<p>This research examines the influence of female owners and executives on innovation by firms across 146 countries. The main contribution lies in addressing the entrepreneurship gender dynamics within firms. We find that female ownership of firms bolstered innovation, both in firms where female owners had male top managers or they had female top managers. On the other hand, firms with female top managers with male owners had an insignificant influence on innovation. These findings held when overall innovation was considered, as well as across process and product innovations, and generally also held across world regions. The analysis also shows that women are able to overcome even unfavorable institutional environments for gender equity. In other results, larger firms were more innovative, as were firms that were in the manufacturing sector and those that maintained their websites. As expected, participation in R&amp;D was crucial to innovation. A nation’s overall economic prosperity encouraged innovation, while its degree of globalization had the reverse effect. A strengthened rule of law was especially useful in fostering innovation in poorer nations, but such nations that were islands were less innovative, ceteris paribus. In sum, the main novel insight is that it is not how firms are initially formed/incorporated that matters for innovation. Rather, it is the composition of the executive team that matters. The findings emphasize the need for special technology policies for low-income nations.</p>