Role-Model Videos for Maputo's Microentrepreneurs — NOVAFRICA's Aspirations Field Experiment

Researchers Cátia Batista and Julia Seither of NOVAFRICA (Nova School of Business and Economics), with International Growth Centre funding, ran a randomised field experiment with established micro-entrepreneurs across roughly 48 markets on the outskirts of Maputo, Mozambique.
Approximately 600 micro-entrepreneurs were randomised across six arms: role-model information videos, a placebo video, business-skills training, and combinations of these, with some groups also asked to set a concrete one-year business goal.
Six months after the intervention, shifts in aspirations produced significant positive effects on entrepreneurs' effort and savings; these effects were precisely estimated even a full year later. Changes in investment behaviour translated into sales increases of 99% and profit increases of 89% relative to the control group. Business-skills training alone, without the aspirations component, had no effect on investment behaviour.
The result carries an important caveat: entrepreneurs who were asked to set a fixed one-year goal saved less than those who were not, and for that sub-group the positive effects on firm outcomes faded over time — a reminder that a low-cost behavioural nudge can outperform conventional training in a small pilot, but the design details of the nudge itself change the outcome.

Read the full analysis: https://novafrica.org/research/entrepreneurship-training-in-mozambique-the-role-of-business-skills-vs-aspirations/