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Field Before After
Trial Title AI and strategic decision-making (pilot) AI and strategic decision-making (generation experiment)
Trial Start Date August 18, 2023 February 16, 2024
Last Published October 13, 2023 09:31 PM February 16, 2024 04:54 AM
Intervention Start Date August 18, 2023 February 16, 2024
Intervention End Date September 29, 2023 February 23, 2024
Primary Outcomes (Explanation) For each business plan, we will measure the following evaluation outcomes: 1. Five factors evaluated on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), analyzed both individually and as an index: (1) writing of business plan; (2) innovation and value proposition; (3) execution plan; (4) potential to invest in this idea; (5) viability. We also plan to explore the standard deviation of these ratings across participants. 2. A binary indicator of whether the participant would accept the startup into the accelerator: "Would you accept this startup into the accelerator program?" Response: yes/no. 3. A binary indicator of whether the participant would be interested in being introduced to the startup: "Would you be interested in being introduced to the startup?" Response: yes/no. 4. Likelihood of the participant investing in the startup: "How likely would you be to invest in the startup? (Click on the slider and then select the number)". Response: range from 0 to 100. Analyzed using both the raw number and a binary indicator above the median. We plan to analyze treatment effects by regressing each outcome on an indicator of whether the business plan was a GPT-generated version, running this specification also with business plan fixed effects and participant fixed effects to increase precision. We also plan to analyze heterogeneity in treatment effects along the following dimensions, by interacting each with the treatment indicator of whether the business plan was a GPT-generated version: 1. An indicator of whether the business plan was accepted or rejected from the accelerator program 2. Writing quality of the original version of the business plan (both manually coded as a binary indicator for many grammatical and spelling errors, as well as algorithmically-generated measures) 3. An indicator of the cohort of the business plan application (2021 or 2022) 4. A binary indicator of whether a summary of the solution was provided as part of the problem statement in the original version of the business plan 5. A binary indicator of whether the original version of the business plan includes concrete signals already achieved (e.g., funds raised, product launches, number of partners or customers) For each business plan, we will measure the following evaluation outcomes: 1. Five factors evaluated on a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (high), analyzed both individually and as an index: (1) writing of business plan; (2) innovation and value proposition; (3) execution plan; (4) potential to invest in this idea; (5) viability. We also plan to explore the standard deviation of these ratings across participants. 2. A binary indicator of whether the participant would accept the startup into the accelerator: "Would you accept this startup into the accelerator program?" Response: yes/no. 3. A binary indicator of whether the participant would be interested in being introduced to the startup: "Would you be interested in being introduced to the startup?" Response: yes/no. 4. Likelihood of the participant investing in the startup: "How likely would you be to invest in the startup? (Click on the slider and then select the number)". Response: range from 0 to 100. Analyzed using both the raw number and a binary indicator above the median. We plan to analyze treatment effects by regressing each outcome on an indicator of whether the business plan was a GPT-generated version, running this specification with business plan fixed effects and participant fixed effects to increase precision. We also plan to analyze heterogeneity in treatment effects along the following dimensions, by interacting each with the treatment indicator of whether the business plan was a GPT-generated version: 1. An indicator of whether the business plan was accepted or rejected from the accelerator program 2. Writing quality of the original version of the business plan (coded as a binary indicator for many grammatical and spelling errors)
Randomization Method Six business plans are randomly assigned to one of four blocks using a computer. Each participant is randomly assigned to a block and the original or GPT version of each business plan using Qualtrics. The order of each business plan displayed to each participant is randomized using Qualtrics. For each business plan, each participant is randomly assigned to the original or GPT version, using Qualtrics. The order of the business plan displayed to each participant is also randomized using Qualtrics.
Randomization Unit Each business plan evaluation by a participant (i.e., each of the six business plans a participant evaluates is randomly assigned to either the original or GPT-generated version, such that participants are assigned three original and and three GPT-generated versions each). Each business plan evaluation by a participant (i.e., each of the ten business plans a participant evaluates is randomly assigned to either the original or GPT-generated version)
Planned Number of Clusters 600 evaluations by 100 investors (from online platform) 2500 evaluations by 250 investors
Planned Number of Observations 600 evaluations by 100 investors (from online platform) 2500 evaluations by 250 investors
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms 300 evaluations assigned to original versions of business plans, 300 evaluations assigned to GPT-generated versions of business plans 1250 evaluations assigned to original versions of business plans, 1250 evaluations assigned to GPT-generated versions of business plans
Intervention (Hidden) Each participant evaluates a randomly assigned set of six business plans. For each business plan, each participant is randomly assigned to one of two versions of business plans: the original or a GPT-generated version of the business plan. Each participant evaluates a set of ten anonymized business plans. For each business plan, the intervention randomly assigns each participant to one of two versions of business plans: the original version submitted to a leading European accelerator program, or a GPT-generated version of the business plan, where we prompted GPT using the original entrepreneur's response to the ``Problem'' section of their business plan and asked it to generate the remaining plan, as a way to obtain GPT's proposed strategy to solve the problem described.
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