Researchers are partnering with IPA Kenya and the African Management Initiative to conduct a randomized evaluation to measure the impacts of an online business training program on small firm employment, revenue, and profits.

The knowledge and skills of an organization's workforce have become increasingly important to its performance, competitiveness, and innovation. Access to cost-effective, high-quality workplace training programs may be pivotal for a firm's success within an economy. In Kenya as well as in other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, the African Management Initiative (AMI) offers an online management training program for small firms called Grow Your Business that provides training to participants to implement practices that are associated with improving firm outcomes like revenue and profits. 

The Grow Your Business program costs around USD$500 and draws on technology and peer-supported project work to offer training tailored to firm needs. Specifically, the program involves conducting an initial diagnostic and analysis of a firm’s management practices; dividing firms into groups of three to five to help each other identify five practices that will have the greatest impact on firm performance; and a class with conventional trainings focused on using practical tools to implement practices.

Researchers are partnering with IPA Kenya and the African Management Initiative (AMI) to conduct a randomized evaluation to measure whether the Grow Your Business program increases revenue and profits for small firms. The program was scheduled to start just as COVID-19 started, so AMI adapted it to be conducted entirely online. The program was rolled out in phases, to cover approximately ten phases over two years to cover at least 1,600 firms. In each phase, firms were randomly divided into the following groups: 

• Full Grow Your Business Program with peer groups constituted randomly.
• Full Grow Your Business Program with peer groups formed by matching firms that reported needed training on similar skills.
• No intervention

Results will be available in 2026.

Sources

^1. Panagiotakopoulos, Antonios. "Exploring the link between management training and organizational performance in the small business context." Journal of Workplace Learning 32, no. 4 (2020): 245-257.

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