Board diversity and corporate governance: lessons from Australia, India and Asia

There have been a number of developments across Asia, including India, Japan, China, Singapore and Hong Kong, which provide a different paradigm from the traditional Australian comparisons with the United Kingdom, America and even Europe. There currently exists a significant volume of global research on the role of gender, as a part of the board composition and there are positive returns, with some caveats. This article begins to examine and question as to whether there are positive links to a broader concept of board diversity, including gender, age and ethnicity. One of the long term research questions for the multi-disciplinary study of corporate governance has been the link between good governance and share price or other measures of value. This has been quite difficult to establish in either the legal or finance or management disciplines, but there appears to be clear evidence of corporate sustainability where quality governance practices are applied consistently. The hardest question is whether we should have targets or mandatory quotas.