The impact of gender on financial performance: evidence for Portuguese SMEs

Abstract

The relationship between gender and profitability in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is a less studied topic in the broader context of performance determinants. Thus, the objective of this paper is to examine whether women’s leadership of the firms’ board of directors and senior management teams enhances financial performance. Contributing to fill this research gap and based on the agency and stakeholder theories, it is used a balanced panel data of 4,806 Portuguese SMEs for the period from 2010 to 2019. The results from the random-effects model evidence the absence of a broad significant relationship, albeit with some slight evidence of a negative relation, moderated by firm age and present in some specific sectors of activity. Given the SMEs importance in the majority of countries, the results and implications of this paper can be generalised to other economies, albeit country specific cultural and legal issues should be taken in consideration.