Impact of entrepreneur's gender on innovation activities. The perspective of small businesses

Maciej Zastempowski; Szymon Cyfert

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0258661

Impact of entrepreneur's gender on innovation activities. The perspective of small businesses

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 20;16(10):e0258661. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258661. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Maciej Zastempowski¹, Szymon Cyfert²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Economic Sciences and Management, Department of Enterprise Management, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland.
² Institute of Management, Poznan University of Economics and Business, Poznan, Poland.

Abstract

This paper analyses the female gender as a one of the factors that may influence product and process innovativeness of small enterprises. The data discussed come from an empirical study of 1017 small enterprises from the Kujawsko-pomorskie region in central-northern Poland. The theoretical framework suggests three areas of factors that may influence small enterprises innovativeness: the entrepreneur's gender, innovation management capability, and firm characteristics. The results of the study suggest that the female gender of the entrepreneur has a positive impact on the product and process innovativeness of small enterprises. In the group of small enterprises managed by female entrepreneurs the chances of introducing product innovation are higher by 83.7%, process innovation by 56%, and product and process innovation together by 82.1%.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Creativity*
Entrepreneurship*
Female
Humans
Male
Poland
Sex Factors
Small Business*

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the National Centre for Research and Development in Poland, grant number GOSPOSTRATEG1/385453/3/NCBR/2018. The funders - National Centre for Research and Development in Poland - had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.