Abstract
The main goal of the study is to investigate the various types of the gender employment gap, the gender pay gap, and female participation in corporate management. These aspects have become even more important in the recent period. The comprehensive analysis of the eleven indicators demonstrates the fields of further examination. The employed panel regression analysis reveals that all the explored types of gender employment gaps along with the gender pay gap are statistically significant according to the certain regression models. All the gender employment gap types aimed at the geographical localisation are statistically significant regarding their impact on the eco-innovations. The second group of the gender employment gap types related to the work type behave in the same way reaching the highest levels of statistical significance. Similarly, the gender pay gap demonstrates statistical significance for its impact on the eco-innovations. Finally, female participation in corporate management achieves the highest statistical significance levels too. These outcomes point to the need for an observation of the particular effects assigned to the statistically significant regression models. Altogether, the two-way effect shows a very low level of statistical significance, while the time effect and the individual effect behave at a considerably higher level. It could be concluded that these effect types represent almost the same applicability. Hence, the position of the individual countries could be investigated in the further examination in order to demonstrate the disparities among the countries. The study outcomes will create a basement for the designers of national and regional environmental and innovation policies as well as for regulatory authorities.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
Data are available upon request from authors.
References
Acebo, E., Miguel-Dávila, J. Á., & Nieto, M. (2021). External stakeholder engagement: Complementary and substitutive effects on firms’ eco-innovation. Business Strategy and the Environment, 30(5), 2671–2687. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2770
Ahmad, M., Jiang, P., Murshed, M., Shehzad, K., Akram, R., Cui, L., & Khan, Z. (2021). Modelling the dynamic linkages between eco-innovation, urbanization, economic growth and ecological footprints for G7 countries: Does financial globalization matter? Sustainable Cities and Society, 70, 102881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102881
Aldieri, L., Carlucci, F., Cirà, A., Ioppolo, G., & Vinci, C. P. (2019). Is green innovation an opportunity or a threat to employment? An empirical analysis of three main industrialized areas: The USA, Japan and Europe. Journal of Cleaner Production, 214, 758–766. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.016
Arranz, N., Arroyabe, C. F., & Fernandez de Arroyabe, J. C. (2019). The effect of regional factors in the development of eco-innovations in the firm. Business Strategy and the Environment, 28(7), 1406–1415. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2322
Auspurg, K., Hinz, T., & Sauer, C. (2017). Why should women get less? Evidence on the gender pay gap from multifactorial survey experiments. American Sociological Review, 82(1), 179–210. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122416683393
Bacalum, S., Virlanuta, F. O., Mihailescu, A., & Mihu, M. (2022). Sustainable development through eco-innovation at the EU 27 Level. Annals of Dunarea de Jos University of Galati – Fascicle: I, Economics and Applied Informatics, 28(3), 196–200. https://doi.org/10.35219/eai15840409303
Bassi, F., & Guidolin, M. (2021). Resource efficiency and Circular Economy in European SMEs: Investigating the role of green jobs and skills. Sustainability, 13(21), 12136. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132112136
Blackburn, R. M., Jarman, J., & Racko, G. (2018). Understanding gender inequality in employment and retirement. Contemporary Social Science, 11(2–3), 238–252. https://doi.org/10.1080/21582041.2014.981756
Bowen, A., & Kuralbayeva, K. (2015). Looking for green jobs: The impact of green growth on employment. Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment Policy Brief, pp. 1–32. https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Looking-for-green-jobs_the-impact-of-green-growth-on-employment.pdf
Bucea-Manea-Țoniş, Ro., Prokop, V., Ilic, D., Gurgu, E., Bucea-Manea-Țoniş, Ra., Braicu, C., & Moanță, A. (2021). The relationship between eco-innovation and smart working as support for sustainable management. Sustainability, 13(3), 1437. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031437
Caravella, S., & Crespi, F. (2022). On the growth impact of different eco-innovation business strategies. Economia Politica, 39, 657–683. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40888-022-00263-x
Cecere, G., & Mazzanti, M. (2017). Green jobs and eco-innovations in European SMEs. Resource and Energy Economics, 49, 86–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2017.03.003
Choi, J., & Greaney, T. M. (2022). Global influences on gender inequality: Evidence from Female Employment in Korea. International Economic Review, 63(1), 291–328. https://doi.org/10.1111/iere.12539
