Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Many innovative start-ups and small and medium-size enterprises have good ideas, but do not have these ideas fine-tuned to the stage where they can attract outside funding. Investment readiness programs attempt to help firms to become ready to attract and accept outside equity funding through a combination of training, mentoring, master classes, and networking. This study conducted a five-country randomized experiment in the Western Balkans that worked with 346 firms and delivered an investment readiness program to half of the firms, with the control group receiving an inexpensive online program instead. A pitch event was then held for these firms to pitch their ideas to independent judges. The investment readiness program resulted in a 0.3 standard deviation increase in the investment readiness score, with this increase occurring throughout the distribution. Two follow-up surveys show that the judges' scores predicted investment readiness and investment outcomes over the subsequent two years. Treated firms attained significantly more media attention and were 5 percentage points more likely to have made a deal with an outside investor, although this increase is not statistically significant (95 confidence interval of -4.7 to +14.7 percentage points). </p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/453261533567046459/Can-government-intervention-make-firms-more-investment-ready-a-randomized-experiment-in-the-Western-Balkans Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question How does an investment readiness programme shape the extent and success of enterprises' investment pitches? Sample Trial population and sample selection To participate in the program, a firm had to be legally registered in at least one of the five countries: Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro or Serbia. The firm had to be a micro, small, or medium-enterprise, defined as having fewer than 250 employees, and an annual turnover below 50 million euros. It had to be innovative, meaning that “it will in the foreseeable future develop products, services, or processes which are new or substantially improved compared to the state of the art in its industry, and which carry a risk of technological or industrial failure”, and could not be on a sanctions list or operating in a set of negative activities (e.g. gambling or alcohol production). Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description The Investment Readiness Program (IRP) is geared to facilitate access to equity finance for innovative start-ups and SMEs, and consists of a combination of training, mentoring, master classes, networking, and pitch preparation. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Application form Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Investment Readiness as scored by judges, Media buzz, steps towards investment, making a deal with an outside investor<br /> </p> Results <p>The investment readiness program resulted in a 0.3 standard deviation increase in the investment readiness score, with this increase occurring throughout the distribution. Two follow-up surveys show that the judges' scores predicted investment readiness and investment outcomes over the subsequent two years. Treated firms attained significantly more media attention and were 5 percentage points more likely to have made a deal with an outside investor, although this increase is not statistically significant (95 confidence interval of -4.7 to +14.7 percentage points). </p> Intervention costs Approximately $4,000 per treated firm Cost benefit ratio Reference "McKenzie, D., Cusolito, A. P., Dautovic, E. (2018). ' Can Government Intervention make firms more investment-ready? A randomized experiment in the Western Balkans'. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper." Citation for use in academic references