ABSTRACT This research investigates the relational construction of gender and innovation within small and medium enterprises (SMEs) during systemic business crises. Moving beyond essentialist, trait‐based perspectives, this study adopts a processual feminist lens to explore how gendered organizational practices shape innovative capacity during disruptions. Drawing on a quantitative sample of 6900 SMEs from 25 countries, we analyze how gendered leadership (Female CEOs), the relational configuration of the workforce, and institutional egalitarianism influence innovation. Rather than viewing gender as an isolated explanatory variable or a set of fixed traits, we conceptualize innovation as a performative enactment that is both constrained and enabled by institutional inequality regimes. Our findings challenge the static assumptions of social role theory by demonstrating that crises disrupt traditional gender scripts. We argue that the increased participation and innovative contributions of women during crises are not temporary departures from stereotypes, but represent a strategic navigation of gendered power structures within the firm. For practice, we suggest that SMEs can achieve sustainable competitive advantage only by dismantling previous organizational logics and recognizing innovation as an outcome of diverse, intersectional organizational processes rather than individual‐level gendered traits.
Kiessling et al. (Fri,) studied this question.