Table 1.
Search terms and databases (all searches conducted in English).
Fig 1.
Study assessment and exclusion criteria.
k = number of studies.
Table 2.
Study characteristics and effect size data in 20 studies included in the meta-analysis.
Table 3.
Descriptive statistics for k = 20 studies included in the current meta-analysis.
Fig 2.
Forest plot of the association between percentage female representation on corporate boards and firm performance.
‘Correlation’ refers to the weighted Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, r. ‘Combined’ refers to the mean effect size in studies using multiple measures of firm performance. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of observations per study (number of firms × number of years). The diamond depicts the overall mean weighted effect size r of all k = 20 studies. There is a small positive, but not statistically significant, relationship between percentage female representation on corporate boards and firm performance (overall mean weighted r = .01, 95% confidence interval, 95%CI:-.04, .07).
Fig 3.
Funnel plot of the estimated variability (standard error of the mean, SEM) and effect size r (expressed as Fisher’s z) in each study.
This plot shows that the effect sizes in the individual studies (circles) were symmetrically distributed around the overall mean weighted effect size shown on the vertical line.
Fig 4.
Forest plot of the cumulative analysis.
‘Combined’ refers to the mean effect size of studies that have used multiple measures of firm performance. ‘Total’ refers to the total number of observations (number of firms × number of years) as one study is added to all previous studies in each row. The plot shows how the overall mean weighted effect size r (referred to as ‘Point’) changes as each study is added over time to all previous studies. The diamond depicts the overall mean weighted effect size r of all k = 20 studies.
Fig 5.
Combined’ refers to the mean effect size from studies that have used multiple measures of firm performance. The plot shows the overall mean weighted effect size r (referred to as ‘Point’) for all studies, except the study in each row. The diamond depicts the overall mean weighted effect size r of all k = 20 studies.
Table 4.
Results of the moderator analysis and the meta-regressions.