The aim of this research is twofold: establishing whether access to bank financing facilitates innovation in SMEs and whether
such effect can be explained from a gender perspective. Using a sample of 310 Spanish SMEs, this study first examines the
effect of alleviating financial constraints on both technological and management innovation through a structural equation
model. Then, the moderating effect of gender is examined. Our results showed that (a) relaxing financial constraints helps
SMEs to innovate in both technological and management innovation, (b) the effect of the relaxation of financial constraints
is significantly greater in companies managed by women, and (c) the moderating effect of gender occurs from the double
perspective of technological innovation and management innovation. Our empirical results suggest that the gender of the CEO
plays a vital moderating role among innovation and financial constraints, providing new evidence about women’s contribution
to innovation in SMEs, so these results have practical business and institutional implications as they point out the relevance to
promote employment policies that favour the gender diversity of employees at all hierarchical levels of the company
