Female Ownership Participation and Product Innovation among Firms in Ghana: Does a Female Top Manager Strengthen the Relationship?

Women participate in firms as owners and top managers, but these roles may shape innovation in different ways. This study examined whether female ownership participation was associated with product innovation among formal firms in Ghana and whether having a female top manager strengthened that relationship. We analyzed the Ghana World Bank Enterprise Survey 2023. The dependent variable measured whether the establishment introduced a new or significantly improved product or service during the previous three years. We measured female ownership participation and the top manager's gender directly. After removing World Bank nonresponse codes and incomplete control variables, the analytical sample included 673 establishments; survey-weighted logistic regression controlled for logged firm age, employment size, realized industry, and region. We used hierarchical models, average predicted probabilities, alternative survey weights, unweighted estimation, alternative ownership measures, market-new innovation, additional R&D controls, influence diagnostics, and 1,000 stratified bootstrap replications. Weighted estimates indicated that 18.8% of firms reported product innovation, 33.9% had at least one female owner, and 20.5% had a female top manager. In the additive model, female ownership and female management were not independently significant. In the interaction model, female ownership was positively associated with product innovation when the top manager was male (adjusted odds ratio = 1.71, 95% confidence interval [1.03, 2.83], p = .038). The female-owner-by-female-manager interaction was negative and narrowly missed the conventional significance threshold, adjusted odds ratio = 0.27, 95% confidence interval [0.07, 1.01], p = .052. Adjusted innovation probabilities were 17.2% for firms with no female owner and a male manager, 25.4% for female-owned firms with a male manager, 28.7% for firms without female owners but with a female manager, and 16.2% for firms combining female ownership and female top management. However, the negative interaction was not stable under bootstrap, unweighted and influence analyses. The expected positive women-to-women moderation was therefore not supported. The findings suggest that ownership-management gender combinations may matter, but Ghanaian evidence does not justify a general claim that pairing female owners with female managers increases product innovation.

female ownership, female top manager, product innovation, gender diversity, Ghana, Enterprise Survey

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