Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Honduras by Fostering Digital Literacy and Networking through the Red E-mpresarias Program

Last registered on May 06, 2025
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Honduras by Fostering Digital Literacy and Networking through the Red E-mpresarias Program
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0015958
Initial registration date
May 05, 2025

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
May 06, 2025, 5:28 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
Honduras
Region
Latin America

Primary Investigator

Name
Luisa Blanco Raynal
Affiliation
Pepperdine University
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Maria Paula Gerardino Gutierrez
PI Affiliation
IADB
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2022-11-16
End date
2023-06-19
Keywords
Behavior, Education, Firms & Productivity, Gender
Additional Keywords
women entrepreneurs, micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), digital literacy, cybersecurity, networking, impact evaluation
JEL code(s)
L26, J16, O30
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Doing business in Honduras can be difficult for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises. Women entrepreneurs face even greater challenges because their businesses tend to be smaller, less profitable, and less formalized than those owned by men. Other obstacles include widespread violence and limited access to economic resources, knowledge, networks, and credit. Additionally, domestic and care responsibilities make it harder for women to own and manage businesses. Red E-mpresarias digital program was designed and implemented to improve networking opportunities, digital literacy, and cybersecurity for women entrepreneurs. The program resulted in positive outcomes, including increased adoption of best practices in cybersecurity, a decrease in risky behaviors, and an increase in confidence in conducting business online. However, the program’s impact on cybersecurity knowledge and peer connections was not significant, suggesting that our program may have been effective at changing behavior not through knowledge, but through behavioral nudges which played a key role in shaping behavioral change.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Blanco Raynal, Luisa and Maria Paula Gerardino Gutierrez. 2025. "Empowering Women Entrepreneurs in Honduras by Fostering Digital Literacy and Networking through the Red E-mpresarias Program." AEA RCT Registry. May 06. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.15958-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The target population for the Red E-mpresarias Program was women over 18 years old who own a business in Honduras, and who have a mobile phone with access to the Internet and WhatsApp. Program participants received educational material, using the "rules of thumb" approach, where they were invited to review 15 infographics posted on the virtual communities according to a predefined script and schedule. They provided simple guidance on cybersecurity topics, such as how to choose safe passwords, how to set up two-factor authentication, and how to recognize phishing scams.
Treatment group participants were randomly assigned to a virtual community of practice. These groups included between 8 and 19 women (12.2 on average) and one woman facilitator who was either a CCIT staff member or an IDB contractor. Once randomly assigned to the treatment condition, treatment group business women were also randomly assigned to their discussion group. The virtual communities took place in Band, the aforementioned mobile phone application.
Intervention (Hidden)
Intervention Start Date
2022-11-16
Intervention End Date
2023-05-19

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
1) Adoption of cybersecurity best practices (positive behaviors) and engagement in risky behaviors (negative behaviors)
2) Networking
4) Cybersecurity knowledge
4) Self-confidence doing business online
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
1) Adoption of cybersecurity best practices (positive behaviors) and engagement in risky behaviors (negative behaviors): An indicator of adoption of best practices included seven distinct behavioral components. This indicator is calculated by adding all positive and negative behaviors, where absence of negative behaviors is reflected as a positive number. Thus, the aggregate score spans from 0 to 7.
2) Networking: is a discrete measure of the number of business women with whom participants discussed topics related to their business in the past two months
3) Cybersecurity knowledge: is a discrete measure of the sum of knowledge questions in the survey that a participant answers correctly (7 if they answer all seven questions correctly)
4) Self-confidence doing business online: To measure self-confidence when doing business online, we asked participants if they feel safe operating their business online. They could answer with one of the following: “Completely secure,” “Very secure,” “Secure,” “Not very secure,” or “Not secure.”

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The impact of the intervention was evaluated through a RCT approach. Participants assigned to the treatment group received the intervention, and participants assigned to the control group only received online educational materials on cybersecurity. While the treatment group received one rule of thumb with three follow-up messages via Band per week, the control group received links or PDFs to the rules-of-thumb source material via email two times during the two-month intervention period. Moreover, the control group was not invited to join the virtual communities of practice, and these groups were hidden from those who did not have an invitation.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Participants were randomized to treatment and control group by the BIT partner.
Randomization Unit
Individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
NA
Sample size: planned number of observations
700 participants
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Initially we recruited 747 participants, where only 303 participants completed baseline and endline surveys both baseline and endline. For cohort 1, there were baseline and endline responses for outcomes of interest for 67 percent of participants (235 of 350), while for cohort 2, there were complete data for 17 percent of participants (68 of 397). Among those recruited, 368 participants were assigned to the control group and 379 to the treatment group. Among those who completed baseline and endline survey, we had 152 participants in treatment group and 151 participants in control group.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Pepperdine Graduate and Professional Schools (GPS) Institutional Review Board
IRB Approval Date
2022-09-28
IRB Approval Number
22-06-1869
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
Yes
Intervention Completion Date
May 19, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Data Collection Complete
Yes
Data Collection Completion Date
June 19, 2023, 12:00 +00:00
Final Sample Size: Number of Clusters (Unit of Randomization)
NA
Was attrition correlated with treatment status?
No
Final Sample Size: Total Number of Observations
303 participants
Final Sample Size (or Number of Clusters) by Treatment Arms
We had 152 participants in treatment group and 151 participants in control group
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials