Companies with at least one female director are 38% less likely to have to restate their financial-performance figures in order to correct errors than companies with all-male boards are, according to a team led by Lawrence J. Abbott, of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Gender diversity may make a board more open to viewpoints that oppose the CEO’s and may encourage a more deliberative and collaborative decision-making process, the researchers say.
A version of this article appeared in the March 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review.