IGL database (beta)
Year | Title | Short summary | Country | Author | |
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2016 | Innovation Heuristics: Experiments on Sequential Creativity in Intellectual Property |
All creativity and innovation build on existing ideas. Authors and inventors copy, adapt, improve, interpret, and refine the ideas that have come before them. The central task of intellectual property (IP) law is regulating this sequential innovation to ensure that initial creators and subsequent creators receive the appropriate sets of incentives. Although many scholars have applied the tools of economic analysis to consider whether IP law is successful in encouraging cumulative innovation, that work has rested on a set of untested assumptions about creators’ behavior. |
Bechtold, S., Buccafusco, C., Sprigman, C. J. | | |
2016 | Looking Across and Looking Beyond the Knowledge Frontier: Intellectual Distance and Resource Allocation in Science |
This paper focuses on the evaluation of frontier scientific research projects and argues that the intellectual distance between the knowledge embodied in research proposals and an evaluator's own expertise systematically relates to the evaluations given. |
Boudreau, K., Guinan, E., Lakhani, K., Riedl, C. | | |
2016 | Friends at Work: Can Peer Support Stimulate Female Entrepreneurship? |
Women may face more constraints than men to becoming entrepreneurs, but are not poor entrepreneurs. A potentially important factor limiting financial inclusion efforts is inadequate peer support among many women who have potential as entrepreneurs. |
India | Field, E., Jayachandran, S., Pande, R., Rigol, N. | |
2016 | Innovation Experiments: Researching Technical Advance, Knowledge Production and the Design of Supporting Institutions |
Field experiments have the potential to provide unambiguous causal evidence on innovation topics while simultaneously assisting organisations with their innovation. |
US | Boudreau, K., Lakhani, K. | |
2016 | Do Gender and Business Trainings Affect Business Outcomes? Experimental Evidence from Vietnam |
This trial evaluates the impact of a business training for female clients of a microfinance institution in northern Vietnam, and considers the impact on business knowledge, practices, and outcomes, as well as firm entry and exit decisions. |
Bulte, E., Lensink, R., Vu, N. | | |
2016 | The Effects of a Training Program to Encourage Social Entrepreneurship |
We use two sequential RCTs to study the impact of a twice-executed six-month intensive training program costing about 12,000 euros per participant to encourage social entrepreneurship among youth. The first year training effort provided no robust treatment effects. Results were used to redesign and improve the training. The second year effort provided treatment effects on venture actions, venture creation, one leadership characteristic, one non-cognitive skill, and on subsequent work experience in startups. |
France | Åstebro, T., Hoos, F. | |
2016 | Employee Recognition and Performance: A Field Experiment |
In the context of a basic, short-term data entry job, unannounced provision of public recognition to employees yielded an economically significant increase in performance. Results suggest that recognition works best when it is provided exclusively, but not too exclusively. The performance increases in exclusive recognition are mainly driven by strong positive responses of non-recipients, which is most likely due to conformity preferences. |
Germany | Bradler, C., Dur, R., Neckermann, S., and Non, A. | |
2016 | The Persistent Power of Behavioral Change: Long-Run Impacts of Temporary Savings Subsidies for the Poor |
I use a field experiment in rural Kenya to study how temporary incentives to save impact long run economic outcomes. Study participants randomly selected to receive large temporary interest rates on an individual bank account had significantly more income and assets 2.5 years after the interest rates expired. These changes are much larger than the short-run impacts on experimental bank account use and almost entirely driven by growth in entrepreneurship. |
Schaner, S. | | |
2016 | Fostering Public Good Contributions with Symbolic Awards: A Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment at Wikipedia |
This natural field experiment tests the effects of purely symbolic awards on volunteer retention in a public goods context. The experiment is conducted at Wikipedia, which faces declining editor retention rates, particularly among newcomers. Randomization assures that award receipt is orthogonal to previous performance. The analysis reveals that awards have a sizeable effect on newcomer retention, which persists over the four quarters following the initial intervention. |
Gallus, J. | | |
2016 | Performance Responses to Competition across Skill-Levels in Rank Order Tournaments: Field Evidence and Implications for Tournament Design |
In the context of online developer tournaments this study found that added rivalry is likely to induce higher performance given that failing to exert effort will reduce the likelihood of winning a prize. Tournament organizers can leverage contest size, dividing competitors by ability, and opening entry to all, as policy tools to manipulate the performance of competitors, particularly when changes allow the reallocation of prize money. |
