Women Entrepreneurs and Innovation in Ghana

This chapter analyses how the gender of the entrepreneur is associated with firm-level innovation performance, both directly and in conjunction with other firm and manager attributes. Using a unique survey data set collected in 2013 from the DILIC project in Ghana, and formulating a two-stage model, the chapter examines if gender differences exist in firm-level innovation activities in Ghana. Our analyses show significant differences in innovation behaviour between women’s and men’s firms, suggesting that women are less likely to introduce technological and new-to-market innovations, and also sell less of innovative products. However, the results show that women are more active in adopting non-technological, especially marketing, innovation. For policy, the chapter offers new insights into gender differences, and the role of informal firms in the innovation system of Ghana, and suggests that there is a need for new policy redirection towards informality on the one hand and the need for specific institutional arrangements to address this gender gap on the other hand.