Read the latest blogs from the IGL network.
In this blog, our very own Rob Fuller explores some of the key similarities and differences between impact evaluations in developing countries and the ones he now works on as Evaluation Manager at IGL.
As part of an IGL project, supported by the Kauffman Foundation, we aim to create a series of evidence summaries that make it easier for policymakers and business support providers to access and act on the most rigorous evidence to support entrepreneurs and businesses. This blog explores our findings so far, as well as launching an open call for inputs from any organisation in the business support ecosystem to contribute to shaping this project.
In 2018, the European Commission introduced a new EU Horizon 2020 programme - INNOSUP-06-2018 - to encourage innovation agencies across Europe to experiment with their policy programmes. Here at the Innovation Growth Lab, we’ve been supporting both the EU and innovation agencies to succeed. This piece explores the journey of Anna Koktsidou, a member of Greece’s Business and Cultural Development Centre (KEPA) team, who are currently partaking in the INNOSUP programme.
One of the main strands of IGL’s work is to support our partners in experimenting with interventions that are aimed at increasing the productivity of small and medium-sized enterprises.
This blog explores the disproportionate barriers that female and minority founders still face when it comes to starting and growing a business and illustrates how experimental methods can be useful to design interventions and evaluate whether they actually result in better business outcomes for female and minority founders.
In this blog, we explore how public sector organisations can become more inclusive employers.
Public servants have tried to reduce inequality for decades, but it persists. By testing new ideas, gathering information on what works, and looking closely at the impact of interventions, an experimental approach can help improve equality, diversity and inclusion.
Social entrepreneurship is characterised by a deep commitment to a social cause and the desire to develop new business models with economic, social, and ecological impacts. But can people be trained to become better at social entrepreneurship? HEC Paris Professors Thomas Åstebro and Florian Hoos found that social entrepreneurship training works, but only if carefully designed.
In our previous blog post, we were talking to Doug Scott, Chair of Cavendish Enterprise, about what he learned from leading a randomised trial of the Business Boost scheme, carried out under the UK Government’s Business Basics Programme. In this post, we continue our conversation with Doug, this time focusing on how funders can best manage experimentation funds and ensure that they produce learning that leads to better policy decisions.
In a recent post, we highlighted the findings from the randomised trial of the Business Boost project, carried out by Cavendish Enterprise in collaboration with the Enterprise Research Centre. Since this was the first randomised trial to be completed under the UK Government’s Business Basics Programme, it was a learning process for the implementers, the evaluators, and for us in the Innovation Growth Lab (IGL). Together with a colleague from the UK Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, we recently chatted with Doug Scott, Chair of Cavendish Enterprise and the instigator of the Business Boost trial, to find out what he had learned during the process.
Policymakers and business support organisations can use a diverse set of tools to create thriving entrepreneurship ecosystems, ranging from financial support, mentoring to business training. But how can they choose the most effective ones? Charlotte Reypens explores.
We invite guest bloggers Stephen Roper and Halima Jibril from the ERC to discuss their Business Basics trial on what 'work's for improving small business productivity.
