"Almost all firms in developing countries have fewer than ten workers, with a modal size of one. Are there potential high-growth entrepreneurs, and can public policy help identify them and facilitate their growth? A large-scale national business plan competition in Nigeria provides evidence on these questions. Random assignment of US$34 million in grants provided each winner with approximately US$50,000. Surveys tracking applicants over five years show that winning leads to greater firm entry, more survival, higher profits and sales, and higher employment, including increases of over 20 percentage points in the likelihood of a firm having ten or more workers."

"We conduct a business plan competition to test whether survey instruments or panel judges are able to identify the fastest growing firms. Participants submitted six- to eight-page business plans and defended them before a three- or four-judge panel. We surveyed applicants shortly after they applied and one and two years after the competition. We use follow-up surveys to construct measures of enterprise growth and baseline surveys and panel scores to construct measures of enterprise growth potential. We find that a measure of ability correlates strongly with future growth, but that the panel scores add to predictive power even after controlling for ability and other survey variables. The survey questions have more power to explain the variance in growth. Participants presenting before the panel were given a chance to win customized management training. Fourteen months after the training, we find no positive effect of the training on growth of the business."

"This whitepaper gathers the collective wisdom of the industry to formulate a first set of milestones and metrics. We strongly advocate that, in the near term, the framework illustrated in this document be used to evolve and institute a nationally accepted set of metrics and milestones for incubators in India. We also advocate that the funding organizations implement these metrics and milestones, not only to select the host partner but also to track, measure progress and to reward success. Some recommendations in this document may require policy review and modifications."

"The Guidelines for the Promotion of Inclusive Business in ASEAN document provides an outline on how inclusive businesses can be supported at the national level, and what institutional setup is required to do so. The guidelines also provide recommendations on how ASEAN policy makers could collectively promote inclusive business at the regional level. We hope that this document would serve as a useful reference document for ASEAN policy makers in formulating national and regional strategies towards achieving a resilient, inclusive, people-oriented and people-centered ASEAN."

"The Handbook on Impact Evaluation serves two broad audiences – researchers new to the evaluation field and policy makers involved in implementing development programs worldwide. We hope this book will offer an up-to-date compendium that serves the needs of both audiences, by presenting a detailed analysis of the quantitative research underlying recent program evaluations and case studies that reflect the hands-on experience and challenges of researchers and program officials in implementing such methods."

"Small businesses significantly contribute to the economic development of a country. From purchasing groceries on an app to enabling new modes of learning, small businesses, especially start-ups, are transforming India into a technology-driven nation. This handbook is an endeavour to provide insight on several models that could be explored to set up a fund to promote start-ups, contributions to which would qualify as CSR spend under the Section 135 of the Companies Act, 2013."

"The vast majority of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in developing countries are located in industrial clusters, and the majority of such clusters have yet to see their growth take off. The performance of MSE clusters is especially low in Sub-Saharan Africa. While existing studies often attribute the poor performance to factors outside firms, problems within firms are seldom scrutinized. In fact, entrepreneurs in these clusters are unfamiliar with standard business practices. Based on a randomized experiment in Ghana, this study demonstrates that basic-level management training improves business practices and performance."

"Firm productivity is low in African countries, prompting governments to try a number of active policies to improve it. Yet despite the millions of dollars spent on these policies, we are far from a situation where we know whether many of them are yielding the desired payoffs. This paper establishes some basic facts about the number and heterogeneity of firms in different sub-Saharan African countries and discusses their implications for experimental and structural approaches towards trying to estimate firm policy impacts. It shows that the typical firm program such as a matching grant scheme or business training program involves only 100 to 300 firms, which are often very heterogeneous in terms of employment and sales levels. As a result, standard experimental designs will lack any power to detect reasonable sized treatment impacts, while structural models which assume common production technologies and few missing markets will be ill-suited to capture the key constraints firms face. Nevertheless, the author suggests a way forward which involves focusing on a more homogeneous sub-sample of firms and collecting a lot more data on them than is typically collected."

"The international community is focusing ever-greater attention on green and inclusive business (GIB) models. But, while their relevance for solving social and environmental solutions is increasingly accepted, the question of how to support GIB models in development cooperation programmes is less clear. This Green and Inclusive Business Toolbox attempts to provide some options to tackle this issue. This toolbox defines green and inclusive business (GIB) models and describes the major challenges and opportunities GIBs face. It contains various examples of best practices regarding approaches from GIZ projects that work in the field of promoting green and inclusive businesses. The Green and Inclusive Business Toolbox aims to provide planning officers, project leaders and staff involved in private sector development and other sector projects with a set of tried-and-tested tools."

"This guide is aimed at helping companies interested in developing business relationships with smallholders. It provides a framework that identi!es common challenges, highlights solutions and shows how these can be implemented through cooperation at different levels. In this way, the guide aims to support company representatives engaging in inclusive agribusiness practices with practical tools and a comprehensive overview of potential solutions and collaborative approaches. Practitioners from development agencies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), intermediaries and other organisations working to develop and support inclusive agribusiness will also find useful insights here.

The guide can also prove useful for those in related businesses. Agribusiness companies that own land and lease it to smallholders, or which themselves farm the land of smallholders, can also learn about core challenges, organisational models and options for strategic action. Companies offering services to smallholders, including financial, advisory, information or communication services can use the guide to identify how their offers complement other business models."