Board composition and financial performance. An exploratory assessment of diversity’s impact in FTSE companies during Sars-CoV-19 outbreak

Abstract

Corporate finance governance paradigms vary over time and evolve along the trajectory of the social, political and economical development of the western society and, later, influenced by the contributions of businessmen, politicians, scholars and other relevant figures from the so-called developing world. In my study considering parameters and requirements, three board of directors’ of companies listed in LSE Main Market’s Premium Listing will be scrutinized. In particular, five companies has been selected, based on their robust, long-standing positive performance, but also their representativeness of STEM highly-remunerative industries. Particularly, from a methodological perspective, the diversity exploratory assessment will be developed following a three step approach for every board of directors. -A 5 years financial performance overview (2018-2022) of each company considering four core FTSE indicators (of capitalization weighting) -A brief quantitative and qualitative analysis of the gender composition of the board of directors of each company; first a quantitative measure will be developed. -3. A comparative analysis of the overall financial performance considering the degree of gender diversity during the period January 30 2020 and January 30 2021, that is, the Sars-CoV-19 outbreak. The study aims at exploring whether there is a correlation between financial stability and gender diversity in times of emergency, as it was during the peak crisis of the SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic outbreak.