Social Skills Improve Business Performance: Evidence from a Randomized Control Trial with Entrepreneurs in Togo
Teaching entrepreneurs basic social skills increased the number and quality of peer connections they formed and raised their business profits substantially.
Summary
Dimitriadis and Koning run a field experiment with entrepreneurs in Togo, testing whether a short social skills training module changes how many and which peers participants seek out for advice. They find that trained entrepreneurs formed 50% more peer connections, with more of those matches based on complementary skills, and that monthly profits rose by about 20% as a result. The study suggests that a lack of networking is not always about
Editor's opinion
Rigorous RCT, but a development-economics micro-entrepreneur study isn't a firm-strategy insight.
Key concepts
Social skills training · Peer networks · Entrepreneurial performance