Pathways to Profits : Identifying Separate Channels of Small Firm Growth through Business Training
This paper identifies separate and unique pathways to profits among small businesses in South Africa that are exposed to marketing or finance training in a randomized control study. The marketing group achieves greater profits by adopting a growth...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English en_US |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2016
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2016/07/26610927/pathways-profits-identifying-separate-channels-small-firm-growth-through-business-training http://hdl.handle.net/10986/24855 |
| Summary: | This paper identifies separate and
unique pathways to profits among small businesses in South
Africa that are exposed to marketing or finance training in
a randomized control study. The marketing group achieves
greater profits by adopting a growth focus on higher sales,
greater investments in stock and materials, and hiring more
employees. The finance group achieves similar profit gains
but through an efficiency focus on lower costs. Both groups
show significantly higher adoption of business practices
related to their respective training program. Consistent
with a growth focus, marketing/sales skills are
significantly more beneficial to firm owners who ex ante
have less exposure to different business contexts. In
contrast and in line with an efficiency focus, entrepreneurs
who have been running more established businesses prior to
training benefit significantly more from finance/accounting skills. |
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