| dc.description.abstract | This paper examines two important factors that describe female leadership in
Norwegian firms. First, the main determinants of having a female CEO, and, second, the
impact a female CEO has on firm performance. In other words, the main question the
paper raises is if women-led companies are distinguishable in any detectable and
relevant way. I analyze the influence of women in the executive suite across different
samples of firms (LTD, and PLC) and divided in two time periods (prior Norwegian
gender quota 2000-2004, and post Norwegian quota 2005-2009).
Results indicate that after the quota, the number of women in CEO positions had
considerably increased which suggests that the reform had promoted women not only on
the board level, but also on the CEO level. Moreover, the findings show that after the
quota, women CEOs had become more dominant in certain industry sectors (such as
financial and transportation sectors), obtaining higher salaries than men CEOs.
Nevertheless, the present paper argues that having a woman CEO has a neutral
or negative effect on the firm. There is no relevant evidence that there is a significant
relationship between firm performance and women CEO’s characteristics. If previous
researches such as Adler (2001) and Deszo & Ross (2008) show that female
participation in the board of the company has a positive effect on firm performance, the
present paper shows that not the same positive effect can be acclaimed when having a
woman CEO. | no_NO |
