The Moderating Effect of Relational Capital and Board Gender Diversity on the Relationship Between Environmental Performance and Firm Performance in the Airline Industry

ABSTRACT This study introduces a novel moderated moderating framework to investigate the influence of relational capital on the relationship between environmental and firm performances in the airline industry, with board gender diversity as a moderating factor. It employs a chance‐constrained network data envelopment analysis approach based on an enhanced Russell‐based directional distance measure to address the randomness of data and assess airline efficiencies. This study also conducts a biplot analysis to identify the advantages and disadvantages of airlines based on their efficiencies. The results from an analysis of 40 airlines show that environmental performance has a more significant effect on profitability than on operational efficiency. Notably, relational capital does not always enhance the relationship between environmental and firm performances; instead, it moderates the relationship between environmental performance and profitability efficiency when the board gender diversity of the firm is high.