This paper analyses the role of gender of the chief executive officer (CEO) on the propensity to introduce innovations using a sample of 1405 Spanish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We examine whether there are significant differences between female- and male-led businesses in terms of their propensity to innovate, and whether these differences may be explained by factors related to the attributes of the CEO concerning risk tolerance, self-confidence, education level and cooperative behaviour. In particular, this study tests if the linkages between these managerial attributes and the propensity to innovate are influenced by the gender of the CEO. Using a multivariate probit model (triprobit), we further investigate the role of gender on the CEO decision to simultaneously introduce product, process and organisational innovations. Our main results indicate that there are not significant differences in the propensity to introduce innovations between male- and female-run businesses when considering innovation at an aggregated level, that is, innovating in any of the three types of innovations considered. However, we obtain a higher propensity of male CEOs to introduce process innovations, as compared to their female counterparts. No significant differences by gender are found for product and organisational innovations. Additionally, results of the multivariate probit model indicate that the three innovation decisions are interdependent and should be jointly analysed. This study contributes to the scant literature regarding gender impact on firm’s innovativeness with novel empirical evidence for SMEs.

本文使用 1405 家西班牙中小企业 (SME) 的样本，分析了首席执行官 (CEO) 的性别对引入创新倾向的作用。我们研究了女性和男性领导的企业在创新倾向方面是否存在显着差异，以及这些差异是否可以用与 CEO 的风险承受能力、自信、教育水平和教育水平等属性相关的因素来解释。合作行为。特别是，本研究检验了这些管理属性与创新倾向之间的联系是否受 CEO 性别的影响。使用多元概率模型（triprobit)，我们进一步调查了性别对 CEO 决定同时引入产品、流程和组织创新的作用。我们的主要结果表明，在综合考虑创新时，男性和女性经营的企业引入创新的倾向没有显着差异，即在所考虑的三种创新类型中的任何一种进行创新。然而，与女性 CEO 相比，我们发现男性 CEO 更倾向于引入流程创新。没有发现产品和组织创新的性别显着差异。此外，多元概率的结果模型表明这三个创新决策是相互依存的，应该联合分析。本研究为关于性别对企业创新的影响的文献很少，并为中小企业提供了新的经验证据。