The researchers would like to know why a lot of small and medium-sized businesses don’t grow much, and what stops them from becoming productive in lower and middle-income countries. They’re going to provide “light-touch” help with mentoring, online training, and connections to investors and other companies. They’ll randomly choose 200 businesses from the list of suitable ones, and then keep track of them before and after the intervention. MOMODa will be responsible for collecting the data.
MOMODa Foundation is working with Startup Dhaka on this research project to conduct baseline and end-line surveys. The study aims to figure out the critical research questions- (i) Why a large fraction of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) could never grow? (ii) What constraints SME growth and productivity, particularly in low- and middle-income countries? The intervention is “light-touch” business acceleration support that consists of (a) mentoring, (b) online training courses, and (c) networking with investors and peer firms. For the main study, MOMODa Foundation will randomly select 100 treatment firms and 100 control firms from the pool of eligible firms. MOMODa will collect cohort data from each batch during the baseline and follow-up survey. The research team has finished piloting the end-line questions with 30 firms. Among the 30 firms that participated in the baseline, 28 have completed the end-line survey. The baseline of the main research will be starting from 1st August 2023.
Sample Size: 230
Type of Research: RCT
Field of Research: Entrepreneurship Development
Stage of Research: Completed pilot phase.
Investigators:
Dr. Abu Shonchoy (Associate Professor, Florida International University),
Dr. Norihiko Matsuda ( Assistant Professor, Florida International University), and
Dr. Israt Jahan (Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin La Crosse).
Partner:
International Growth Centre (IGC)