Abstract
This paper deals with “gendering innovation”, with the purpose of exploring the entrepreneurial spaces of innovation among Italian farms managed by women. More precisely, the hypothesis is that entrepre-neurial orientation has to be considered the engine of innovation adoption in different rural contexts, by creating new spaces for innovation. The research is grounded on primary sources using a questionnaire administered to a sample of women farmers in all regions of Italy, with the purpose of investigating complex dimensions behind the decision of innovation uptake, with a special focus on the relevance of entrepreneurial orientation. Empirical analysis lets different “worlds of female innovation” to emerge, which are grounded on both conventional and alternative agrifood networks. Taking on the perspective of entrepreneurial spaces of innovation implies to design a diversified set of policy action with the purpose of affecting these entrepreneurial spaces. This is particularly urgent in the perspective of gender main-streaming of rural development policies of the European Union.
Highlights
The role of women in farming has been analysed from different theoretical perspectives and classified according to various dimensions underlying either a subsidiary role or a more active participation
Starting from the key question on the person taking on strategic decisions in the farms, the multivariate analysis gives back an interesting distinction between women farmers, by aggregating two main groups of farms describing two main entrepreneurial spaces of innovation, as represented in Tables 2 and 3
This paper aimed at exploring entrepreneurial spaces of innovation in women farms of Italy, by offering an articulated set of innovation strategies shaped by different entrepreneurial profiles
Summary
The role of women in farming has been analysed from different theoretical perspectives and classified according to various dimensions underlying either a subsidiary role or a more active participation. A constituent perspective of women’s participation in farming is under observation, within processes of functional repositioning of women farmers along diversified paths of farm’s development. These paths design and are designed by different entrepreneurial traits and may originate from heterogeneous entrepreneurial spaces of innovation. This paper deals with innovation adoption by women farmers in Italy, with the purpose of exploring eventually diversified entrepreneurial spaces of innovations (ESO) in women farms and the role of entrepreneurial traits in shaping these ‘spaces’. The relevance of entrepreneurship in innovation adoption is little analysed, despite extant literature has recognized the important role of women farmers in the process of sociotechnical transition towards innovative and multifunctional agriculture (Seuneke, Bock, 2015). This paper fills a gap in the literature, by acknowledging heterogeneity and flexible gender identities (Bock, Shortall, 2017) in the uptake of innovation
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