IGL database (beta)

Year Title Short summary Country Author
2021 Diversity and Performance in Entrepreneurial Teams

This paper studies the role of diversity and performance in the entrepreneurial teams.

US Calder-Wang, S., Gompers, P., Huang, K.
2021 How Do Managers’ Beliefs about New Technologies Evolve? Informational Interventions and the Adoption of Energy-Efficient Stitching Motors in Bangladesh

This project aims to understand the determinants of adoption of a new technology by firms in Bangladesh's leather goods and footwear industry.

Chaurey, R., Gu, Y., Nayyar, G., Sharma, S., Verhoogen, E.
2020 How Important is the Yellow Pages? Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

A randomized control trial in central Tanzania, centered on the production and distribution of a ”Yellow Pages” phone directory with contact information for local enterprises.

Aker, J., Blumenstock, J., Dillon, B.
2020 Promoting E-Commerce in Georgia

The study is an impact evaluation of a training program that induced SMEs to adopt broadband connections, establish presence on online retail and potentially export their goods or services.

Coville, A., Osman, A., Piza, C.
2020 The medium-term impact of entrepreneurship education on labor market outcomes: Experimental evidence from Tunisia

Despite the widespread popularity of entrepreneurship education, there is thin evidence on its effectiveness in improving employment outcomes over the medium to long-term. A potential time lag between entrepreneurial intentions and actions is sometimes presented as a reason why employment impacts are rarely observed. Based on a randomized control trial among university students in Tunisia, this paper studies the medium-term impacts of entrepreneurship education four years after students’ graduation.

Tunisia Alaref, J., Brodmanna, S., Premanda, P.
2020 Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic behavior by agents. We theorize that domain expertise of users can complement ML by mitigating this bias. Our observational and experimental analyses in the patent examination context support this conjecture.

Agarwal, R., Choudhury, P., Starr, E.
2020 Do Management Interventions Last? Evidence from India

Indian weaving firms are visited again nine years after a randomized experiment that changed their management practices.

India Bloom, N., Mahajan, A., McKenzie, D., Roberts, J.
2020 Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic behavior by agents. We theorize that domain expertise of users can complement ML by mitigating this bias. Our observational and experimental analyses in the patent examination context support this conjecture.

Agarwal, R., Choudhury, P., Starr, E.
2020 The Gender Gap in Tech & Competitive Work Environments? Field Experimental Evidence from an Internet-of-Things Product Development Platform

This paper reports on a large platform-based field experiment in which 97,696 U.S. university-educated individuals were given the opportunity to join a tech-related product development activity.

Boudreau, K., Kaushik, N.
2020 Competitor Exposure and Entrepreneurial Performance

In this study, we empirically examine the effect of sharing information with close or distant competitors as part of an incubation program. There is recent evidence of substantial heterogeneity in acceleration programs, with qualitative research highlighting that the main benefit for participants to these programs is the increased exposure to information and the feedback they obtain. Such exposure helps balance the bounded rationality of founders.

Kim, H., Spina, C.
2020 The Value of Competitor Information: Evidence from a Field Experiment

This paper asks to what extent firms are aware of readily available information on key competitor decisions, and how this information impacts firms’ strategic choices.

Kim, H.
2020 Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic behavior by agents. We theorize that domain expertise of users can complement ML by mitigating this bias. Our observational and experimental analyses in the patent examination context support this conjecture.

Agarwal, R., Choudhury, P., Starr, E.
2020 Informational Barriers to Market Access: Experimental Evidence from Liberian Firms

This paper hypothesizes that many productive firms in poor countries stagnate due to informational barriers to winning wholesale contracts.

Hjort, J., Iyer, V., de Rochambeau, G.
2020 Designing social networks: Joint tasks and the formation of network ties

This paper evaluates the effect of joint tasks on the creation of network ties with data from a novel field experiment with 112 aspiring entrepreneurs.

Hasan, S., Koning, R.
2020 Evaluation of the Cavendish Enterprise ‘Business Boost’ project

Cavendish Enterprise's Business Boost trial project involved providing young small firms - typically micro-businesses - with a treatment involving a series of workshops designed to enhance productivity. This was provided largely as a top-up to an advice and mentoring programme called 'Start and Grow'. The project was part of the government's Business Basics Programme which has the core aim of identifying cost effective, yet productivity enhancing, programmes of business support for SMEs which can be run at scale throughout the country.

Drummond, I., Jibril, H., Roper, S., Scott, D.
2020 Informing employees in small and medium sized firms about training: Results of a randomized field experiment

Using survey and register data, this experiment estimates the effects of the information treatment brochure on awareness of WeGebAU, on take-up of WeGebAU and other training, and on subsequent employment.

Van den Berg, G.J., Dauth, C., Homrighausen, P., Stephan, G.
2020 Machine Learning and Human Capital Complementarities: Experimental Evidence on Bias Mitigation

The use of machine learning (ML) for productivity in the knowledge economy requires considerations of important biases that may arise from ML predictions. We define a new source of bias related to incompleteness in real time inputs, which may result from strategic behavior by agents. We theorize that domain expertise of users can complement ML by mitigating this bias. Our observational and experimental analyses in the patent examination context support this conjecture.

