This study examines how board gender diversity affects listed non-financial European companies’ financial performance. Data from the Refinitiv Eikon Platform—LSEG and World Bank databases was used to complete the analysis. The total sample included 4257 companies for the period 2011–2023. This study examined board gender diversity and its interaction with liquidity while controlling for board characteristics such as board size, independence, and board meetings. Controlling for firm characteristics (firm size and leverage) and macroeconomic variables like inflation and GDP. This study estimated the connection using panel regression. Due to Hausman test significance, fixed effect estimation was used. The findings demonstrated a notable and favorable influence of board features, such as gender diversity, board independence, and board size, on European nonfinancial companies. Additionally, liquidity positively affects firm performance. Furthermore, the findings indicated that leverage had a significant negative impact on profitability. Finally, both the size and GDP have a significant beneficial impact on profitability. Our findings indicate that an increased representation of women on the board of directors is associated with greater independence among board members and a higher number of board members being hired. This, in turn, has a positive impact on profitability due to the extensive experience shared among board members. Additionally, this leads to improved governance, enabling better control over decisions and a greater focus on the long-term investment strategy of the company. Our results are robust, as are similar results reported by the GMM regression.

This study examined the relationship between the board characteristics and stock performance of commercial banks. Our analysis is based on a sample of 65 banks across 10 MENA countries and their quantitative data extracted between 2013 and 2022. This research employed pooled OLS, and fixed and random effect regression to confirm the association between board size, board independence, number of board meetings, and CEO duality with stock performance measured by the bank’s share price and market-to-book ratio. Further, several control variables were utilized such as the bank’s capital adequacy, profitability, and size. The empirical findings reveal that board independence positively affects the bank stock performance while the board size shows a negative relationship. This suggests that banks with fewer board members and high independence levels have their shares outperforming others. However, we found that having frequent board meetings per year and separate roles for the CEO and chairman have no impact on bank stock performance. Moreover, the findings indicate that the bank’s capital adequacy, size, and profitability have a positive effect on the stock performance. To test the robustness of our analysis, we implemented a one-limit Tobit model, which enables lower-bound censoring, and obtained similar findings thus confirming our hypotheses. From a practical perspective, our findings highlight the importance of the board size and the directors’ independence to MENA regulators and policymakers in an effort to implement an effective corporate governance system. Specifically, MENA banks are advised to decrease the number of board members, and this should reduce the number of annual board meetings which, in turn, should maximize performance.

One new factor driving the banking industry towards long-term, high-quality growth is digital marketing, which has arisen within the framework of the digital economy. The purpose of this research is to examine the effect of digital marketing on the financial results of MENA banks from 2010 to 2023. The research examines the impact of digital marketing techniques on the effectiveness of financial institutions through Tobit regression analysis, taking into account and controlling for sustainable practices (ESG), bank-specific characteristics (capital adequacy, bank size, liquidity, and cost efficiency), and macroeconomic variables (GDP and inflation). This empirical paper managed to collect the data for eleven countries in the MENA from the Refinitiv Eikon platform, world bank database, and the annual reports of relevant banks in the different stock markets. The final sample included 78 banks out of 120 listed banks. The results show that there is a clear association between the presence of digital marketing campaigns and improved profitability and market share growth for banks. Aligning digital initiatives with ESG principles is crucial for long-term value development, and sustainable practices increase these beneficial benefits even more. The research also shows that macroeconomic factors and bank-specific characteristics affect how effective digital marketing campaigns are. The significance of digital transformation and ESG integration in promoting competitive advantages and long-term growth in the MENA banking sector is highlighted by these findings, which have important implications for policy, investors, and bank executives.