Gender Diversity, Structural Characteristics and Performance of Listed Companies in Transition Economies

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of gender diversity on management boards and the structural characteristics of companies on profitability (ROA), size (measured by total assets and number of employees), and market valuation (P/E ratio) of listed companies in the transitional context of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The empirical analysis includes a sample of 70 companies from four industry sectors: manufacturing, trade, construction, and transport, listed on the Sarajevo Stock Exchange during the period 2023-2025, forming a panel structure of 210 observations. Data were analysed using multiple OLS regression models. Gender diversity was measured by a binary variable indicating the presence of women on management boards, while structural characteristics of companies included ownership structure, industry sector, and the time dimension of the observed period. The results indicate that gender diversity does not have a robust and statistically significant impact on profitability (ROA) or on the size of companies measured by total assets. However, a positive and statistically significant correlation with the number of employees was found, suggesting that gender diversity may be related to the organisational and not necessarily the financial dimensions of the business. Regarding market valuation, the initial results indicate a correlation between gender diversity and the P/E ratio, but this relationship loses statistical significance in multivariate models, after including control variables, indicating a lack of robustness. In contrast, structural characteristics, especially the industrial sector, show a consistent and significant impact on all observed indicators, while the ownership structure significantly affects the number of employees and market valuation, but not profitability or asset size. The time dimension is not statistically significant in any of the models, indicating stability over the observed period. The findings suggest that the relationship between gender diversity and company performance is complex and contextually conditioned, without a universal pattern of influence. This paper contributes to the literature on corporate governance by providing empirical insights from an under explored transitional context and emphasizes the importance of incorporating structural and institutional factors into the analysis of gender diversity impacts.