Gender diversity and enterprise innovative capability

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether female workers’ years of education do mediate the influence of gender diversity on innovative capability of enterprises in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The study uses three waves Nigeria Enterprise Surveys panel dataset collected in 2007, 2009 and 2014, for a sample of 1,566 enterprises to circumvent the problems associated with application of cross-sectional designs in mediation studies. The study applies Hicks and Tingley’s (2011) two equations mediation analysis approach with robust standard error. Findings The results of the inferential analysis indicate that female workers’ years of education mediate fully and positively the effect of gender diversity on innovative capability of enterprises in Nigeria. Research limitations/implications For gender diversity to enhance the innovative capability of an enterprise, female workers must be empowered with higher levels of formal education. Practical implications Female workers should be empowered with formal education in order to enhance the ability of firms to innovate. Gender diversity alone does not enhance the innovative capability of an enterprise without empowering female workers with formal education. Originality/value Although past studies do provide substantial evidence on the positive relationship between gender diversity and the innovative capability of enterprises, the mediating effect of education on this relationship has been ignored. This is particularly relevant in a country such as Nigeria with low levels of innovation. Furthermore, despite the presumed positive effect of gender diversity on innovative capability, existing empirical research does not yield consistent findings to clearly resolve how or why gender diversity does affect the innovative capability of enterprises. This paper tests whether it could be the result of a mediating (intervening) variable.