The role of management strategies in business performance: men and women entrepreneurs managing creativity and innovation

The aim of this study is to determine the relationships between management strategies and business performance among male and female entrepreneurs. Focusing on Creativity and Innovation (C&I), the backbone of entrepreneurship, the main hypotheses are that men and women entrepreneurs use more similar C&I management strategies than different ones, despite gender differences in managing their businesses, as research shows; and that the C&I management strategies used by men and women entrepreneurs have a stronger impact on business performance than gender. C&I management relates to how the entrepreneur navigates processes relating to valuable internal assets, and how business performance is assessed by changes – improvement or deterioration – in some performance characteristic over time. Findings based on the responses of 233 entrepreneurs revealed that men and women used most managerial strategies similarly, with the exception of one strategy associated with encouraging people involved in the business to utilise C&I. Furthermore, gender per se emerged as insignificant in affecting business performance, while C&I management strategies had a significant impact on business performance. The interaction effects of gender and certain C&I management strategies revealed how men and women emphasise these strategies to advance business performance. Academic and practical implications are discussed.