|
Field
JEL Code(s)
|
Before
|
After
O31, L25
|
|
Field
Last Published
|
Before
June 27, 2019 12:55 AM
|
After
November 22, 2019 07:37 PM
|
|
Field
Intervention (Public)
|
Before
We will randomly assign the food courts to two groups, and only enroll individually-owned vendors into the experiment. All the enrolled vendors within each food centre would be assigned to the same manipulation condition.
A. Control group;
B. Performance benchmarking group;
C. Practice benchmarking group;
D. Performance with practice benchmarking group.
Stall owners in all groups will be given a report on four measures of performance -- sales volume (number of plates sold per week), average cost per plate, profit per plate, and profit per owner working hour (the latter calculated as sales revenue minus total cost divided by total hours worked by the stall owner).
Apart from performance indicators, the report to stall owners in the performance benchmarking group will also include their performance relative to the first, second, and third quartiles of all stalls selling cooked food. The report to stall owners in the practice benchmarking group will also include three managerial or technology best practices, randomly selected from the ten practices identified by the regression analysis. The report to the combined performance with practice benchmarking group will include both performance and practice benchmarking information.
|
After
We will randomly assign the food courts to two groups, and only enroll individually-owned vendors into the experiment. All the enrolled vendors within each food centre would be assigned to the same manipulation condition.
A. Control group;
B. Benchmarking group
Stall owners in all groups will be given a report on four measures of performance -- sales volume (number of plates sold per week), average cost per plate, profit per plate, and profit per owner working hour (the latter calculated as sales revenue minus total cost divided by total hours worked by the stall owner). We would also offer all subjects with the same set of general business operation suggestions.
Apart from performance indicators, the report to stall owners in the benchmarking group will also include their performance relative to the first, second, and third quartiles of all stalls selling cooked food. Meanwhile, the benchmarking group will receive four practice suggestions: two front-of-house practices and two back-of-house practices, that are randomly selected from five front-of-house practices and back-of-house practices.
|
|
Field
Primary Outcomes (End Points)
|
Before
Sales revenue; cost; owner productivity; management and technology practices.
|
After
Sales revenue; cost; owner productivity; management practice implementations
|
|
Field
Primary Outcomes (Explanation)
|
Before
1. Owner productivity: We measure food stall productivity by owner productivity, calculated as the sales revenue minus total cost divided by the number of owner-hours worked.
2. Management practices: Include whether vendors keep systematic accounting records, adopt incentive-based salary schemes, get Facebook/Instagram accounts and so forth.
3. Technology practices: Include whether vendors use automatic kitchen equipment, install digital ordering systems and E-payment, adopt calling pager and so forth.
|
After
1. Owner productivity: We measure food stall productivity by owner productivity, calculated as the sales revenue minus total cost divided by the number of owner-hours worked.
2. Management practice implementation
3. Change intiatives
4. Social aspirations
|
|
Field
Experimental Design (Public)
|
Before
We plan to conduct the randomized control trial in about 15 food courts in Singapore. We plan to enroll 20-50 individual vendors in each food court to participate in our study.
At Time 0, we will conduct a pre-intervention survey to collect baseline information: sales revenue, cost, working procedures, management practices, adoption of technology, personal background, and psychological profiles.
We will compile the information from the pre-intervention survey and then calculate performance indicators as well as benchmarking information for all vendors. We will then randomly assign the food courts into control group, performance benchmarking group, practice benchmarking group, and performance with practice benchmarking group.
At Time 1, upon completing data collection and analysis, we will contact the four groups and provide the corresponding information (control or treatment respectively).
3 month (Time 2), 12 months (Time 3) and 18 months (Time 4) respectively after the control/intervention visit, we will return to interview all participating vendors to collect information about changes in productivity and management and technology practices.
|
After
Our experiment will enroll individual vendors in each food court to participate in our study. We would approach about 20 hawker centres across Singapore and ideally we can recruit 10-20 subjects at each hawker centre.
At Time 0, we will conduct a pre-intervention survey to collect baseline information: sales revenue, cost, working procedures, management practices, adoption of technology, personal background, and psychological profiles.
We will compile the information from the pre-intervention survey and then calculate performance indicators as well as benchmarking information for all vendors. We will then randomly assign the food courts into control and benchmarking group.
At Time 1, upon completing data collection and analysis, we will contact the four groups and provide the corresponding information (control or treatment respectively).
3 month (Time 2), 12 months (Time 3) and 18 months (Time 4) respectively after the control/intervention visit, we will return to interview all participating vendors to collect information about changes in productivity and management and technology practices.
|
|
Field
Randomization Unit
|
Before
Randomization by each row of stalls within one food court.
|
After
Randomization by each section of stalls within one food centre.
|
|
Field
Planned Number of Clusters
|
Before
15 food courts, with 20-50 vendors from each food court.
|
After
20 food centres, 69 different sections, 200 vendors
|
|
Field
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
|
Before
20% vendors control, 25% vendors performance benchmarking, 25% vendors under practice benchmarking, and 30% performance with statistics benchmarking.
|
After
35% vendors control and 65% vendors treatment.
|