This article advances knowledge on the diversity and heterogeneity of women-led small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the United Kingdom by analysing how gender intersects with ethnicity and place to influence their engagement in innovation. We adopt an intersectional perspective, and base our analyses on the Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) data of 29,257 SMEs over the period 2015–2018. Our findings suggest that despite their limited number, as well as firm size and industry sector constraints, women-led SMEs are actively engaged in innovation activities. In addition, our results on the effects of intersecting categories of gender, ethnicity and place on innovation, further emphasise the heterogeneity of women-led SMEs, both with regard to their likelihood to engage in innovation, as well as the place where innovation is most likely to occur. Implications for policy and practice are highlighted.

本文通过分析性别如何与种族和地点相交以影响她们参与创新的方式，加深了对英国女性领导的中小型企业 (SME) 多样性和异质性的认识。我们采用交叉视角，并根据 2015 年至 2018 年期间 29,257 家中小企业的纵向小型企业调查 (LSBS) 数据进行分析。我们的研究结果表明，尽管数量有限、公司规模和行业部门限制，女性主导的中小企业仍积极参与创新活动。此外，我们关于性别、种族和地点交叉类别对创新的影响的结果进一步强调了女性主导的中小企业的异质性，无论是在参与创新的可能性方面，以及最有可能发生创新的地方。强调了对政策和实践的影响。