Entrepreneurial universities and innovative behavior: the impact of gender diversity

Whereas the impact of entrepreneurial universities is rather well understood, the underlying mechanisms that foster and accelerate university innovation outcomes are much less clear. Besides institutional factors, especially individual characteristics of scientists may decisively influence the quality of university outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of gender diversity on university innovation outcomes across all three university missions, i.e. teaching, research and the commercialization of knowledge. The results of this study suggest that gender diversity positively affects university innovation outcomes in the context of universities' mission implementation, yet follows an inverted U-shape. Whereas a higher share of female scientists seems to be particularly conducive for innovative behavior with regard to teaching and research activities, male scientists seem to be better able to produce radical innovations, i.e. transfer new knowledge from academia towards the market. The findings further suggest that there seems to be a certain threshold in that a minimum level of gender diversity is necessary to drive augmented innovative behavior within universities. Based on these findings, recommendations for university managers and policy makers are derived as well as future avenues of research are outlined.