۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review and hypotheses development

۳- Research design

۴- Results and discussion

۵- Conclusions

References

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between female representation on the board and forward-looking information disclosures (FLIDs).
Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the content analysis to analyze the narrative evidence from the annual financial reports of non-financial Jordanian companies listed on the Amman Stock Exchange. The final sample consists of 1,206 firm-year observations during the period 2008-2013.
Findings: The study provides evidence that gender diversity on boards positively affects the level of FLIDs. Further to this, the study reveals that family firms disclose more information than non-family firms.

Introduction

Academic and Policy interest in greater diversity in the boardrooms is rapidly increasing and has become a major debate in the corporate governance literature. For example, a number of studies have analyzed the impact of women in corporate boards on different aspects of the management such as decision-making, risk taking, general firm performance and value of the firm. Nevertheless, little direct evidence exists on the relation between gender diversity on the board of directors and voluntary disclosures (Peterson and Philpot, 2007, Adams et al., 2009, Arun et al., 2015). This paper contributes to this debate by examining the issue of gender diversity in corporate boards. A substantial amount of research, suggests that firms with a high percentage of female members on the board and at top management level perform better than those without (Carter et al., 2003, Erhardt et al., 2003, Campbell and MínguezVera, 2008, Adams et al., 2009). The evidence suggests that female representation on the board might add unique viewpoints to the boardrooms, work styles, and different experiences as compared to their male counterparts which is likely to improve the creativity and quality of the board decisions (Daily et al., 2003, Smith et al., 2006). Further to this, the literature suggests that female directors improve firm disclosure through better monitoring (Gul et al., 2011b). However, the research on the impact of female directors on voluntary forwardlooking Information Disclosure (FLID) statements is sparse. We were motivated by this gap and the evidence which reveals that financial reporting practices vary with the individual characteristics of directors (Dikolli et al., 2012, Schrand and Zechman, 2012, Davidson et al., 2013). In particular, we examine the role played by female directors on FLI statements, using the narrative disclosures from the annual financial reports of non-financial Jordanian companies listed on the Amman stock exchange (ASE).