Gender differences in the propensity to innovate: evidence from matrilineal and patriarchal societies from an institutional perspective

Salvatore Farace (), Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera () and Fernanda Mazzotta ()
Additional contact information
Salvatore Farace: University of Salerno
Giuseppe Lubrano Lavadera: Departement of Social Science, Link Campus University
Fernanda Mazzotta: University of Salerno

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), 2025, vol. 161, issue 4, No 4, 1377-1420

Abstract: Abstract This study explores whether female firm ownership or management influences the propensity to innovate. This core subject intersects with other crucial institutional aspects, such as corruption, crime, social structure and credit rationing. The empirical analysis is based on a set of manufacturing and service firms from the 2014 World Bank Surveys in Malawi. We approach innovation by considering an aggregate measure resulting from a principal component analysis, creating an aggregate continuous variable that gives the dimension of innovation breadth. The findings support a positive effect of matrilineal districts on innovation for male and female managers. Female owners are more innovative in nonmatrilineal regions/districts, and male owners are more innovative in matrilineal regions/districts. In general, the participation of employees with new ideas and training activities is positively correlated with innovation. After controlling for endogeneity, using instrumental variable estimates, corruption is not an incentive for innovation, but neither do we find a negative effect.

Keywords: Gender; Innovation; Matrilineal and patriarchal societies; Developing countries; Crime; Corruption (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D73 J16 O17 O3 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10290-025-00587-3 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:weltar:v:161:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10290-025-00587-3

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... cs/journal/10290/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s10290-025-00587-3

Access Statistics for this article

Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv) is currently edited by Paul Bergin, Holger Görg, Cédric Tille and Gerald Willmann

More articles in Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv) from Springer, Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().