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Calm in the storm: Female leadership and firm performance during COVID-19
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Xiang Long 
, Dylan Norris , Hai Van Le
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
This study investigates the impact of executive gender on firm performance during the COVID-19 crisis, framed through the lens of behavioural finance. We argue that leadership traits associated with female executives — such as lower overconfidence and a more collaborative, risk-averse approach — serve as a corporate governance mechanism that enhances organizational resilience. Analysing U.S. firms, our difference-in-differences (DiD) models show that female-led firms exhibited superior financial performance during the pandemic. This finding provides clarity to a body of literature previously marked by conflicting results — many of which found a negative or insignificant relationship — by suggesting the crisis context is a critical determinant. These findings contribute to upper echelon theory (UET) by demonstrating that behavioural differences in leadership are a significant determinant of firm outcomes in turbulent environments.
Keywords: Behavioural Finance, Gender Diversity, Crisis Leadership, Firm Performance, COVID-19
Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — X.L.; Methodology — X.L.; Software — X.L.; Validation — X.L.; Formal Analysis — X.L.; Investigation — X.L. and H.V.L.; Resources — X.L. and H.V.L.; Data Curation — X.L. and H.V.L.; Writing — Original Draft — X.L. and H.V.L.; Writing — Review & Editing — X.L. and D.N.; Visualization — X.L.; Supervision — X.L.; Project Administration — X.L.; Funding Acquisition — X.L. and D.N.
Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
JEL Classification: G01, G30, G40
Received: 07.09.2025
Revised: 03.11.2025; 12.11.2025
Accepted: 01.12.2025
Published online: 03.12.2025
How to cite this paper: Long, X., Norris, D., & Le, H. V. (2025). Calm in the storm: Female leadership and firm performance during COVID-19. Corporate Ownership & Control, 22(4), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv22i4art5
