Do female directors influence firms' environmental innovation? The moderating role of ownership type

Abstract

Abstract As more and more females join boards of directors, their decisions concerning environmental innovation have also become the focus of scholars. Based on the upper echelons theory, feminist caring theory, and social role theory, this study constructed a relationship model between female directors and firms' environmental innovations and chose ownership type as the moderating variable. Selecting 688 listed companies in the Chinese manufacturing industry as the research sample and adopting multiple regression analysis methods, the study found that, when the proportion of female directors on the board of directors increased, the level of a firm's environmental innovation also increased significantly. After female directors were divided into independent and nonindependent directors, we found that female independent directors had a significant effect on the firms' environmental innovations. However, female chairpersons had no significant effect on the firms' environmental innovations. In addition, the effect of female directors and female independent directors on a firm's environmental innovation was stronger for state‐owned listed companies.