The Impact of Board Gender Diversity on Corporate Investment Decisions: Evidence from Korea

This study investigates how board gender diversity affects firms’ long-term investment behavior in Korea, focusing on capital expenditures and R&D spending from 2011 to 2021. Using firm fixed-effects regressions and robustness tests with alternative measures of gender diversity, the results show that independent female directors are positively associated with long-term investment. However, this effect is significant only in non-Chaebol firms, where board independence is stronger, and gender diversity reflects genuine governance engagement. In Chaebol-affiliated firms, where female directors are often appointed to meet regulatory requirements, the relationship is insignificant, suggesting that diversity driven by formal compliance fails to enhance strategic decision-making. These findings highlight that the effectiveness of gender diversity depends on institutional authenticity rather than numerical representation. The study contributes to the corporate governance literature by showing how ownership structure and board independence condition the real impact of gender-diverse boards and offers policy implications for promoting substantive rather than symbolic diversity reforms.