Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary This field experiment involved more than 2,000 secondary school students, where the treatment group was incentivised to watch an edutainment show. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Can television be used to teach and foster entrepreneurship among youth in developing countries? The results of randomized control field experiment of an edutainment show on entrepreneurship broadcasted over almost three months on national television in Tanzania arepresented. The field experiment involved more than 2,000 secondary school students, where the treatment group was incentivized to watch the edutainment show. Some suggestive evidence was found of the edutainment show making the viewers more interested in entrepreneurship and business, particularly among females. However, the main finding is a negative effect: the edutainment show discouraged investment in schooling without convincingly replacing it with some other valuable activity. Administrative data show a strong negative treatment effect on school performance, and long-term survey data show that fewer treated students continue schooling, but not much evidence was found of the edutainment show causing an increase in business ownership. The fact that an edutainment show for entrepreneurship caused the students to invest less in education carries a general lesson to the field experimental literature by showing the importance of taking a broad view of possible implications of a field intervention.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.2019.3321 Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question What are the effects of edutainment shows on viewers? Are they a source of knowledge and behavioral change, or are they largely pure entertainment? Sample Trial population and sample selection Students in their last year of secondary education, of which 37% attend the business stream (which has a more practical orientation), 12% are attracted by the idea of starting a business but only 1 in 4 had basic business knowledge. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description The students are shown 11 weekly episodes through which six real-life entrepreneurs compete on a number of challenges to win a cash prize. Challenges are built around topics like market assessment, customer care, marketing, record keeping, credit, savings or insurance, and are meant to help both the contestants and the viewers to reflect on important issues related to planning and operating a business. Throughout the episodes, the show provides factual information, introduces key business concepts and highlights good business practises. The contestants are actual entrepreneurs that run their own small-scale businesses. Contestants have different backgrounds and life stories to facilitate viewers emotionally connecting with them. The show has a particular focus on female empowerment, with three of the contestants being women and one episode specifically assigned to gender issues. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method In January 2011, before the first episode of Ruka Juu was aired, a baseline survey containing questions on socioeconomic background, media habits, current topics, business issues, and personal ambitions was conducted. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Business ambitions, knowledge, mindset, and long-term behavior.</p> Results <p>Right after the show, viewers expressed higher interest in entrepreneurship, were more likely to prefer starting their own business over other career options (particularly men) and more likely to choose entrepreneurship training over training on other topics. Although only women were more willing to pay for additional business training.Right after the end of the show, viewers' did not possess higher business knowledge nor were they more willing to take risks, compete or be more patient, which are psychological traits usually associated with an entrepreneurial mindset. Only girls' willingness to take risks was slightly affected. Eight months after the show (coinciding with the end of the school year), students exposed to the edutainment show were less likely to attend school and had worse educational outcomes. Especially among those that before the programme had higher self-employment ambitions. Two years later, students exposed to the show were less likely to be studying, with school dropout not being replaced by a significant increase in business ownership or employment.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Bjorvatn, K., Cappelen, A.W., Sekei, L.H., Sørensen, E.Ø. and Tungodden, B., 2020. Teaching through television: Experimental evidence on entrepreneurship education in Tanzania. Management Science, 66(6), pp.2308-2325. Citation for use in academic references
