The Impact of Business Strategy and Investor Sentiment on Tax Avoidance practices: The Moderating Role of Gender Diversity - An Empirical Evidence from Egypt

Objective: The study aimed to test the impact of company's business strategy and investor Sentiment on tax avoidance practices in the Egyptian environment, as well as to study the moderating role of gender diversity on the impact of company's business strategy, investor Sentiment, and tax avoidance practices.
Methodology: The study used a quantitative approach to assess the moderating role of gender diversity on the relationship between company's business strategy, investor Sentiment, and tax avoidance practices for a sample of (27) companies, with a total of (189) observations distributed over seven sectors, with a rate of (11.59%) of the total companies listed in Egyptian Stock Exchange during the period 2015- 2021. The study relied on multiple linear regression analysis and Kruskal-Wallis test to test its hypotheses.
Results: The results of the study concluded that the impact of company's business strategy and investors' Sentiment on tax avoidance practices varied, as it was found that there was a positive effect of company focus growth strategy and companies talent retention strategy on tax avoidance practices, while it was noted that there was a negative impact of operational efficiency and productivity strategy on tax avoidance practices, as noted There is no significant effect of each of (marketing efforts strategy and technological efficiency of company's assets strategy) on tax avoidance practices. It was also noted that the impact of investors' Sentiment on tax avoidance practices varied, as it was found that there was a positive effect of the company's stock trading volume rate on tax avoidance practices, while it was noted that there was A negative effect of the company's share turnover rate on tax avoidance practices, and it was also noted that there was no significant effect of share price to earnings per share ratio on tax avoidance practices. The results of the study also indicated that there is a positive effect of each of (interactive relationship between gender diversity and growth strategy, interactive relationship between gender diversity and companies talent retention strategy, and the interactive relationship between gender diversity and stock trading volume rate) on tax avoidance practices, while the results indicated the negative effect of each of (interactive relationship between gender diversity and operational efficiency and productivity strategy, interactive relationship between gender diversity and technological efficiency of the company's assets strategy, and gender diversity and stock turnover rate) on tax avoidance practices, as well It was observed that there was no effect for each of (interactive relationship between gender diversity and marketing efforts strategy, and interactive relationship between gender diversity and share price to the earnings per share) on tax avoidance practices. The results also indicated that there are significant differences between sectors of Egyptian stock exchange with regard to company's business strategy, investors' sentiment, and tax avoidance practices.