Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo
Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries, by teaching accounting, marketing and other basic business skills. However, research shows limited impacts of thi...
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| Format: | Brief |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/635311516194319062/Personal-initiative-training-leads-to-remarkable-growth-of-women-owned-small-businesses-in-Togo http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29168 |
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okr-10986-291682021-05-26T09:05:20Z Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS MICROENTERPRISE BUSINESS TRAINING INITIATIVE WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB Standard business training programs aim to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed business owners in developing countries, by teaching accounting, marketing and other basic business skills. However, research shows limited impacts of this traditional business training approach. Through an experiment in Togo, we introduced the personal initiative training program, a new and effective psychology-based entrepreneurship training that outperforms traditional business training. The personal initiative training increased firm profits in Togo by 30 percent relative to a control group, compared to no significant impacts from a traditional business training. Personal initiative training led to more than just a boost in profits for micro entrepreneurs. After the training business owners were more innovative, introduced new products, borrowed more and made larger investments. The personal initiative training was particularly effective for female entrepreneurs, for whom traditional training has often been in effective. Women who received personal initiative training saw their profits increase by 40 percent, compared to 5 percent for traditional business. This study’s findings make a strong case for the role of psychology in better influencing how small business training programs are taught in West Africa and beyond. It shows the importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in addition to learning the business practices of successful entrepreneurs. Based on these promising results, the personal initiative training is being implemented in programs in Mozambique, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Mexico. 2018-01-18T15:26:31Z 2018-01-18T15:26:31Z 2018-01 Brief http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/635311516194319062/Personal-initiative-training-leads-to-remarkable-growth-of-women-owned-small-businesses-in-Togo http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29168 English Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief;No. 22 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Brief Africa Togo |
| repository_type |
Digital Repository |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
Digital Repositories |
| building |
World Bank Open Knowledge Repository |
| collection |
World Bank |
| language |
English |
| topic |
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS MICROENTERPRISE BUSINESS TRAINING INITIATIVE WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB |
| spellingShingle |
FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS MICROENTERPRISE BUSINESS TRAINING INITIATIVE WOMEN AND PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AFRICA GENDER POLICY GENDER INNOVATION LAB Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| geographic_facet |
Africa Togo |
| relation |
Gender Innovation Lab Policy Brief;No. 22 |
| description |
Standard business training programs aim
to boost the incomes of the millions of self-employed
business owners in developing countries, by teaching
accounting, marketing and other basic business skills.
However, research shows limited impacts of this traditional
business training approach. Through an experiment in Togo,
we introduced the personal initiative training program, a
new and effective psychology-based entrepreneurship training
that outperforms traditional business training. The personal
initiative training increased firm profits in Togo by 30
percent relative to a control group, compared to no
significant impacts from a traditional business training.
Personal initiative training led to more than just a boost
in profits for micro entrepreneurs. After the training
business owners were more innovative, introduced new
products, borrowed more and made larger investments. The
personal initiative training was particularly effective for
female entrepreneurs, for whom traditional training has
often been in effective. Women who received personal
initiative training saw their profits increase by 40
percent, compared to 5 percent for traditional business.
This study’s findings make a strong case for the role of
psychology in better influencing how small business training
programs are taught in West Africa and beyond. It shows the
importance of developing an entrepreneurial mindset in
addition to learning the business practices of successful
entrepreneurs. Based on these promising results, the
personal initiative training is being implemented in
programs in Mozambique, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Jamaica, and Mexico. |
| format |
Brief |
| author |
Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona |
| author_facet |
Campos, Francisco Frese, Michael Goldstein, Markus Iacovone, Leonardo Johnson, Hillary McKenzie, David Mensmann, Mona |
| author_sort |
Campos, Francisco |
| title |
Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| title_short |
Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| title_full |
Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| title_fullStr |
Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Personal Initiative Training Leads to Remarkable Growth of Women-Owned Small Businesses in Togo |
| title_sort |
personal initiative training leads to remarkable growth of women-owned small businesses in togo |
| publisher |
World Bank, Washington, DC |
| publishDate |
2018 |
| url |
http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/635311516194319062/Personal-initiative-training-leads-to-remarkable-growth-of-women-owned-small-businesses-in-Togo http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29168 |
| _version_ |
1764468674753724416 |