Agarwal, R., Choudhury, P., Starr, E.
2020 Show or Tell? Improving Inventory Support for Agent-Based Businesses at the Base of the Pyramid

This trial investigates the best way to help agents perform better, as firms providing products and services to low income Base of the Pyramid (BOP) customers are increasingly utilizing independent contractor agents rather than employees in their distribution models.

Acimovic, J., Balasubramanian, K., Drake, D., Parker, C.
2020 Recognition Incentives for Internal Crowdsourcing: A Field Experiment at NASA

This paper explores what might motivate employees to participate in internal crowdsourcing, a peer-based approach to innovation.

Gallus, J., Jung, O.S., Lakhani, K.
2020 Improving Scientific Judgments in Law and Government: A Field Experiment of Patent Peer Review

Many have advocated for the expansion of peer review to improve scientific judgments in law and public policy. One such test case is the patent examination process, with numerous commentators arguing that scientific peer review can solve informational deficits in patent determinations. We present results from a novel randomized field experiment, carried out over the course of three years, in which 336 prominent scientific experts agreed to provide input on U.S. patent applications. Their input was edited for compliance with submission requirements and submitted to the U.S.

Ho, D.E., Larrimore Ouellette, L.
2020 Why are firms slow to adopt profitable business practices? Evidence on the roles of present bias, forgetfulness, and overconfidence about memory

This paper tests the role of three behavioral biases: present bias, limited memory, and overconfidence about memory.

Mexico Gertler, P., Higgins, S., Malmendier, U., Ojeda, W.
2020 Evaluation of the Cavendish Enterprise ‘Business Boost’ project

Cavendish Enterprise's Business Boost trial project involved providing young small firms - typically micro-businesses - with a treatment involving a series of workshops designed to enhance productivity. This was provided largely as a top-up to an advice and mentoring programme called 'Start and Grow'. The project was part of the government's Business Basics Programme which has the core aim of identifying cost effective, yet productivity enhancing, programmes of business support for SMEs which can be run at scale throughout the country.

Drummond, I., Jibril, H., Roper, S., Scott, D.
2020 Top-down vs bottom-up approaches to remote business training

This study investigates the extent to which training can be remotely taught to small groups via Zoom sessions, with a sample of female microenterprise owners recruited from throughout Mexico and Guatemala.

E. Davies., Iacovone, L., McKenzie, D.
2020 Peer Effects in Entrepreneurship Education Field Experimental Evidence on the Role of Gender and Team Emotional Intelligence

This study builds on the assumption that the common experiential design of entrepreneurship education stimulates entrepreneurial learning via social interaction with peers. The analysis focuses on gendered peer effects at the pre-nascent stage of the entrepreneurial process and on the role of team emotional intelligence in the context of entrepreneurship education.

Germany Bechthold, L. A., Rosendahl Huber, L.
2020 Small Changes With Big Impact: Experimental Evidence Of A Scientific Approach To The Decision-Making Of Entrepreneurial Firms

Identifying the most promising business ideas is key to the introduction of novel firms, but predicting their success can be difficult. It is argued that if entrepreneurs adopt a scientific approach by formulating problems clearly, developing theories about the implications of their actions, and testing these theories, they make better decisions.

Camuffo, A., Gambardella, A., Spina, C.
2020 Discriminatory Lending: Evidence from bankers in the lab

This paper discusses implementing a lab-in-the-field experiment with 334 Turkish loan officers to test for the presence, and learn about the mechanisms, of gender discrimination in small business lending.

2020 Lifting Growth Barriers for New Firms: Evidence from an Entrepreneur Training Experiment with Two Million Online Businesses

Expansion of e-commerce presents new opportunities for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to enter broader market at lower costs, but the SMEs face barriers to growth after entry. To facilitate new entrants to overcome these barriers, this paper explores implementing a training program as a randomized controlled experiment with over two million new sellers on a large e-commerce platform.

Jin, Y., Sun, Z.
2020 Evaluation of the Cavendish Enterprise ‘Business Boost’ project

Cavendish Enterprise's Business Boost trial project involved providing young small firms - typically micro-businesses - with a treatment involving a series of workshops designed to enhance productivity. This was provided largely as a top-up to an advice and mentoring programme called 'Start and Grow'. The project was part of the government's Business Basics Programme which has the core aim of identifying cost effective, yet productivity enhancing, programmes of business support for SMEs which can be run at scale throughout the country.

Drummond, I., Jibril, H., Roper, S., Scott, D.
2020 What Motivates Innovative Entrepreneurs? Evidence from a Global Field Experiment

Entrepreneurial motivation is important to the process of economic growth. However, evidence on the motivations of innovative entrepreneurs, and how those motivations differ across fundamental characteristics, remains scant. We conduct three interrelated field experiments with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Inclusive Innovation Challenge to study how innovative entrepreneurs respond to messages of money and social impact and how this varies across gender and culture.

Guzman, J., Oh, J.J., Sen, A.
2020 Biased Beliefs and Entry into Scientific Careers

This trial investigates whether excessively optimistic beliefs may play a role in the persistent demand for doctoral and post-doctoral training in science.

Ganguli, I., Gaule, P., Vuletić Čugalj, D.

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