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Trial Title Supporting Female Entrepreneurs During COVID 19 Business Collaborations and Female Entrepreneurship
Abstract The economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has potentially large negative impacts on SMEs in developing countries. Female entrepreneurs of SMEs are especially vulnerable compared to their male counterparts as they are more likely to have smaller professional networks and limited regulatory knowledge that can hinder business growth, access to capital and take-up of government assistance. In collaboration with the Women's Empowerment & Investment Group (WEIG), Annan Capital Partners (ACP), and GUBA Foundation, we conduct a field experiment in Ghana to investigate the effect of female professional networks and legal support on the business performance of women-owned small and medium enterprises. The study sample will consist of female entrepreneurs who have applied to the COVID-19 Stimulus Fund offered by our partners for business grants of $2,000-$5,000 between June 1st and August 31st 2020. The support programs will begin in October. Data will be collected by phone surveys beginning in September 2020, in six months and in one year. Additional novel real-time data on businesses will be collected through a mobile application. We conduct an RCT in Ghana on a sample of 2000 female entrepreneurs of SMEs to investigate the effects of an online matching service combined with access to legal information and advisory services on collaborations, firm innovation and performance. The study sample will consist of female entrepreneurs who have applied to the COVID-19 Stimulus Fund offered by our our NGO partners, Women's Empowerment & Investment Group (WEIG), Annan Capital Partners (ACP), and GUBA Foundation, for business grants of $2,000-$5,000 between June 1st and August 31st 2020. The support programs will begin in February. Data will be collected by phone surveys in November 2020, June 2021 and in December 2021.
Trial End Date October 31, 2021 December 31, 2021
Last Published September 11, 2020 12:00 PM January 31, 2021 07:24 PM
Intervention Start Date October 12, 2020 February 01, 2021
Intervention End Date April 12, 2021 May 31, 2021
Primary Outcomes (End Points) Business performance Inter-firm collaboration
Experimental Design (Public) We randomize the networking and legal support to 2400 female entrepreneurs who applied to the COVID 19 Stimulus Fund offered by our partner NGOs. This sample will be surveyed at baseline, after six months and in one year after the end of the intervention. We randomize the matching and legal support to 1772 female entrepreneurs who applied to the COVID 19 Stimulus Fund offered by our partner NGOs. This sample will be surveyed at baseline, after six months and in one year after the end of the intervention.
Randomization Unit Randomize at individual level into network groups, legal support, and control Randomize at the group level whether the network group is networking only or mixed groups Randomize at individual level which 50% will receive networking and legal support within each mixed group Randomize at individual level into matching groups, matching+legal support, and control
Planned Number of Clusters 200 Networking groups of 6 individuals (100 networking only groups, 100 mixed groups) 1200 individuals not in groups 167 groups of 8 individuals 436 individuals not in groups
Planned Number of Observations 2400 individuals 1772 individuals
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms 600 individuals control, 600 individuals legal support, 600 individuals in networking only groups of 6, 600 individuals in mixed networking groups of 6 (300 of these will receive legal support as well) 436 individuals control, 704 individuals matching support, 632 individuals in matching+legal support
Additional Keyword(s) Networking, Legal Support, Female Entrepreneurs, SMEs Collaboration, Matching, Legal Support, Female Entrepreneurs, SMEs
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