The influence of gender on technology transfer processes managed in Italian Young Innovative Companies: A stochastic frontier analysis

Abstract

This paper addresses the general lack of research on high-growth women's entrepreneurship by investigating the influence of gender on Technology Transfer – TT processes managed in Young Innovative Companies – YICs (new firms with high-growth potential). The aim of this paper is twofold. First, it investigates whether male or female entrepreneurs are better at bringing innovations onto markets by testing the relationship between participation in R&D activities, employment of expert researchers and holding a patent (independent variables) and performance (dependent variable). Second, it investigates the causes of differences, if any. For this reason, a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (able to disentangle the error term into technical and random inefficiencies) considering 10,676 YICs operating in Italy in 2019 is conducted. Results confirm the influence of gender (only holding a patent is significant for female entrepreneurs) and reveal that differences between male and female entrepreneurs depend on random inefficiencies.Further data-driven analyses, regarding 1394 female entrepreneurs, exhibit a reverse U-shape relationship between holding a patent and performance as the percentage of female property increases. In terms of originality, this paper remarks that Italian female entrepreneurs need to collaborate with male entrepreneurs in order to maximize the results of TT processes in their YICs.