The value of board gender diversity in Italian cooperative banks

Purpose: The topic of gender diversity is assuming greater importance not only for regulatory reasons. In credit cooperative field, the presence of a gender diversity can qualify among the mutual aims and social sector should pursue. With reference to cooperative banks, the work aims to verify whether board gender diversity increases the creation of value for stakeholders, in terms of stakeholders global value added (shareholders, employees, customers, regulators, community and external environment). Design/methodology/approach – We propose an econometric approach based on OLS regression model; the econometric model adopted to test our research hypothesis take into account three dependent variables in order to measure the amount and the distribution of value created by each cooperative bank, like Global Value Added Index, HHI Index and GINI Index. Regarding the regressors in order to express the bank governance profile, the choice of variables is based on the results of the studies relating to bank governance-performance. Our model takes also into account other macro-economic control regressors. The model is tested on a sample of Italian cooperative banks. Originality/value – Previous studies on board gender diversity in cooperative banks are particularly limited as a result of limited information and opacity of this field. The existing studies are limited to analyses of the effects on performance of the separation between ownership and control or of the corporate and governance structures, neglecting the dynamics of gender diversity; recently, some authors have investigated the relationship between the composition of loan portfolios and the structure and membership of the boards of cooperative banks in Spain, without however considering the board gender diversity. Our work allows you to expand the knowledge on the issue of governance of cooperative banks. Our study proposes some indicators to assess the social and mutual performance of cooperative banks; it puts in evidence if board gender diversity may improve the amount and also the equity distribution of the value creation process to stakeholders' cooperative banks. Practical implications – The outcomes of the paper may indicate possible best practices with respect to bank governance in bad economic times. So the gender diversity in board cooperative bank may contribute to support better business performance and, specifically, the bank’s ability to create and distribute finance customers characterized by a lower credit risk. Based on these results, some managerial implications are proposed.