Testing the Promise of Digital Scaling: In-Person versus App-Based Training for Women Entrepreneurs
通过随机对照试验比较了应用程序培训和面对面培训对女性企业家的效果，发现数字培训完成率远低于面对面培训，且对商业知识和企业成果影响有限。
Abstract In-person business training is a key tool of development policy, with over US$1 billion spent annually in low- and middle-income countries. Digital training is gaining interest for its potential to increase impact, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility—particularly for women. This paper uses a randomized controlled trial to compare app-based and in-person training, using identical curricula, for women entrepreneurs. Take-up rates exceed 75 percent, but completion rates are only 22 percent for digital versus 71 percent for in-person. Further interventions fail to sustain engagement in digital training, and an additional experiment shows that removing in-person orientation leads to even lower take-up of digital training. Results indicate limited impacts on business knowledge or firm outcomes.