Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa

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 app...

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Main Authors:	Campos, Francisco, Frese, Michael, Goldstein, Markus, Iacovone, Leonardo, Johnson, Hillary C., McKenzie, David, Mensmann, Mona
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	en_US
Published:	American Association for the Advancement of Science 2017
Subjects:	SKILLS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS TRAINING MARKETING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MICROENTERPRISE AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28386

id	okr-10986-28386
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-283862021-05-25T10:54:44Z Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary C. McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona SKILLS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS TRAINING MARKETING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MICROENTERPRISE AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT 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 is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science Vol 357, issue 6357: 1287-90. 2017-09-25T14:00:41Z 2017-09-25T14:00:41Z 2017-09-22 Journal Article Science http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28386 en_US All rights reserved by the AAAS World Bank American Association for the Advancement of Science Publications & Research :: Journal Article Publications & Research Africa West Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	en_US
topic	SKILLS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS TRAINING MARKETING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MICROENTERPRISE AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT
spellingShingle	SKILLS DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS TRAINING MARKETING ENTREPRENEURSHIP MICROENTERPRISE AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary C. McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
geographic_facet	Africa West Africa
description	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 is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of the AAAS for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Science Vol 357, issue 6357: 1287-90.
format	Journal Article
author	Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary C. McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona
author_facet	Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary C. McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona
author_sort	Campos, Francisco
title	Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
title_short	Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
title_full	Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
title_fullStr	Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
title_full_unstemmed	Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa
title_sort	teaching personal initiative beats traditional training in boosting small business in west africa
publisher	American Association for the Advancement of Science
publishDate	2017
url	http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28386
_version_	1764466781325361152

Teaching Personal Initiative Beats Traditional Training in Boosting Small Business in West Africa

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