The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

Abstract

This study examines the impact of gender at three different positions in a firm’s hierarchy on innovative activities, looking at over 6474 firms in 30 emerging countries. We create a dummy variable for each of the six survey questions on product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, marketing innovation, and R&D (Research & Development) spending. Each dummy acts as a dependent variable in a separate logit regression, and the sum of the dummies acts as the dependent variable in another ordered logit regression. We use the female ownership percentage, female top management, and female majority in the workforce as test variables. We use the Heckman two-stage model to address endogeneity concerns with gender. We find that the female ownership percentage is generally positively related to individual innovation measures as well as the composite measure, while female top management is positively associated with marketing innovation only, and a female majority in the workforce is not significantly related to any measure. The results suggest that promoting innovation in emerging countries would involve governments encouraging further market participation by women and supporting female CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) to innovate, and firms fostering innovation among female workers.

Relations between Innovation and Firm Performance of Manufacturing Firms in Southeast Asian Emerging Markets: Empirical Evidence from Indonesia, Malaysia, and Vietnam

“…Innovation is required for the survival and the achievement of sustainable growth in both transitional and developed economies [2,7,32,33]. This is particularly true in emerging markets: while these markets are characterized by fast growing, less developed economies, firms are limited from obtaining other resources for firm growth.…”

“…This is particularly true in emerging markets: while these markets are characterized by fast growing, less developed economies, firms are limited from obtaining other resources for firm growth. Consequently, many studies have placed great emphasis on the effect of innovation on a firm's competitiveness and performance in emerging markets [2,7,12,19,32,34,35]. For example, Kurt and Kurt [32] found that innovation was positively associated with labor productivity in the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) region.…”

“…As demonstrated, the mainstream of research on innovation in emerging markets has focused on identifying ways to promote firm innovation while overcoming poor innovation infrastructure [42]. However, innovation comes in many different forms, such as operation innovations (such as innovation in technology, products, or processes), organizational innovations, marketing innovations, and logistics innovations [7]). For manufacturing firms, two types of innovation are particularly relevant: product innovation and process innovation.…”

“…Traditional research on innovation has focused on firms in developed economies because innovation has been usually associated with the latest knowledge, skill, or technology. Meanwhile, research on firm innovation in emerging markets has placed weight on determinants of firm innovation such as R&D activities [2][3][4][5] and top managers' characteristics [6,7]. These research streams have left the innovation activities in emerging markets relatively unknown.…”

Female Executives in the Service Sector: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Spain

“…Torchia et al [84] analyzed the contribution of female directors to firm innovation by strategic board tasks and found that the level of firm organizational innovation is higher when there is a critical mass of women (at least three). Na and Shin [86] found a positive relationship between female top management and marketing innovation as well as between female ownership and several innovation measures in emerging countries. In addition, the literature on corporate governance suggests that the effects of ownership and governance variables could impact innovation in SMEs differently than in large companies [87].…”