Neutralizing response to competing logics in corporate governance: Antecedents of female board appointments in Japan

• Main Authors: YAMADA, Jin-ichiro, YOSHIKAWA, Toru
• Format: text
• Language: Japanese
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2021
• Subjects: Strategic Management Policy
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/6874
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We explore why Japanese firms break with existing institutional practice by appointing women to their boards. Using an abductive approach building on fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we find that female board appointments are subject to multiple complex, configurational and equifinal patterns of causality. These patterns involve the simultaneous presence or absence of multiple sources of external pressure and organizational vulnerability. At the same time, based on director profiles collected through interviews, we find that most of the Japanese firms in our sample that appoint women to their boards choose candidates with an internal orientation, i.e., those who see themselves as working for the firm and the CEO rather than those who aim to serve the interests of shareholders. These firms thus adopt the new practice of female board appointments while simultaneously selecting candidates that will support existing board practices, effectively neutralizing the impact of their appointments. Our findings contribute to the corporate governance literature by shedding light on the antecedents and implications of female board appointments in antagonistic institutional contexts.