Impact of social capital and firms' innovative capability on sustainable growth of women owned technoprises (SMEs): a study in Malaysia

Women have prolific potential to uplift national economic and innovative growth by participating in technology entrepreneurship development. However the prospective benefits of this women technopreneurship reside greatly on the sustainable growth of the women owned technoprises and factors affecting it. This empirical study is a novel attempt to juxtapose significance of social capital and innovative capability in achieving sustainable growth of women owned technoprises (SMEs) in Malaysia. Data was collected by selecting 250 women owned firms through convenience sampling and distributing questionnaires through mail survey method. To investigate the direct and indirect (through innovative capability) effect of social capital on firms' sustainable growth, hierarchical multiple regression analysis was employed. Significant direct relationship of social capital and innovative capability with firms' sustainable growth was found. Nevertheless, strong mediating role of innovative capability was also proved. Insinuation for future research and policy recommendations are also given.