Board diversity and investment decisions: Evidence from financial firms listed on frontier stock markets in East Africa

Gabinus Nkwera

doi:10.51867/AQSSR.3.1.27

Authors

Gabinus Nkwera Tanzania Institute of Accountancy, Tanzania Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/AQSSR.3.1.27

Keywords:

Board Diversity, East Africa, Investment Decision, Listed Financial Firms, Stock Markets

Abstract

The study evaluated the influence of board diversity on investment decisions using evidence from financial firms listed on frontier stock markets in East Africa. Covering the period 2017 to 2023, the research employed a balanced panel of 15 listed firms, making a total of 105 firm-year observations. Investment decisions served as the independent variable, while the proxy for independent variables included board gender diversity, nationality diversity, tenure diversity and financial expertise diversity. Control variables comprised board independence, board size, board meeting, audit quality, firm size and firm age. Grounded in agency theory and resource-based view theory, the study relied on secondary data extracted from published annual reports and audited financial statements, and adopted a fixed-effects regression model for analysis. The correlation analysis among the study variables ranged from -0.432 to 0.674, revealing weak to moderate associations which confirms the absence of multicollinearity concerns. Fixed-effects regression results indicated that gender diversity had significant negative impact on investment decisions, with beta coefficient of -0.0124 and p-value of 0.023. However, board nationality diversity (β = 0.0108, p = 0.004), tenure diversity (β = 0.0310, p = 0.023), and financial expertise diversity (β = 1.7754, p = 0.004) emerged as positive significant predictors. These findings confirm that certain dimensions of board diversity, particularly nationality, tenure and financial expertise, significantly shape firm investment decisions. The study recommends that listed firms in East Africa seeking to improve investment decisions should focus on strengthening board expertise, experience and international representation, while also ensuring effective integration of gender diversity within board processes. The study contributes to the understanding of the nuanced role of board composition in improving strategic financial decisions in emerging markets. Further research may focus on financial firms across Sub-Saharan Africa and conduct a comparative analysis between East Africa and West Africa to enhance generalizability.

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