“Lean in”: the moderating effect of female ownership on the relationship between human capital and organizational innovation

Abstract

PurposeWith the aim of shedding new light on the characteristics of human capital in its relationship with organizational innovation, this paper develops a novel theoretical and empirical exploration of the characteristics of human capital, both executives' experience and employees' average education level, as well as the moderating effect of female ownership, on two different aspects of organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from the World Bank's China private manufacturing enterprise questionnaire survey. The study employs regression analysis of a logistic model using 1,598 samples, because the dependent variable of an organization's innovation index is a binary variable.FindingsUsing World Bank survey data of Chinese private manufacturing enterprises, the authors find that executives' experience has a significantly positive effect on process innovation. Female ownership strengthens the relationship between executives' experience and process innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that employees' average educational level has a significantly positive effect on product innovation. Female ownership strengthens the relationships between employees' average educational level and organizational innovation including product innovation and process innovation. This study highlights the importance of simultaneously testing the effects of human capital and gender heterogeneity on organizational innovation activities.Originality/valueThis study explores the impact of human capital on organizational innovation activities in the context of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Moreover, organizational innovation activities are divided into two aspects: product innovation and process innovation. This study separately discusses the effect of human capital on these two kinds of innovation in detail. Finally, female ownership is selected as a moderating variable, and it is demonstrated that interactions of female owners with executives' experience and employees' average educational level have a positive impact on increasing different kinds of organizational innovation. The authors identify new boundary conditions for the domain of female research that are sorely lacking in the present literature.

The Impact of Family Business Governance on Organizational Innovation: A Field Study at Family Firms Operating in Yemen

“…We use the type of innovation with respect to the definition of organizational innovation (Demircioglu, 2018), where organizational innovation is the introduction of something new, such as a new idea, new product, new process, technology and strategy. Therefore, this study uses product innovation and process innovation as the conceptualization of dimensions for organizational innovation which is also supported by Fu, Liu, Yang, Jiao, and Jin (2020), Frank et al (2019) and even previously by Bammens, Gils, and Voordeckers (2010) and Llach (2010) who argue that both product innovation and process innovation are among the most commonly used innovation indicators in previous studies related to family firm. Furthermore, considering the Yemeni context, the use of types of organizational innovation serves the purpose of this study.…”

Gender Budgeting in Italian Universities

“…entrepreneurship (Sarri & Trihopoulou, 2005), as well as their greater motivation to pursue innovative change (Fu et al, 2021).…”

Gender Diversity and Resilience in Firms During COVID-19 Pandemic

“…This finding is mainly due to the complications that women still face on their path to independence ; suffice it to think of the first difficulties that a female entrepreneur may encounter in accessing the funds to start her own business or in balancing her work with her historical role in the family or in obtaining a specific and qualified education, especially in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines (Cesaroni & Sentuti, 2016;Itani et al, 2011;McGowan et al, 2012;Moss-Racusin et al, 2018;Wu et al, 2019). Such issues could arise despite the fact that because of their historically peripheral role in entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurs are more likely to engage in an innovation process (Prabowo & Setiawan, 2021), or at least, they could have a positive impact on increasing different kinds of organisational innovation (Fu et al, 2021). Therefore, to be successful, the innovative process should be supported by specific characteristics of female entrepreneurs that can enable minimising all the difficulties and discrimination that could affect women (Sarri & Trihopoulou, 2005).…”

“…Considering all the discrimination and prejudice that women may suffer (Sarri & Trihopoulou, 2005), RC plays a key role in supporting female entrepreneurs, providing more stability, security, organisational and moral aid, and helping them succeed . They benefit more from RC than men because women who are more likely to engage in any kind of innovation process (Fu et al, 2021) are also more able to exploit firms' relations, reflecting a more cooperative leadership style (Shapero & Sokol, 1982). In this context, some authors (Cesaroni & Paoloni, 2016;Churchill et al, 1987;Paoloni & Dumay, 2015;Rodriguez & Santos, 2009) have focused on the differences between the relationships built by female entrepreneurs and those created by male entrepreneurs, finding differences in the composition as well, since the networks built by women are made up of a larger number of females than males and tend to be of a modest size.…”