Do female executives and CEO tenure matter for corporate cash holdings? Insight from a Southeast Asian country

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the relationship between female executives, chief executive officer (CEO) tenure and corporate cash holdings in the context of the developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia). Design/methodology/approach The sample was screened from 231 publicly listed companies in the Indonesian Stock Exchange. The period of observation was 2011–2017. Two measures were applied for corporate cash holdings: the ratio of cash and cash equivalent to total assets and cash and cash equivalent to net assets. Three surrogate indicators were used for female executives: female CEO, the proportion of female members in the board of management and the number of female members in the board of management. CEO tenure is the length of time a CEO has been a member of the board of management. This study uses panel data regression analysis, including the fixed effect model with clustered standard errors. Findings The empirical evidence indicates that female executives and CEO tenure are positively and negatively associated with corporate cash holdings, respectively, and both are significantly related. Additional analysis using lagged independent variables remains consistent with the main analysis, suggesting that corporate cash holding becomes higher as a female presence in the board of management increases. Research limitations/implications Empirical tests set in Indonesia suggest that female executives are more conservative and risk-averse, thereby holding more cash with a precautionary motive. The findings also imply that CEOs with long tenure focus on long-term performance such as increasing research and development investments or capital expenditure, thus holding less cash. Accordingly, policymakers and regulators should promote diversity issues proportionally and advance to the board level. Originality/value This study contributes to the field of executive and CEO studies by enriching the empirical findings in related topics. In addition, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies applying two measures of cash holdings in the setting of a developing Southeast Asian capital market (Indonesia).