Gender-based characteristics of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in an emerging country: is this a man’s world?

Purpose Worldwide, Ecuador is one of the countries with the most entrepreneurial activity from micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs). However, the effect of adopting the US dollar (dollarization), over which the central bank has no control, combined with being mainly an exporter of primary products, as well as strategic currency devaluation by neighboring economies, has created a difficult situation, especially for Ecuadorian women’s MSMEs. This paper aims to study the relationship between female ownership and Ecuadorian MSMEs’ financial, economic and social outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The authors compile a near-population panel of 617,804 firm-year observations representing an unbalanced panel of 112,917 MSMEs during the 2007–2016 sampling window. Panel (fixed effects) regression is used to test the hypotheses concerning the antecedents to firm financial performance, economic and social outcomes. Cox proportional hazards modeling is used to assess the impact of antecedents on firm survival. Findings First, firms providing more social benefits (e.g. employment and higher wages) have higher survival rates. Second, female ownership is negatively related with microenterprise financial performance, but positively associated with small-enterprise financial performance. Third, female-owned enterprises tend to provide higher wages per employee for all firm sizes. Fourth, although female-owned microenterprises are less efficient, they tend to provide more for their employees and possibly communities, through the economic stimulus they provide, in terms of the size of the financial outcomes. Originality/value This paper shows that, although this is a “man’s world,” women are learning earlier, developing faster professionally and overcoming stereotypes to focus on activities that generate both economic performance and social outcomes. Governmental policies that have contributed to MSMEs’ growth and women’s participation are identified. The findings suggest ways to improve and support both the creation of more women-owned MSMEs in emerging countries, such as Ecuador, and the survival of existing male- and female-owned MSMEs.

“Lean in”: the moderating effect of female ownership on the relationship between human capital and organizational innovation

PurposeWith the aim of shedding new light on the characteristics of human capital in its relationship with organizational innovation, this paper develops a novel theoretical and empirical exploration of the characteristics of human capital, both executives' experience and employees' average education level, as well as the moderating effect of female ownership, on two different aspects of organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachData were obtained from the World Bank's China private manufacturing enterprise questionnaire survey. The study employs regression analysis of a logistic model using 1,598 samples, because the dependent variable of an organization's innovation index is a binary variable.FindingsUsing World Bank survey data of Chinese private manufacturing enterprises, the authors find that executives' experience has a significantly positive effect on process innovation. Female ownership strengthens the relationship between executives' experience and process innovation. Moreover, the results indicate that employees' average educational level has a significantly positive effect on product innovation. Female ownership strengthens the relationships between employees' average educational level and organizational innovation including product innovation and process innovation. This study highlights the importance of simultaneously testing the effects of human capital and gender heterogeneity on organizational innovation activities.Originality/valueThis study explores the impact of human capital on organizational innovation activities in the context of the Chinese manufacturing industry. Moreover, organizational innovation activities are divided into two aspects: product innovation and process innovation. This study separately discusses the effect of human capital on these two kinds of innovation in detail. Finally, female ownership is selected as a moderating variable, and it is demonstrated that interactions of female owners with executives' experience and employees' average educational level have a positive impact on increasing different kinds of organizational innovation. The authors identify new boundary conditions for the domain of female research that are sorely lacking in the present literature.

The Gender Effect on a Firm’s Innovative Activities in the Emerging Economies

This study examines the impact of gender at three different positions in a firm’s hierarchy on innovative activities, looking at over 6474 firms in 30 emerging countries. We create a dummy variable for each of the six survey questions on product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, marketing innovation, and R&D (Research & Development) spending. Each dummy acts as a dependent variable in a separate logit regression, and the sum of the dummies acts as the dependent variable in another ordered logit regression. We use the female ownership percentage, female top management, and female majority in the workforce as test variables. We use the Heckman two-stage model to address endogeneity concerns with gender. We find that the female ownership percentage is generally positively related to individual innovation measures as well as the composite measure, while female top management is positively associated with marketing innovation only, and a female majority in the workforce is not significantly related to any measure. The results suggest that promoting innovation in emerging countries would involve governments encouraging further market participation by women and supporting female CEOs (Chief Executive Officers) to innovate, and firms fostering innovation among female workers.

Female Ownership of Fixed Assets in Nepal: A Regional Perspective

Fixed assets especially house and land have significant importance in wealth, social security and power in Nepal. Ownership over these assets has greater implications in women’s status within households and communities. This also decides the economic dependence or independence and provides the means to be engaged in productive economic activity. The present study aims at analyzing the regional pattern of female ownership of fixed assets- house and land. Relevant data were acquired from a desk review of published and unpublished literature including online database. The study finds that there is a great gender discrepancy in ownership of fixed assets in Nepal and this varies across ecological zones and provinces. Female ownership of both land and house is associated with 10.7 percent while only 9.0 percent have ownership of land only. Tarai shows relatively positive condition as compared to other ecological zones with female ownership of 12.3 percent households with house and land and 10.5 percent with only land. Among provinces, the most negative situation exists in the province six as compared to others. The socio-cultural barriers are still a major challenge for women’s ownership of property in Nepal.The Third Pole: Journal of GeographyVol. 17: 73-82, 2017

The Relationship between Shareholder Gender and Earnings Management in Private Italian Companies

Although the relationship between the type and characteristics of shareholders and earnings management practices is a topic that has been extensively investigated in the literature, the specific relationship between shareholder gender and earnings management practices has been overlooked by scholars. To contribute to filling this knowledge gap, this study investigates whether and how shareholder gender is related to the magnitude of abnormal (or discretionary) accruals in private Italian companies. It shows that the relationship between female ownership and the magnitude of abnormal accruals is not linear (and negative), but quadratic. This means that the practice of manipulating accruals is not contrasted by the presence of female ownership but by the presence of gender heterogeneity in the ownership structure.

Wine and Women: Grape Growers and Pulperas in Mendoza, 1561–1852

This article examines the role of entrepreneurial women in colonial Mendoza, a trade and transport center characterized by wine production. In other economic activities, such as cattle raising and transportation, female ownership of the local means of productions was practically nonexistent. Women were increasingly important in the cultivation of vineyards and in the production and selling of wine in taverns and stores (pulperías). This development was brought about by three factors: first, Hispanic ideology allowed women a privileged space in the cultivation of vineyards, as is illustrated in Fray Luis de León’s La perfecta casada (1583). Second, as a transportation center, Mendoza had many men who worked as muleteers, on wagon trains, and on cattle drives; their extended absences generated greater responsibilities and independence for women. Third, the example set by the first taverns and wineries in Mendoza created models for other women to pursue. For all these reasons, women took advantage of opportunities in vineyards and taverns, thus advancing their own economic and mental emancipation. This study is based on unpublished documents in the Archivo Histórico de Mendoza and the Archivo Nacional in Santiago, Chile.

Die juridiese problematiek van grondbesit in die boek Rut

The juridical problem of land ownership in the book of RuthJuridical matters play an important role in the book of Ruth. There appears to be a contradiction between Ruth 1:21 and Ruth 4:3. In the former, Naomi is depicted as a desperately poor (“empty”) widow. In the latter, Naomi is unexpectedly presented as the owner of land. This contradiction can be solved by understanding Naomi’s right in respect of her late husband’s land as a right other than ownership. A study of female ownership of land, the right of a wife to inherit from her husband, analysis of the literary elements in the book of Ruth, the rural backdrop, the theme of survival and the vocabulary in the narrative, lead to the conclusion that we are here dealing with what would today be recognised as a usufruct.