Summary This paper investigates the human capital profile of new appointees to corporate boards, exploring gender differences in education, profile and career experiences. Findings from a study of UK boards reveal that women are significantly more likely to bring international diversity to their...

A growing body of ethics research investigates gender diversity and governance on corporate boards, at individual and firm levels, in single country studies. In this study, we explore the environmental context of female representation on corporate boards of directors, using data from forty-three...

The corporate 'diversity statement' is a new tool increasingly used by large companies to promote diversity management policies on their websites. Through an examination of these on-line texts, we identify how companies construct the meaning of 'diversity' through its dimensions. Few companies...

In an exploratory study of British and Swedish managers' perspectives on the process of signalling high commitment, half said they actively managed the promotion of commitment. They did this through behaviours which could be described as impression management strategies, which differed by...

Using evidence from a survey of women directors in FTSE 100 companies, this paper considers possible explanations for the persistent homogeneity of top UK boards. Only 61 per cent of the top 100 companies had female directors in 2002, down from 64 per cent in 1999. Women held only 3 per cent of...

This paper investigates how specific notions of gender and ethnicity are integrated into diversity discourses presented on 241 top European company websites. Large European companies increasingly disclose equality and diversity policies in statements on websites. Such statements may be used to...

<title>Abstract</title> This study explores individual and country level environmental drivers of informal ‘seed’ investment. We examine four types of informal investors based on business ownership experience (or no such experience) and close family relationship with investee (or no such relationship):...

<title>Abstract</title> This study explores gender differences in entrepreneurship and informal investment in Ireland, a country with one of the lowest rates of female entrepreneurship in the developed world. Females in Ireland are less likely than males to be engaged in either the demand for (as...