"This paper studies the impact on well-being and business outcomes from teaching stress-management practices to small firm owners in Bangladesh. Female owners were randomly assigned either to a treatment group that received a 10-week Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) course featuring priority-setting and relaxation techniques, or to a control group exposed to Empathic Listening. CBT leads to large initial reductions in owner stress, but no initial increase in firm profits. Six months after receiving CBT, owners in sectors with a low concentration of women show large and significant effects on stress, and their firms show increased profits. By contrast, owners in female-dominated sectors experience a short-lived reduction in stress, and firms show no changes in profits. The large post-treatment differences in well-being and profits between industries suggest that the ability to manage stress is malleable, and that industry choice proxies for traits that are strongly correlated with returns to training."

"The mobilization of social resources for addressing urgent societal needs under market assumptions is a major component of the strategy for development. Social enterprises as an alternative source of public goods and services attract the attention of academics, practitioners and policy-makers to the efficient use of entrepreneurial resources. Initially this study aims to provide a more systematic understanding about the factors that affect the probabilities of success of socially oriented undertakings and contributes to the literature by answering the call for more empirical research about such effects over their performance. Using a logistic regression model on data from a sample of socially oriented ventures in 148 countries participating in the 2013-2016 Entrepreneurship Database Program at Emory University, the positive effects of such factors were first validated. At a later stage, this quest attempted to find differential behaviors of these effects by comparing operations in OECD and developing countries. No conclusive evidence for dissimilarities between groups was found. This result could be partially attributed to the accelerator´s selection processes favoring companies with a proven record. Important global policy implications are drawn in support of harmonized social-entrepreneurship promotion programs and the adoption of standardized impact measurement criteria. This argument raises ample academic and practical possibilities for investigating the impact of socio-economic and cultural influences on the efficacy of social enterprise´s interventions. After controlling for the efficient use of entrepreneurial resources, teams made-up of civil society organizations, businesses and government institutions can allocate their attention to those country-specific situations affecting the efficacy of development programs such as the problems to be solved, the particularity of the eco-systems and the adequacy of the organizational arrays adopted."

"This paper provides an overview of the Nesta Standards of Evidence. Our aim is to find alignment with academically recognised levels of rigour, whilst managing to ensure impact measurement is appropriate to the stage of development of a variety of different products, services and programmes. The Standards of Evidence were developed based upon those used in Project Oracle (see text box for further details)."

"In the second of a two-part series focused on SAOs in Indonesia, this study by Angel Investment Network Indonesia (ANGIN) examines the performance, expectations, and challenges faced by SAOs, with particular reference to whether SAOs are meeting the expectations of entrepreneurs and investors and how gaps in expectation can be addressed.

This report also places a special focus on how SAOs support women entrepreneurs and the reasons for the gender gap in SAO activities. A multitude of factors discourage women entrepreneurs from applying and participating in SAO programs, from difficulty in finding SAO programs targeting sectors, location, or business stage, where a higher proportion of women entrepreneurs operate, through to a lack of women engaged in SAO programs as mentors, trainers, SAO staff or as participating entrepreneurs. The intensive time commitment during the program and competitive culture could also be contributing factors.

The report concludes with a practical framework that SAOs can use to advance their mission and recommendations to promote gender inclusion in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. Placing a greater emphasis on diversifying mentors, trainers and SAO staff, explicitly encouraging female candidates to apply and designing more flexible programs that allow women to balance SAO program participation with household responsibilities could encourage more women to apply."

"This report addresses the question: 'How do support programmes fulfil different roles for startups within startup ecosystems?' To put it another way, terms used for programmes supporting startups include: accelerators, coworking spaces, incubators, active seed investors, courses, competitions. But what is the difference?
In trying to answer this, this study interviewed over 30 practitioners, and undertook site visits to startup programmes operating in cities in high-income countries in Europe (Berlin, London, Munich, Cambridge), with the addition of Israel as a close neighbour."

"Measurement practices are rapidly evolving in the small and growing business (SGB) sector, and organizations operating in this space may feel overwhelmed while trying to keep up with trends and best practices. To better understand measurement practices in the SGB sector and to help organizations benchmark themselves against their peers, ANDE surveyed 30 members about their measurement practices as a follow-up to our 2014 paper."

"ANDE has been tracking the growth and impact of the small and growing business (SGB) sector in emerging market economies for our annual State of the Sector report since 2009. The analysis examines global trends in support for small and growing businesses through capacity development services, direct private investment, and donor funding, as well as specific trends by region. The latest report provides a retrospective summary of key developments and trends in the sector in 2019 and relevant insights based on initial data and emerging information on the potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on those trends in 2020."

"The promotion of micro and small enterprises has been a centerpiece of the Ethiopian government's strategy to alleviate urban unemployment among the youth since 2004. Since this time, the government has adopted twin strategies of creating a business environment conducive to start and operate MSEs while at the same time actively triggering the establishment of new MSEs.

In this research, using a large dataset collected from 13 major cities in Ethiopia, we explore whether government-induced enterprises (cooperatives) differ from self-initiated enterprises (non-cooperatives) in various aspects of business productivity, business practices and performance."

"Identifying the determinants of entrepreneurship is an important research and policy goal, especially in emerging market economies where lack of capital and supporting infrastructure often impose stringent constraints on business growth. This paper studies the impact of a comprehensive business and financial literacy programme on firm outcomes of young entrepreneurs in an emerging post-conflict economy, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The authors conduct a randomised control trial and find that, while the training programme did not influence business survival, it significantly improved business practices, investments and loan terms for surviving businesses. Female-run businesses further exhibited some improvements in business performance and sales."

"Now in its second edition, the Social Investment Landscape in Asia serves as a resource for funders and resource providers to assess the opportunities and challenges for social investment in 14 markets in North, South and Southeast Asia. It is designed to be a guide for new social investors and intermediaries looking to enter the Asian market and existing actors exploring partnerships as well as cross-border or cross-sector opportunities. Each market report provides a holistic overview of the current and emerging trends in the social economy."