US | Boudreau, K., Lakhani, K., Menietti, M. | |
2015 | The Effect of Personalized Tax Training on Entrepreneurial Performance: Evidence From a Field Experiment. |
This study reports on a randomized field experiment conducted in the Netherlands to estimate the (long-term) effect of a short personalized tax training program on the performance and tax compliance of first-time entrepreneurs. The tax training was expected to have an impact on business performance and different aspects of tax compliance through better financial decision making and more relevant tax knowledge. |
Rosendahl Huber, L. | | |
2015 | Long Run Effects of Temporary Incentives on Medical Care Productivity |
The adoption of new clinical practice patterns by medical care providers is often challenging, even when they are believed to be both efficacious and profitable. This paper uses a randomized field experiment to examine the effects of temporary financial incentives paid to medical care clinics for the initiation of prenatal care in the first trimester of pregnancy. The rate of early initiation of prenatal care was 34% higher in the treatment group than in the control group while the incentives were being paid, and this effect persisted at least 24 months or more after the incentives ended. |
Argentina | Celhay, P., Gertler, P., Giovagnoli, P., Vermeersch, C. | |
2015 | The Impact of Secured Transactions Reform on Access to Capital for Small and Medium Enterprises in Colombia |
In the context of SME's in Colombia, researchers are evaluating the impact on firm performance of a legal reform which will provide a framework for the use and enforcement of movable collateral. Results forthcoming. |
Colombia | Schoar, A., Eslava, M. | |
2015 | Research as Leisure: Experimental Evidence on Voluntary Contributions to Science |
Organizations that depend on voluntary contributions face unique managerial challenges. In this project, we examine whether emphasizing the salience of project output (i.e., project outcome) or project input (i.e., labor costs) affect the quantity and quality of contributions using a randomized field experiment on the world's largest crowd science platform. We manipulate whether participants receive information that emphasizes their contribution to the eventual outcome of a task or information that emphasizes their contribution to the labor required for a task. |
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2015 | Growth Impact Pilot |
The Growth Impact Pilot, launched in April 2014, is a research project on the impact of business advice (coaching), supported by the UK Government. The Growth Impact Pilot will assess whether the provision of Growth Accelerator coaching is the reason why firms on the service achieve high rates of growth, or whether this growth would have happened anyway. It is designed to assess the impact of coaching by comparing two groups: |
UK | Phipps, J., Watkins, G., Johnson, A., Khan, K. | |
2015 | Sustained impacts of Kaizen training |
A randomized controlled trial of short-term management training for small manufacturers was conducted in two study sites in Vietnam and collected follow-up data repeatedly for |
Vietnam | Higuchi, Y., Namb, V. H., Sonobec, T. | |
2015 | Is Microcredit a Blessing for the Poor? A Meta-analysis Examining Development Outcomes and Contextual Considerations |
In this meta-analysis what particularly stands out is the effect of microcredit on female empowerment. With respect to entrepreneurship and economic development outcomes, microcredit appears to have the most value in deprived contexts, but overall, results are highly dependent on context. |
Chliova, M, Brinckmanna, J., Rosenbusch, N. | | |
2015 | Accelerating the Development of Entrepreneurial Enterprise |
Will increased exposure to the principles of effectuation accelerate novice entrepreneurs’ development of entrepreneurial expertise? What kind of pedagogical tools and methods can provide that exposure and opportunities for deliberate practice? The principles of effectuation [www.effectuation.org], a set of heuristics underlying how expert entrepreneurs make decisions during new venture creation, are increasingly being used by entrepreneurship educators, consultants and practitioners. |
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2015 | Shortening Microentrepreneur Supply Chain through Mobile Technology (Microenterprise Supply Chain Intermediation Pilot) |
Micro-entrepreneurs in developing countries are often constraint by inefficient supply chains, facing high travel costs and high prices in purchasing their inventory. At the same time, due to their small scale, they buy in small quantities, limiting their benefit from economies of scale, whether in bulk discounts or transport efficiencies. Small-scale food vendors in Bogotá, whose customers are residents of low-income neighborhoods, face these very issues. |
Iacovone, L., Mckenzie, D. | | |
2015 | Impact Evaluation of a Large Scale Female Entrepreneurship Program in Mexico |
Programs targeting micro businesses have become increasingly common in developing countries, particularly because micro enterprises employ a substantial fraction of individuals in these economies (about 47 percent in Mexico) and because the majority of these micro enterprises tend to stay small and have low productivity Many programs aimed at fostering the growth of micro and small businesses have focused on providing credits or offering business and financial training, since access to credit and lack of managerial skills are believed to limit the success of this type of businesses (Bruhn e |
