SEE Change Evaluation - Assessing Impacts of Personal Agency Training to Advance Entrepreneurial Outcomes in Uganda
Overview
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Well-Being, Psychological
- Sponsor
- Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Enrollment
- 814
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Change in Business revenue and profits as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- last year
Overview
Brief Summary
This study is proposed as an individually randomized control trial (RCT) designed to assess the short-term impacts (follow up at six months) of a personal agency training on a range of economic and health outcomes for micro and small entrepreneurs in Western and Central Uganda. Participants will be randomly selected and assigned to either the intervention group (n=400) or wait-listed control group (n=400). The intervention will include the standard Empowered Entrepreneur training curriculum which includes personal agency alongside basic business training that has been developed by the SEE Change team. This training will take place over three consecutive days (approximately 25 hours of content).
Detailed Description
The investigators propose to examine the comparative impacts of a personal agency and business training curricula on outcome measures focused in three areas 1) business related outcomes; 2) personal agency and flourishing; and 3) social spillover impacts. Aim 1: Assess changes in business related outcomes including improved sales and profit, enhanced business skills and behaviors, and business-related goal setting. Aim 2: Assess changes in personal agency and flourishing as determined through personal goal setting and psychometric measurements of self-esteem, self-confidence, grit and flourishing. Aim 3: Assess social spillover impacts of the training on depression, anxiety and stress, and changes in gender norms and attitudes.
Investigators
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •Small or micro entrepreneur;
- •Business has been in operation/existence for at least the past 12 months;
- •Entrepreneur is between the ages of 18 and 55;
- •Entrepreneur has the ability to participate in all training activities;
- •Informed consent is obtained from the entrepreneur;
- •The entrepreneur is not planning to leave the area in the next 12 months;
- •The entrepreneur has access to a phone for contact purposes;
Exclusion Criteria
- •Entrepreneur is unable to provide informed consent or informed consent is not obtained;
- •Entrepreneur is not considered a small or micro entrepreneur;
- •Entrepreneur is younger than 18 years of age;
- •Business has been in operation/existence for less than 12 months;
- •Entrepreneur's primary business is farming (anything related to seasonal crop production);
- •Entrepreneur is planning to leave the area in the next 12 months;
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Change in Business revenue and profits as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
Specific questions to assess types of income generating activities and overall business growth over the past month. Questions include number of income generating activities, length of time in business, business type, days and hours worked in business, number of employees, revenues and profits earned in business. Each of these questions can be examined separately or together as a composite score based on the number of questions are combined together.
Change in in the number of Marketing strategies adopted as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
A composite score made up of a list of types of marketing strategies that have been completed over the past six months. The score is assess from 0-8 and includes affirmative responses. Having a score of 0 is lowest, and 8 is the highest level of marketing strategies
Change in Self-efficacy as measured by the Chen scale for self efficacy
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
This scale asks 8 questions related to self-efficacy and each question is scored on a likert scale from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The range of score are from 8-40, but usually examined as an average score (1-5), with the lowest scores being very low self-efficacy and the highest score being high self-efficacy.
Change in Marketing score as assessed by questionnaire as assessed by the Micro-Enterprise survey
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
A composite score made up of a list of marketing activities that have been completed over the past three months. The score range is 0-10, with 0 being the lowest marketing activities to 10 as using all of the marketing strategies mentioned. There are 10 activities asked about (as yes/no questions) include questions to assess: negotiating with suppliers, engaging with customers to learn their needs or provide special offers, keeping supplies stocked and visiting competitors businesses.
Change in ability to regulate behavior as assessed by the Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ)
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
The Short Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SSRQ) is a 31-item measure of the ability to regulate behavior in order to achieve desired future outcomes. Each question is scored on a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with the lowest score indicating low level of self-regulation to the highest level of self-regulation - with a range of 31-155 after adjustments for reverse scoring
Change in adoption of Business skills as assessed by questionnaire developed by study team
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
A composite score made up of responses to a list of key business skills utilized over the past six months. These 10 questions include topics such as record keeping, keeping balance sheets, financial planning, understanding which items lead to higher profits, analysis of financial performance. Having a score of 0 is lowest, and 10 is the highest in terms of business skills.
Change in Self-esteem as measured by the Rosenberg scale
Time Frame: Baseline, six months
The Self-esteem scale is a 10 question scales that is scored on a Likert scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). The total score range is 10-50 and is usually examined as an average score (1-5), with the lowest scores indicating very low self-esteem and the highest score indicating very high self-esteem
Secondary Outcomes
- Change in environmental mastery as assessed by the Ryff Environmental Mastery subscale(Baseline, six months)
- Change in perseverance assessed by the Grit scale(Baseline, six months)
- Change in Locus of control as measured by the Internal-External Locus of Control Short Scale-4 (IE-4)(Baseline, six months)
- Change in understanding of gender norms as assessed by the Gender norms and attitude scale(Baseline, six months)
- Change in Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS 8)(Baseline, six months)
- Change in personal initiative as assessed by the Personal Initiative Scale(Baseline, six months)
- Change in positive relations as assessed by the Ryff Positive Relations with Others subscale(Baseline, six months)