American Accounting Firms & Board Gender Diversity
Description
Dataset Description This dataset examines the relationship between Board Gender Diversity (BGD) and the performance of medium- to large-sized American Accounting Firms (AAF). It is constructed from the Orbis database (Moody’s Analytics) and includes multilevel data at the individual, firm, and city levels. Sample coverage: 30,647 top management team (TMT) members, 1,091 accounting firms, and 553 U.S. cities. Firm criteria: Firms with ≥50 employees (medium and large firms). Key variables: Firm performance (Return-on-Talent, ROT) Proportion of female board members Female partners in firms Global service portfolios Sustainability service portfolios Firm age, revenue, board size, ownership type, partnership structure, narratives (product, trade), and city-level identifiers. Design: Multilevel (individual–firm–city) structure, enabling analysis of gender diversity, service portfolios, and performance outcomes. The dataset provides a comprehensive population-level view of U.S. accounting firms (excluding small firms), and is suitable for research on governance, diversity, organizational performance, and sustainability practices
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Steps to reproduce
Steps to Reproduce Data Source Access Obtain access to the Orbis database (Moody’s Analytics). Filter the population of U.S. accounting firms with 50+ employees (medium and large firms). Sample Selection Extract all firm-level records meeting the size criteria. Collect information at three levels: Individual-level: Top management team (TMT) members, gender, board roles, partnership status, multiple roles. Firm-level: Revenue, age, board size, branches, ownership type (WOCO/PLC), consolidated reports, service narratives (product, trade), global services, sustainability services, partnership structures, Big 10 indicator. City-level: Firm location identifiers, used to group firms into 553 U.S. cities. Variable Construction Board Gender Diversity (BGD): proportion of female members on the board. Female Partners: binary/continuous indicator of female partners among TMT. Global Service Portfolio: dummy variable for whether the firm provides international services. Sustainability Services: dummy variable for whether the firm offers sustainability/ESG-related services. Firm Performance: calculated using Return-on-Talent (ROT) = normalized efficiency metric (revenue and employees, standardized). Standardize continuous variables (e.g., firm size, age, revenue) to a 10-point scale (log-transformed). Data Cleaning Exclude firms with fewer than 50 employees. Remove duplicates and incomplete records. Normalize categorical variables (0/1 coding for dummies). Analytical Framework Construct a multilevel dataset with nested structure: individuals (Level 1) → firms (Level 2) → cities (Level 3). Run descriptive statistics (Table 1), correlation analysis (Table 2), and multilevel regressions (Tables 3–7). Generate graphical correlations (Figures 2–5) for visualization of linear and nonlinear effects. Replication Requirements Access to Orbis database (license from Moody’s Analytics). Statistical software: Stata, R, or equivalent supporting multilevel models. Code scripts (not included here) should specify model parameters for replication (random intercepts, fixed effects, ICC calculation, variance inflation factor checks).
Institutions
- Liaoning University