The mechanisms of gender effects in user innovation 08/05/2020
The paper Exploring the mechanisms of gender effects in user innovation, co-authored by Joana Mendonça and Anabela Reis, contributes to shed some light on user innovation gender differences, proposing a framework to explain the role of gender in user innovation, considering both a direct and an indirect effect. The authors looked at the users’ probability to innovate by gender, investigating direct and indirect effects through fields of education and personality traits, such as risk taking, innovativeness and aspirations. Using data from a unique survey on user innovation in Portugal, they found that although men innovate more, female show no clear differences on innovation behaviour and characteristics of innovations. The authors also concluded that gender has a direct effect on the probability of users to innovate and an indirect effect on user innovation through education fields, but that the direct effect of gender on innovation is stronger.
