Purpose – This paper examines whether and how females on the board of directors affect US-listed companies’ merger and acquisition (M&A) decisions. Specifically, the paper concerns the impact of females in the boardroom on the likelihood and type of M&A deals (i.e., foreign vs domestic...

This paper examines whether and how bidders' conservative tone in 10-K filings influences the subsequent mergers and acquisitions (M&A) investment decisions of these US firms from 1996 to 2013. Based on 39,260 firm-year observations, we find, consistent with behavioural consistency theory, that...