Cucari, N., Esposito de Falco, S., & Orlando, B. (2018). Diversity of board of directors and environmental social governance: Evidence from Italian listed companies. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment Management, 25(3), 250–266. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1452
Durbin, J. (1954). Errors in variables. Review of the International Statistical Institute, 22(1), 23–32. https://doi.org/10.2307/1401917
Elliott, R. J. R., Kuai, W., Maddison, D., & Ozgen, C. (2021). Eco-innovation and employment: A task-based analysis. Iza Discussion Paper, 14028, 1–71. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3767265
Elisenda, J. L., & Agustí, S. B. (2018). Eco-innovation strategies: A panel data analysis of Spanish manufacturing firms. Business Strategy and the Environment, 27(8), 1209–1220. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2063
European Commission. (2022). Eco-Innovation at the heart of European policies. https://green-business.ec.europa.eu/eco-innovation_en
Eurostat. (2022a). Gender employment gap by degree of urbanisation – tepsr_lm230. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/tepsr_lm230/default/table
Eurostat. (2022b). Gender employment gap, by type of employment – sdg_05_30. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sdg_05_30/default/table
Eurostat. (2022c). Gender pay gap in unadjusted form – sdg_05_20. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sdg_05_20/default/table
Eurostat. (2022d). Positions held by women in senior management positions (source: EIGE) – sdg_05_60. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/sdg_05_60/default/table
Fortin, N. M., Bell, B., & Böhm, M. (2017). Top earnings inequality and the gender pay gap: Canada, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Labour Economics, 47, 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2017.05.010
Fritz, C., & Van Knippenberg, D. (2017). Gender and leadership aspiration: The impact of organizational identifcation. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 38(9), 1018–1037. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-05-2016-0120
Galliano, D., Gonçalves, A., & Triboulet, P. (2019). The peripheral systems of eco-innovation: Evidence from eco-innovative agro-food projects in a French rural area. Journal of Rural Studies, 72, 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.10.009
Galliano, D., Nadel, S., & Triboulet, P. (2023). The geography of environmental innovation: A rural/urban comparison. The Annals of Regional Science, 71, 27–59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-022-01149-3
Galton, F. (1989). Kinship and correlation. Statistical Science, 4(2), 81–86. https://doi.org/10.1214/ss/1177012581
Ge, Y., & Zhi, Q. (2016). Literature review: The green economy, clean energy policy and employment. Energy Procedia, 88, 257–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.06.159
Geng, D., Lai, K., & Zhu, Q. (2021). Eco-innovation and its role for performance improvement among Chinese small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises. International Journal of Production Economics, 231, 107869. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107869
Hausman, J. A. (1978). Specification tests in econometrics. Econometrica, 46(6), 1251–1271. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913827
Horbach, J. (2014). Do eco-innovations need specific regional characteristics? An econometric analysis for Germany. Review of Regional Research, 34, 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10037-013-0079-4
Isidro, H., & Sobral, M. (2015). The effects of women on corporate boards on firm value, financial performance, and ethical and social compliance. Journal of Business Ethics, 132(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2302-9
Jackman, M., & Moore, W. (2021). Does it pay to be green? An exploratory analysis of wage differentials between green and non-green industries. Journal of Economics and Development, 23(3), 284–298. https://doi.org/10.1108/JED-08-2020-0099
Jizi, M. (2017). The influence of board composition on sustainable development disclosure. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(5), 640–655. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1943
Juhásová, S. (2021). Development of the gross hourly earnings in EU countries in terms of gender inequality. In International Academic Institute Academic Conference Proceedings 22 September 2021, pp. 37–42. https://ia-institute.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/IAI-Proceedings-September-2021.pdf#page=37
Kassinis, G., Panayiotou, A., Dimou, A., & Katsifaraki, G. (2016). Gender and environmental sustainability: A longitudinal analysis. Corporate Social Responsibility Environmental Management, 23(6), 399–412. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1386
Klasen, S. (2018). The impact of gender inequality on economic performance in developing countries. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 10, 279–298. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100517-023429
Klasen, S., & Lamanna, F. (2009). The impact of gender inequality in education and employment on economic growth: New evidence for a panel of countries. Feminist Economics, 15(3), 91–132. https://doi.org/10.1080/13545700902893106
Kunapatarawong, R., & Martínez-Ros, E. (2016). Towards green growth: How does green innovation affect employment? Research Policy, 45(6), 1218–1232. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2016.03.013
