus strengthening the inverted U-shaped curve relationship between female directors and corporate charitable donations.At the same time,when the corporate is in a female dominated industry or an area with a higher level of female political empowerment,it can improve the legitimacy of female directors on the board,enhance the resource effect of female directors and reduce the conflict effect,thus weakening the inverted U-shaped curve relationship between female directors and corporate charitable donations.The research of this paper has important enlightenment and practical guidance for giving full play to the role of female directors and improving the level of corporate charitable donation.