Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa
This paper presents findings from a randomized controlled trial in Togo
Abstract
Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries by teaching basic financial and marketing practices, yet the impacts of such programs are mixed. We tested whether a psychology-based personal initiative training approach, which teaches a proactive mindset and focuses on entrepreneurial behaviors, could have more success. A randomized controlled trial in Togo assigned microenterprise owners to a control group (n = 500), a leading business training program (n = 500), or a personal initiative training program (n = 500). Four follow-up surveys tracked outcomes for firms over 2 years and showed that personal initiative training increased firm profits by 30%, compared with a statistically insignificant 11% for traditional training. The training is cost-effective, paying for itself within 1 year.
This research is part of the Gender, Growth and Labour Markets in Low-Income Countries programme
Citation
Campos F., Goldstein, M.& Iacovone, L. (2017). Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa .Science 22 Sep 2017: Vol. 357, Issue 6357, pp. 1287-1290
Link
Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa