Analyzing the Effect of Financial Constraints on Technological and Management Innovation in SMEs: A Gender Perspective

Abstract

The aim of this research is twofold: establishing whether access to bank financing facilitates innovation in SMEs and whether such effect can be explained from a gender perspective. Using a sample of 310 Spanish SMEs, this study first examines the effect of alleviating financial constraints on both technological and management innovation through a structural equation model. Then, the moderating effect of gender is examined. Our results showed that (a) relaxing financial constraints helps SMEs to innovate in both technological and management innovation, (b) the effect of the relaxation of financial constraints is significantly greater in companies managed by women, and (c) the moderating effect of gender occurs from the double perspective of technological innovation and management innovation. Our empirical results suggest that the gender of the CEO plays a vital moderating role among innovation and financial constraints, providing new evidence about women’s contribution to innovation in SMEs, so these results have practical business and institutional implications as they point out the relevance to promote employment policies that favour the gender diversity of employees at all hierarchical levels of the company.

Disentangling the impact of ICT adoption on SMEs performance: the mediating roles of corporate social responsibility and innovation

“…The findings regarding the impact of innovation on performance are consistent with those reported in the literature (Guerrero-Villegas et al, 2018;Ruiz-Palomo et al, 2022). The results confirm how innovation gives companies greater performance and capacity to respond to changes in their environment.…”

“…In line with the above, Gorączkowska (2020) states that nowadays, the application of innovation brings quantifiable benefits to companies. As a result, the literature has shown a positive relationship between a company's innovation project and its performance, as innovation is the main driver of economic growth, contributing to the long-term profitability and continuity of the company (Guerrero-Villegas et al, 2018;Ruiz-Palomo et al, 2022). Moreover, this relationship is considered to be strong in SMEs (Carrasco-Carvajal & García-Pérez-de-Lema, 2021; Donbesuur et al, 2020;Roach et al, 2016;Zhu et al, 2019).…”

Advances in Agricultural Engineering Technologies and Application

“…The following Table 6 presents the results of mediation, which occurs when a third variable or construct intervenes between two related constructs. To determine whether gender, due to its dichotomous nature, presents a significant difference between the groups made up of the female gender and the male gender, the moderation study reflected in Table 7 has been carried out, which is also shown has added the difference in behavior between the rural population in general, and the population that is dedicated to agricultural activity [145,146]. The results of Table 7 show a degree of significance in the difference in means between women and men in the rural world compared to the agrarian world.…”

Diversidade de gênero e inovação nas organizações

“…Este estudo teve como afiliação a Universidade de Stanford, que se destacou como a instituição mais relevante, com um total de 13 publicações, conforme evidenciado pela análise bibliométrica.A segunda colocada entre as afiliações mais relevantes foi a Universidade de Málaga, localizada na Espanha, que contribuiu com nove artigos. Dentre eles, destacou-se uma investigação sobre o efeito do gênero do CEO na inovação e nas restrições financeiras de pequenas e médias empresas, evidenciando o impacto das mulheres na produção de inovação tecnológica e na inovação de gestão, independentemente do ramo de negócio, da idade ou da dimensão da empresa(Ruiz-Palomo et al, 2022).…”