The
Management Department
Department
Seminar Series
Mona Mensmann
LEUPHANA UNIVERSITY
Tuesday,
January 16th
2017
Room N231
at 9:30 am
(4.30
p.m
in
Singapore)
Theme: “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."
