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 A business networking programme on firm performance in China, and how groups composition and meeting frequency can facilitate trust and information flows. Results forthcoming. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Business networks can play an important role in firm growth, but in many developing countries, limited information sharing systems and poor contract enforcement mechanisms may make it difficult for businesses to establish relationships with the best set of partners. Governments in some developing countries work to address this challenge by organizing business associations that are meant to promote networking. This study evaluates one such program in Nanchang, China in which some firm managers are randomly assigned to participate in small group meetings for one year. Variations in the intervention will offer insight into the mechanism behind the impact of business connections and the optimal design for networking programs.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links https://academic.oup.com/qje/advance-article/doi/10.1093/qje/qjx049/4768295 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 is the impact of business networking programmes on firm performance? Do variations in the intervention offer insight into whether and how business networks facilitate information sharing and peer training? How does group composition and meeting frequency break down barriers to business networking by building trust and facilitating information flows? Sample Trial population and sample selection In 2013, in Nanchang, managers of 11,000 recently-formed SMEs were asked to take part in the study. Participating firms had 33 employees on average and were mainly in the manufacturing, software, or business services sectors. Managers of 1,400 firms were randomly assigned to participate in meetings with other managers. The remaining 1,000 managers were assigned to a comparison group that did not participate in meetings. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups 1,400 managers/firms assigned to meetings Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Managers were assigned to participate in meetings with other managers. Managers met in the same group of 10 participants every month for one year. The initial meetings were organised in collaboration with the CIIT in Nanchang, a gov. department that works with small businesses. The subsequent meetings were organised by the participating managers. Meeting groups were varied so that some included managers from similar firms and others included managers from firms that differed in size and industry. There will be a one-time cross-group meeting to take place 6 months after the monthly meetings begin. The groups were further divided by providing an informational treatment consisting of details about a new loan product, randomly, to both a subset of the meeting group and non-meeting group. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method Survey collecting information on business performance, managerial practises and details regarding social connections and business partners. Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Possession (spread) of information. Business performance. Managerial practices. Social connections. Business partners.</p> Results <p>Not yet available.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Cai, J., & Szeidl, A. (2016). Interfirm relationships and business performance. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. Citation for use in academic references
