Gender Diversity of Board Members and Value Relevance of Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting

The purpose of this study is to explain the role of gender diversity in the value relevance of social responsibility reporting. When a firm deals with the social responsibility issue, executives and stockholders gain incentives to obtain potential benefits. On the other hand, the existence of gender diversity in a firm reflects its commitment to social laws and regulations and can affect the reputation and, ultimately, the value of the firm. This study is a post-event, causal and applied research. The sample consists of 156 firms listed in Tehran Stock Exchange during the period from 2012 to 2016. To test the hypothesis, panel data method and multivariate linear regression analysis are used. Findings show that social responsibility has value relevance in line with the theory of legitimacy. Gender diversity also increases the firm value based on the agency theory and also increases the value relevance of corporate social responsibility reporting.