Mexico | Iacovone, L. | |
2015 | Social Networks and Productivity Spill-Over within Firms |
Examines the effectiveness of a specific management production routine relying on knowledge transfer of managers in a Bangladeshi garment factory. Results forthcoming. |
Bangladesh | Menzel, A. | |
2015 | What about SMEs? Investigating Growth Patterns in Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises |
Why does growth stall in high-growth potential, second-stage companies, and can we intervene to overcome this? This research seeks to address why growth rates so often peter out in adolescent firms, and why so few make it to “grownup” status. The experimental trial will also seek to identify and test specific policy interventions to reinvigorate growth in these situations. The project will have three phases. |
Regele, M., Canales, R. | | |
2015 | How Effective the Matching Grant Scheme in Improving Firm Performance and Export Outcomes (Tunisia Matching Grant Impact Evaluation) |
Firms may face short term barriers when deciding to become exporters. Their production costs may be too high to compete with international prices, or they may perceive quality standard testing to be too risky of an investment. At the same time, the Tunisian government is keen to see more firms become exporters, tapping into international markets for further growth. The government wishes to see its firms produce higher value-added goods. |
Rahman, A. | | |
2015 | Impacts of Soft Skills Management Training on Productivity and Worker Retention and Welfare |
We propose to implement and evaluate a soft-skills training program among mid- and upper-level managers in textile factories in India. The goal of the intervention and evaluation is to investigate constraints to firm performance due to managerial human capital, and to contribute to the understanding of how improved management can translate into better working conditions for workers. We will evaluate this program through a multi-step randomized controlled trial in 41 factories operated by a large textile firm based in Bangalore, India. |
India | Adhvaryu, A., Nyshadham, A. | |
2015 | Growing Small and Medium Enterprises by Encouraging Exports: Evidence from Argentina |
Evaluation comparing the impact of a managerial consulting program with training on export business models in Córdoba, Argentina. Results forthcoming. |
Argentina | Castro, L., Hallak, J. | |
2015 | Promoting Academic Research into Business Applications and Innovation/Business-science links and technology transfer |
What is the impact of different types of knowledge transfer activities on the number and quality of business-science interactions? Motivated by the “European Paradox” (top-notch academic research but much weaker business-science links), this trial will test the impact of two interventions to raise awareness of academic research and connect it to businesses. |
Banal-Estañol, A., Pérez-Castrillo, D., Losa, V. | | |
2015 | How Patents Shape Product Market Outcomes: Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial |
This on-going project explores how much market protection patents provide. This is being tested in a randomized control trial, where a partner company is abandoning or maintaining patent protection based on whether that patent is in the treatment or control group. We are then analyzing market outcomes for the related products. |
Switzerland | Thompson, N., Khairullina, A., Tucci C. | |
2015 | The Wisdom of Crowds in Equity Crowdfunding -- A Randomized Field Experiment |
Crowdfunding is a recent and rapidly growing method of raising funds for early-stage companies. It minimises the cost and effort involved in raising start-up funds compared to traditional equity funding methods such as venture capital investment. Very little systematic, non-survey research has been conducted into these methods of funding new ventures, however. ‘The wisdom of crowds in equity crowdfunding’ aims to fill this gap. |
UK | Åstebro, T., Vulkan, N. | |
2015 | Does Working from Home Work: Evidence from a Chinese Experiment |
An intervention that allowed randomly selected employees in a Chinese travel agency call centre to work from home appeared to have significant positive effects on worker performance. |
China | Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J., Ying, Z.J. | |
2015 | Rules of Thumb: Providing Timely Financial Management Advice at Scale in India |
Microentrepreneurs in developing countries face complex financial management challenges. Many entrepreneurs do not have the financial skills to address these challenges and traditional classroom-based financial training has not been shown effective in changing behavior or improving financial outcomes. What is the most effective way to equip microentrepreneurs with the necessary skills to address their financial management challenges? Traditional financial education curricula have shown very mixed results for improving knowledge and financial practices among microentrepreneurs. |
India | Cole, S., Joshi, M., Schoar, A. | |