Innovativeness and entrepreneurial performance of female entrepreneurs

Entrepreneurs' innovativeness is an important factor affecting the performance of start-up companies. Based on social cognitive theory, this study analyzes the relationship between female entrepreneurs' innova-tiveness and entrepreneurial performance at a more localized level using a sample of 558 Chinese female entrepreneurs. The mediating variables are opportunity recognition and development and psychological cap-ital; the moderating variable is gender stereotypes. The results reveal three important findings. First, female entrepreneurs' innovativeness was significantly and positively related to entrepreneurial performance. Sec-ond, opportunity recognition and development and psychological capital had significant mediating effects between female entrepreneurs' innovativeness and entrepreneurial performance. Finally, gender stereotypes had a negative moderating effect on female opportunity recognition and development. The study results pro-vide a theoretical and practical reference for how women in entrepreneurial practice can improve their firm's performance and provide insights into female entrepreneurship theory research. (c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. on behalf of Journal of Innovation & Knowledge. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)