Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa

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Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa. / Campos, Francisco; Frese, Michael; Goldstein, Markus et al.

In: Science, Vol. 357, No. 6357, 22.09.2017, p. 1287-1290.

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

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Campos F, Frese M, Goldstein M, Iacovone L, Johnson HC, McKenzie D et al. Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa. Science. 2017 Sep 22;357(6357):1287-1290. doi: 10.1126/science.aan5329

Bibtex

@article{e037fee1dbbd47349af03276ae593446,
title = "Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa",
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.",
keywords = "Entrepreneurship, Business psychology",
author = "Francisco Campos and Michael Frese and Markus Goldstein and Leonardo Iacovone and Johnson, {Hillary C.} and David McKenzie and Mona Mensmann",
year = "2017",
month = sep,
day = "22",
doi = "10.1126/science.aan5329",
language = "English",
volume = "357",
pages = "1287--1290",
journal = "Science",
issn = "0036-8075",
publisher = "American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)",
number = "6357",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in West Africa

AU - Campos, Francisco

AU - Frese, Michael

AU - Goldstein, Markus

AU - Iacovone, Leonardo

AU - Johnson, Hillary C.

AU - McKenzie, David

AU - Mensmann, Mona

PY - 2017/9/22

Y1 - 2017/9/22

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Entrepreneurship

KW - Business psychology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85029818350&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1126/science.aan5329

DO - 10.1126/science.aan5329

M3 - Journal articles

C2 - 28935805

VL - 357

SP - 1287

EP - 1290

JO - Science

JF - Science

SN - 0036-8075

IS - 6357

ER -

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