Business Training and SME Performance

Last registered on October 05, 2022
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Business Training and SME Performance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0010155
Initial registration date
September 30, 2022

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
October 05, 2022, 9:45 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Catia Batista
Affiliation
Nova School of Business and Economics
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Miguel Ferreira
PI Affiliation
Nova School of Business and Economics
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PI Name
Francisco Queiró
PI Affiliation
Nova School of Business and Economics
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2022-09-30
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
This study measures the impact of management training on SME business performance in Portugal. Three different training programs will be evaluated. The first focuses on marketing and strategy. The second teaches financial and operations management. The last program is aimed at developing manager leadership and aspirations.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Batista, Catia, Miguel Ferreira and Francisco Queiró. 2022. "Business Training and SME Performance." AEA RCT Registry. October 05. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.10155-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
1. Treatment group 1 (120 managers): will receive training on “Marketing and Strategy”.
2. Treatment group 2 (120 managers): will receive training on “Operations and Finance”.
3. Treatment group 3 (120 managers): will receive training on “Leadership”.
4. Control group (240 managers): will not be given any training.
Intervention Start Date
2022-09-30
Intervention End Date
2022-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Level of operations, profitability, survival and business practices measured by survey and administrative data.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1. Level of operations as proxied by turnover, value added, productivity, investment, exports, total assets and number of employees (administrative data).
2. Profitability as proxied by gross profit margin, EBITDA/Turnover , EBIT/Turnover, return on assets (administrative data).
3. Business practices: proxied by advertising, employee training, inventory turnover ratio, current ratio, debt to equity ratio, interest coverage ratio, asset turnover ratio (administrative data)
4. Survival, i.e. the percentage of startups still in business (administrative data)
5. Management practices (survey data)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Specific business practices, knowledge learned through training, manager aspirations and expectations.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)
Our pre-analysis plan will precisely define these outcomes prior to the endline.

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
600 managers of SMEs will be randomized at the individual level into four treatment groups:
1. Treatment group 1 (120 managers): will receive training on “Marketing and Strategy”.
2. Treatment group 2 (120 managers): will receive training on “Operations and Finance”.
3. Treatment group 3 (120 managers): will receive training on “Leadership”.
4. Control group (240 managers): will not be given any training.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization done in office by a computer
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
600
Sample size: planned number of observations
600
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
120 marketing and strategy treatment; 120 operations and finance treatment; 120 leadership treatment; 240 control
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Our pre-analysis plan will provide power calculations.
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Nova School of Business and Economics
IRB Approval Date
2022-06-07
IRB Approval Number
202227
Analysis Plan