Le Feber, N., & Smit, M. J. (2022). Fashion companies pioneering with eco-innovations in the Swedish Fashion Industry: Motivations, resources, and cooperation. Circular Economy and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-022-00246-x
Li, J., Zhao, F., Chen, S., Jiang, W., Liu, T., & Shi, S. (2017). Gender diversity on boards and firms’ environmental policy. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(3), 306–315. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1918
Liao, Z., Zhang, M., & Wang, X. (2019). Do female directors influence firms’ environmental innovation? The moderating role of ownership type. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environment Management, 26(1), 257–263. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1677
Litman, L., Robinson, J., Rosen, Z., Rosenzweig, C., Waxman, J., & Bates, L. M. (2020). The persistence of pay inequality: The gender pay gap in an anonymous online labor market. Plos One, 15(2), e0229383. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0229383
Melece, L. (2016). Challenges and opportunities of circular economy and green economy. Engineering for Rural Development, 15, 1162–1169. https://www.tf.lbtu.lv/conference/proceedings2016/Papers/N231.pdf
Moreno-Ureba, E., Bravo-Urquiza, F., & Reguera-Alvarado, N. (2022). An analysis of the influence of female directors on environmental innovation: When are women greener? Journal of Cleaner Production, 374, 133871. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133871
Nielsen, S., & Huse, M. (2010). The contribution of women on boards of directors: Going beyond the surface. Corporate Governance, 18(2), 136–148. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2010.00784.x
Ortega-Lapiedra, R., Marco-Fondevila, M., Scarpellini, S., & Llena-Macarulla, F. (2019). Measurement of the human capital applied to the business eco-innovation. Sustainability, 11(12), 3263. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123263
Pepelyaeva, A., Elokhova, I., & Karpovich, Y. (2021). Analysis of the investments impact in the field of eco-innovation on the environmental safety of industrial regions. IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science, 666(3), 032052. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/666/3/032052
Ryskaliyev, D. U., Mirzaliyeva, A., Tursynbayeva, G., Muratova, E. M., Buribayev, Y. A., & Khamzina, Z. A. (2019). Gender inequality among employees in Kazakhstan. The Lawyer Quarterly, 9(4), 319–332. https://tlq.ilaw.cas.cz/index.php/tlq/article/view/370/364
Saha, T., Sinha, A., & Abbas, S. (2022). Green financing of eco-innovations: Is the gender inclusivity taken care of? Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 35(1), 5514–5535. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2022.2029715
Shang, H., Jiang, L., Pan, X., & Pan, X. (2022). Green technology innovation spillover effect and urban eco-efficiency convergence: Evidence from Chinese cities. Energy Economics, 114, 106307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eneco.2022.106307
Shen, C., & Liao, Z. (2023). Do female officials promote local eco-innovation? The moderating role of public pressure. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, 30, 37997–38013. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24892-8
Toczek, L., Bosma, H., & Peter, R. (2021). The gender pay gap: Income inequality over life course–A multilevel analysis. Frontiers in Sociology, 6, 815376. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2021.815376
Triguero, Á., Cuerva, M. C., & Álvarez-Aledo, C. (2017). Environmental innovation and employment: Drivers and synergies. Sustainability, 9(11), 2057. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9112057
Valls, M. M., Cruz, R. S., & Parra, O. I. (2019). Gender policies on board of directors and sustainable development. Corporate Social Responsibility Environment Management, 26(6), 1539–1553. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1825
Wu, D. (1973). Alternative tests of independence between stochastic regressors and disturbances. Econometrica, 41(4), 733–750. https://doi.org/10.2307/1914093
Zhang, X., Liu, F., Wang, H., & Nazir, R. (2023). Influence of ecological innovation and green energy investment on unemployment in China: Evidence from advanced quantile approach. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 36(2), 2125034. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2022.2125034
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research, and Sport of the Slovak Republic and the Slovak Academy Sciences as a part of the research project VEGA 1/0590/22 Exploration of natural, social and economic potential of areas with environmental burdens in the Slovak Republic for the development of specific forms of domestic tourism and quantification of environmental risks. This research is supported by the European Commission as a part of the research project 101058572 Career Acknowledgement for Research (Managers) Delivering for the European Area (CARDEA).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Skare, M., Gavurova, B. & Kovac, V. Sustainability of gender employment and pay gap types regarding female participation in corporate management. Environ Dev Sustain (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04753-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-024-04753-9