Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Department Seminar Series MONA MENSMANN - LEUPHANA UNIVERSITY- January 16th 2017


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."