Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
Authors
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.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Science |
Volume | 357 |
Issue number | 6357 |
Pages (from-to) | 1287-1290 |
Number of pages | 4 |
ISSN | 0036-8075 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 22.09.2017 |
- Entrepreneurship
- Business psychology