John Seo
DARE Project: Female Leadership and Related Party Transactions (RPTs)
Program(s) of Study: Bachelor of Commerce - Finance
Project Supervisor: Songlan (Stella) Peng
With this research, I aim to explore and highlight the influence of female leaders on RPT decisions and their overall impact on corporate governance.
Project Description:
My DARE research project investigated related-party transactions (RPTs) through the lens of female executives, focusing on two key issues: (1) Whether female executives are involved in RPTs and, if so, what are the types and nature of these RPTs; and (2) Whether female executives play a role in governing RPT transactions, specifically, if women are more "ethical" and thus involve in fewer opportunistic RPTs in their firms. During my research, I manually collected data from the EDGAR database for S&P 1500 firms listed in the US. I identified RPT transactions from annual reports and proxy statements, performing text analysis to determine female leaders’ engagement in RPTs and the type/nature of these RPTs. I then conducted an empirical analysis to compare the scale of RPTs between female and male executives, tested whether the presence of female leaders in the firm helps reduce RPTs, and finally assessed whether new female leaders joining the firm contribute to a reduction in RPTs.The Dean’s Award for Research Excellence (DARE) - Undergraduate enables our students to meaningfully engage in research projects supervised by LA&PS faculty members. Find out more about DARE.