DOES A THEORY-OF-VALUE ADD VALUE? EVIDENCE FROM A RANDOMIZED CONTROL TRIAL WITH TANZANIAN ENTREPRENEURS

Francesca Bacco, Rajshree Agarwal*, Arnaldo Camuffo, Andrea Coali, Alfonso Gambardella, Haji Msangi, Steven Sonka, Anna Temu, Betty Waized, Audra Wormald

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Entrepreneurs making decisions under uncertainty are encouraged to evaluate their initial ideas through hypothesis testing, but entrepreneurial approaches vary in their emphasis on ex-ante theory development prior to collecting evidence. In this paper, we examine whether and how entrepreneurs benefit from adopting an evidence-based approach or a theory-and-evidence-based approach to decision-making. We conducted a field experiment with Tanzanian agribusiness entrepreneurs by randomly assigning entrepreneurs to two different training conditions. We find that entrepreneurs in the theory-and-evidence-based condition have higher economic performance during the observation period following the intervention. We conjecture this result stems from differences in the types of changes enacted: entrepreneurs in the theory-and-evidence-based training make more coordinated changes that encompass both core and operational elements of their business models.
Original languageEnglish
JournalOrganization Science
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2025

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