The relevance of personal characteristics and gender diversity for (eco-)innovation activities at the firm-level: Results from a linked employer-employee database in Germany

The burgeoning literature on the determinants of eco-innovation has not yet considered the influence of the personal characteristics of a firm's employees. The paper opens this black box of unexplained heterogeneity: it has often been observed that firms with broadly similar characteristics take different decisions concerning eco-innovations. In fact, latent variables such as the greenness of a firm may be explained by the personal characteristics (gender, family status, geographic origins, education, etc.) of the firm's staff and decision-makers. The linked employer-employee database of the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Germany makes such an analysis possible based on data for 2010-2012. The results of an econometric analysis show that having a large proportion of highly qualified women and a mixed-gender management board are positively correlated with innovation activities in the environmental sector. The results further confirm that export-oriented firms are more likely to innovate, firms characterized by staff overaging innovate to a lesser extent and greater competition pressure encourages innovation.