The impact of the diversity of the board of directors in the adoption of risk management and control practices

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyze the incidence of board diversity in the adoption of management practices and risk control of 236 Chilean public limited companies in the period 2015-2019. For this, a descriptive-correlational study was carried out, considering the diversity of gender, nationality, and age of the board of directors, and the degree of adoption of risk management and control practices proposed by the local regulator. Through a regression analysis between the study variables, it was shown that diversity of gender and nationality has a positive and significant impact on the adoption of risk management and control practices, but not age diversity, which does not have a significant impact on the adoption of risk management and control practices. It was concluded that the boards do not present a tendency towards heterogeneity in their conformation, being composed chiefly of male directors of Chilean nationality and in an age range between 50 and 70 years, leaving evidence of stagnation in the diversity rates of this decision-making body, as well as the low adoption of corporate practices related to risk control and management in companies in the Chilean stock market.