The Relationship between Top Female Executives and Corporate Investment: Empirical Evidence from Vietnamese Listed Firms

This study aims to investigate the relationship between the difference in gender of top executives and corporate investment. In addition, this study also extends to how the sensitivity of investment to cash flow varies with the gender of leaders. Finally, the effect of the gender of leaders on firm investment is also tested across firm types (state firms vs. private firms and high-growth firms vs. low-growth firms). Based on the dataset of Vietnamese listed firms over 2007–2017, the fixed-effect model is used to test the hypotheses. The results show that women as chairs of the board tend to lower corporate investment, whereas the gender of CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) does not influence the investment level. Moreover, top female executives are associated with a decrease in the sensitivity of investment to cash flow. These regression results also show that top female executives only have an impact on the rate of investment in private and low-growth firms. The findings of this study are useful for the board of directors in selecting a chairperson in line with the firm’s strategies. Furthermore, the findings of this study are also meaningful for policymakers who should monitor the separate role of the CEO and chair of the board in a company.