Board Gender Diversity, Task Conflict, and Financial Performance: Lexical and Econometric Evidence from the Peruvian Stock Market

Despite the growing inclusion of women on corporate boards, empirical evidence on how board gender diversity and task conflict are associated with financial performance remains limited in Latin American emerging markets. This study analyses 121 Peruvian firms listed on the Lima Stock Exchange during the 2017–2025 period, yielding 1,089 firm-year observations. Board gender diversity was measured through a Composite Board Gender Diversity Index (CBGDI), constructed from the Shannon Index and a critical mass indicator, while task conflict was assessed through LIWC-22-based linguistic analysis of audited annual reports and operationalized as a Composite Task Conflict Index (CTCI). Financial performance was evaluated through four accounting indicators: asset turnover, return on assets, return on equity, and liquidity. Panel-data multivariate regression models with firm fixed effects, year effects, and clustered standard errors were estimated. The findings indicate that neither CBGDI nor CTCI shows a statistically significant independent association with financial performance once firm-level heterogeneity, year effects, and firm size are accounted for. However, the interaction between CBGDI and CTCI shows marginal evidence of a conditional association with return on equity. The study contributes by integrating computational lexical analysis with panel-data econometric modeling to examine corporate governance dynamics in an underexplored Latin American context.