Constraints to Performance and Growth of Small Retailers in Jakarta

Last registered on September 17, 2020

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Constraints to Performance and Growth of Small Retailers in Jakarta
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0001175
Initial registration date
April 20, 2016

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
April 20, 2016, 10:29 AM EDT

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

Last updated
September 17, 2020, 6:39 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Region

Primary Investigator

Affiliation
Tilburg University

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Affiliation
Economics Department, Tilburg University
PI Affiliation
Development Research Group, The World Bank

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2016-01-22
End date
2017-06-30
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This study will examine the business practices among small-sized retail firms in urban Jakarta using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) methodology. The project will have three main goals. First, we will characterize the business practices used by the retailers, identifying those that are potentially conducive to productivity growth, higher sales and profits. Second, we will disseminate the top performance-enhancing business practices among the retailers and will track the adoption of such business practices by retailers. Third, we will study the causal effect of adopting the business practices on business performance and growth. In order to distinguish informational and behavioral constraints to adoption of the practices, we will vary the ways in which the information is conveyed and implemented. To that end, we will make use of different framings as well as business role-models in the implementation of the practices.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
DALTON, PATRICIO, Burak Uras and Bilal Zia. 2020. "Constraints to Performance and Growth of Small Retailers in Jakarta." AEA RCT Registry. September 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.1175-2.1
Former Citation
DALTON, PATRICIO, Burak Uras and Bilal Zia. 2020. "Constraints to Performance and Growth of Small Retailers in Jakarta." AEA RCT Registry. September 17. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/1175/history/75911
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
There are three arms of intervention in this study. Out of the 1300 retailers that will have been both listed and interviewed in the run-up to the intervention, 1000 will be chosen at random by the Research Team to be subjected to various treatments outlined in the following.

First, all 1000 shop owners will receive a handbook with business practices that successful retail entrepreneurs in Jakarta have been found to employ. There will be two types of handbooks: one handbook with gains framing and another with losses framing. While the former will show the possible increase in profits and sales as a result of implementing the business practices, the latter will show the possible losses associated with the non-adoption of the practices. These handbooks will be randomly assigned to shop owners, so that 500 shop owners receive the “gains framed” handbook and 500 shop owners receive the “losses framed” one.

Second, out of the above mentioned 1000 shop owners, we will invite a randomly selected 500 to public viewings of a documentary that will star some selected shop owners from Jakarta describing the business practices they view as crucial, as well as the practical steps they took to implement these practices and grow.

Third, another 500 retailers, also to be selected at random from the aforementioned 1000, will receive assistance in the implementation of suggested practices.
Intervention Start Date
2016-07-18
Intervention End Date
2016-09-23

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
- Business practices
- Sales, profits, labor productivity, TFP
- Cognitive traits, preferences, aspirations
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
There are three arms of intervention in this study. Out of the 1300 retailers that will have been both listed and interviewed in the run-up to the intervention, 1000 will be chosen at random by the Research Team to be subjected to various treatments outlined in the following.

First, All 1000 shop owners will receive a handbook with business practices that successful retail entrepreneurs in Jakarta have been found to employ. There will be two types of handbooks: one handbook with gains framing and another with losses framing.

Second, out of the above mentioned 1000 shop owners, we will invite a randomly selected 500 to public viewings of a documentary that will starr some selected shop owners from Jakarta describing the business practices they view as crucial, as well as the practical steps they took to implement these practices and grow. Acting as role models, these peers, along with their unique success stories and hands-on advices, may serve as an exemplar and therefore foster growth by opening up aspiration windows and facilitate the adoption of successful practices.

Third, another 500 retailers, also to be selected at random from the aforementioned 1000, will receive assistance in the implementation of suggested practices. To this end, the facilitator personnel will each be clearly assigned to visit a sub-sample of shops once in the first week for the duration of about one hour. This visit will be followed up by weekly calls of about 15-20 minutes for a period of 3 weeks. During these visits facilitators will help shop owners implement selected business practices within their unique working environment, will answer business owners’ questions or else report back to the Research Team to address the owners’ concerns during the follow-up calls.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Randomization was conducted using stata
Randomization Unit
Unit of randomization is retailers (shop)
Cluster: by Kelurahan (village) level. One cluster consist of 35-50 retailers
Sample size: 1, 300 retailers
Control: 300 retailers
Treatment: 1,000 retailers
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
29 Kelurahans
Sample size: planned number of observations
1300
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Total sample: 1300 retailers
300 control
1000 treated with handbook
500 Positive framing; 500 Negative framing
500 Public viewing; 500 no public viewing
500 Assistance; 500 No Assistance
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

Documents

Document Name
Document Type
Document Description
Data and supporting materials will be available with publication.
File
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Europe
IRB Approval Date
2016-01-10
IRB Approval Number
M2016/2015-005
IRB Name
Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) Europe
IRB Approval Date
2015-05-29
IRB Approval Number
2015-005

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials