PERFORMANCE OF MALE AND FEMALE-LED FIRMS
PERFORMANCE OF MALE AND FEMALE-LED FIRMS

Summary/Abstract: Female-led firms constitute the minority of firms and often perform worse than male-headed firms which leads to losses of female potential and in consequence losses of social welfare. Research on business performance in gender dimension is of importance for policy. Research aims. The goal of this paper is to investigate the relationship between gender of the chief executive officer (CEO) and the performance of firms, based on a survey for Polish innovative firms. We verify the hypothesis of similar performance of innovative firms led by female and male managers. Methodology. The study is based on data for 265 firms that invested in innovation with a public innovation grant in one industrial region in Poland. Two years after the end of investment, a detailed survey on the firms’ performance was conducted in 70 firms representative for the whole sample of 265 firms. Key findings. The findings indicate that gender of chief executive officers (CEOs) does not differentiate the economic performance of firms. Firms led by male and female CEOs reported a similar increase of employment and returns two years after the investment in innovation. The paper concludes that male and female managers are equally efficient when they do business in similar business conditions with equal access to resources.

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