Board gender diversity and corporate environmental performance: The moderating effects of resource slack

The board of directors, as the decision-making body of internal environmental governance, has an undeniable impact on corporate environmental performance (CEP). With the continuous improvement of women's status and the increasing emphasis on gender equality in society, the topic of the impact of board gender diversity on CEP has received more attention. The foundation of the study is built around the Resource Base Theory, which explores the impact of board gender diversity on CEP and constructs a research model of slack resources regulating board gender diversity and CEP. The study focuses on industrial enterprises in Guangdong Province, China, and uses the Partial Least Squares (PLS) structural equation model to analyze 478 collected enterprise data. Slack Resources is divided into absorbed slack and unabsorbed slack, and their moderating effects are tested separately. The research findings indicated that female directors have a significant positive impact on CEP, while the unabsorbed slack enhances the positive impact of female directors on CEP; in the same vein, the moderating effect of absorbed slack is not significant. The research findings suggest that it is necessary to determine which types of slack resources and female directors are being considered when discussing the impact of board gender diversity on CEP.