Top management attributes and market valuation across economic regimes: an ESG accountability signalling perspective from an emerging EU capital market

Purpose This study examines whether the market-valuation associations attached to female and foreign executive representation, managerial interlocks and managerial ownership differ between stable and crisis periods, and whether the observed patterns are compatible with an Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) accountability-signalling perspective alongside competing governance interpretations. Design/methodology/approach The study uses Orbis data for non-financial Warsaw Stock Exchange firms over 2017–2023. Baseline difference and system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) estimates are supplemented by CRE/Mundlak and firm fixed-effects specifications. The governance variables are based on the available 2023 records, and treated as structurally persistent; main coefficients therefore rely primarily on cross-sectional differences between firms, while COVID interactions capture regime-contingent valuation differences. Findings In the baseline system GMM, female and foreign executive representation and managerial interlocks are positively associated with firm valuation during stable periods. Their COVID-period interactions are negative; combined COVID-period associations remain positive. The negative interactions for foreign executive representation and managerial interlocks remain statistically significant across alternative estimators, whereas the female-representation interaction is less robust. While the stable-period managerial–ownership polynomial is not jointly significant, its COVID interactions are so, indicating a regime difference in the polynomial association. Results are insensitive to governance-variable winsorisation but sensitive to the treatment of extreme Tobin’s Q values. Practical implications Observable governance profiles may carry valuation-relevant information, whose relevance varies across economic conditions. Our findings may inform how firms communicate governance arrangements but do not identify the investor mechanisms driving the observed regime differences. Originality/value The study documents regime-contingent valuation associations attached to structurally persistent governance profiles in an emerging EU capital market and evaluates them through an ESG accountability-signalling lens without excluding competing governance explanations.