Seminar #17 – April 7, 2021

Strategy disclosure
and cost of capital

THE ROLE OF FAMILY FIRM STATUS
AND WOMEN DIRECTORS

The presenter is Rafaela Gjergji, Post-doctoral researcher at FABULA | FAmily BUsiness LAb, Università Cattaneo LIUC (Italy). The paper is entitled “Strategy disclosure and cost of capital: the role of family firm status and women directors“, and is co-authored by Luigi Vena, Giovanna Campopiano, Salvatore Sciascia, and Alessandro Cortesi.

date: April 7, 2021

time: 12:00-13:00 (CET)

location: Zoom (private event)

ABSTRACT – The relationship between strategy disclosure and cost of capital has received considerable interest over the past few years. However, differences in the effect of disclosing strategy information for firms with different governance structures is still under-investigated. By leveraging on a dataset of Italian listed firms, we fill this gap to shed new light on the moderating effects of family firm status and women’s involvement in the board of directors. The study reveals that while strategy disclosure in family firms is bound to provoke an increase in the cost of capital, this pattern is mitigated when women directors are appointed in the boardroom, i.e., the higher the number of women on family firms’ board of directors, the higher is the reduction of the cost of capital.