Information Provision and Website Performance

Last registered on February 11, 2021
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Information Provision and Website Performance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0007125
Initial registration date
February 10, 2021

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
February 11, 2021, 11:57 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Anwar Adem
Affiliation
University of Nottingham
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Cher Li
PI Affiliation
University of Nottingham
Contact Investigator
PI Name
Richard Kneller
PI Affiliation
University of Nottingham
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-11-09
End date
2021-04-15
Keywords
Firms & Productivity
Additional Keywords
Web performance, Information Provision, Productivity
JEL code(s)
D22, D24, D83, L25, L66
Secondary IDs
Abstract
The question of how firms improve their productivity is of paramount policy importance for every nation. In this project, we investigate the importance of the information gap in hindering technology adoption and firm performance. For this end, we implement an RCT type of intervention by providing a randomly selected firm with information about their website performance and technology usage. This paper examines how information provision about the firm's website performance change the adoption of web-based technologies, website performance and improve firm financial performance.

The information provision or encouragement design will be carried out to randomly selected firms. The intervention is in terms of a toolkit that consist of the firm's own and benchmark information. The toolkit uses information from three sources: for information on technology usage data come from builtwith, for website speed data come from batchspeed, and for search engine performance we obtain data from Moz.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Adem, Anwar, Richard Kneller and Cher Li. 2021. "Information Provision and Website Performance." AEA RCT Registry. February 11. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.7125-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
The intervention is an encouragement design where we provide information regarding their website performances. Specifically, the information consists of speed and search engine performance. The information is provided using mail and/or email addresses of firms.
Intervention Start Date
2021-02-15
Intervention End Date
2021-03-29

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcome will be an indicator for whether a firm's website performance improves and it adopts new website technology.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary outcomes include assessing where a firm's financial performance improved.
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
This is a one-arm block randomized design. Within the block, firms are randomly assigned to one of two arms:
1) a control group or
2) an informational provision group.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
We used Stata to carry out the randomization.
Randomization Unit
The random assignment occurs at the firm-level.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
922 firms
Sample size: planned number of observations
822 firms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
Approximately 50\% of firms were assigned to a control group and the remaining 50\% were assigned to the informational email.
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

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