DOES THE EXECUTIVE GENDER INFLUENCE THE ENTERPRISE INNOVATION EFFICIENCY? EVIDENCE FROM CHINA'S LISTED COMPANIES

Innovation can provide support for the high-quality development of enterprises, and executive gender is one of the important factors influencing innovation. Based on the data of Chinese A-share manufacturing-listed companies from 2015 to 2019, the empirical study on the effect of executive gender on enterprise innovation efficiency is conducted in this paper. The research finding shows: the enterprise innovation efficiency is higher in the case of female CEO compared to male CEO. After the enterprise life cycle is divided, it's found that she can have a significant promoting effect on the innovation efficiency of enterprises in each life cycle only when the CEO is a woman. And the promoting effect is the strongest in the declining period, followed by the growth period, and finally the maturity period. Moreover, from the perspective of management structure, it's found that the female-dominated executive combination has a stronger promoting effect on enterprise innovation efficiency.