Does board gender diversity moderate the nexus among family ownership, ESG, and investment efficiency in the MENA region?

  • 3 Views
  • 0 Downloads

Creative Commons License DMCA.com Protection Status
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Type of the article: Research Article

Abstract
This study examines the relationship between family ownership and investment efficiency in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region by investigating the mediating role of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and the moderating role of board gender diversity. Using a sample of non-financial firms from eight MENA countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain) over the period 2015–2023, comprising 3,245 firm-year observations, and ESG data obtained from Refinitiv, the analysis employs firm fixed-effects and system GMM estimations. The results indicate that family ownership is positively associated with investment efficiency (β = 0.044, p < 0.01). Family ownership also has a positive effect on ESG performance (β = 0.118, p < 0.01), while ESG performance is positively associated with investment efficiency (β = 0.039, p < 0.05). Further analysis reveals that ESG performance partially mediates the relationship between family ownership and investment efficiency. Moreover, board gender diversity strengthens the positive effect of ESG performance on investment efficiency (β = 0.001, p < 0.01), indicating that firms with greater female board representation are better able to translate sustainability engagement into efficient capital allocation. The findings highlight the complementary roles of family ownership, ESG performance, and board gender diversity in enhancing investment efficiency in emerging markets. These results provide important implications for policymakers, investors, and corporate leaders seeking to promote sustainable governance and efficient investment decisions in the MENA region.

view full abstract hide full abstract
    • Table 1. Descriptive statistics
    • Table 2. Impact of family ownership and ESG performance on IE
    • Table 3. Mediating effect of ESG performance in the Ownership-IE nexus
    • Table 4. GMM model specification
    • Table A1. Variable definitions
    • Table A2. Correlation matrix
    • Conceptualization
      Isam Saleh
    • Formal Analysis
      Isam Saleh, Abdallah AlKhawaja
    • Investigation
      Isam Saleh
    • Software
      Isam Saleh, Abdallah AlKhawaja
    • Supervision
      Isam Saleh
    • Writing – review & editing
      Isam Saleh
    • Data curation
      Arwa H. Amoush, Abdallah AlKhawaja
    • Methodology
      Arwa H. Amoush
    • Validation
      Arwa H. Amoush
    • Writing – original draft
      Arwa H. Amoush, Abdallah AlKhawaja
    • Visualization
      Abdallah AlKhawaja