Is Innovativeness Gender-Neutral? A Configurational Analysis of the Owners of High-tech New Ventures

Abstract

Apart from the recognized under-representation of female entrepreneurs, whether the gender of entrepreneur matters and how does it matter to new venture’s innovativeness remain an under-research area. This study challenges the gender bias on low innovativeness of female-owned enterprises especially in the high-tech sector by applying a Qualitative Comparative Analysis approach to a sample of 62 new venture high-tech firms in China. Built upon the resource dependence theory (RDT) and the gender differences in innovation literature, this research holistically articulates alternative mechanisms from multiple antecedents including the gender of entrepreneur, managerial resources, and environment leading to high innovativeness. Our findings unveil that an extremely turbulent environment can suppress the influence of gender, whereas, in other circumstances, female-owned firms even engage more intensively in innovation. In doing so, this paper develops a mid-range theory by the means of three archetypes of high innovativeness to explain when and when not gender matters to innovation. It also extends the explanatory power of the RDT to explain the gender disparities by suggesting how male and female entrepreneurs differ in leveraging their resources in response to the external environment and ultimately influence innovativeness. The findings provide some practical implications for entrepreneurial firms to be highly innovative under different environmental and resource conditions.