"Villgro is a business incubator with a unique rural orientation. It concerns itself not only with the launch of new businesses but more generally with the transfer of new products, knowledge and services into rural space. Faced with the challenge of finding technologies that match rural requirements, Villgro has linked marketable product/service concepts from diverse sources with entrepreneurs who have start-up experience—so-called serial entrepreneurs. Other incubators may have difficulty imitating Villgro’s business model. The conditions for its development are unique, its management approaches are relatively untested and the values of its management team are deeply intertwined with perceptions of how the rural business system operates in India. However, other startup incubators can learn from Villgro the importance of getting management basics right before attempting to transform an entire agricultural sector. Good governance, transparency, accountability, building teams around highly capable employees and continuously enhancing their management skills are important no matter the strategic orientation of the emerging incubator."

"Peer networks are seen as important for stimulating innovation and entrepreneurship, but little is known about how the structure and composition of networks affect innovation performance. Researchers compared the effects of face-to-face and virtual peer interaction on the submission and quality of business proposals by individuals from 49 African countries enrolled in an online entrepreneurship course. They found that face-to-face networks and the virtual interaction of groups of entrepreneurs of the same nationality increased the submission of business proposals to a funding competition, but that virtual interaction had no effect when groups were formed with entrepreneurs of different nationalities. Virtual interaction among entrepreneurs of the same nationality was also found to increase the quality of submitted business proposals."

"The review aims primarily to synthesize the evidence on the effects of vocational and business training programmes that aim to improve women's labour market outcomes. It also seeks to improve understanding of the barriers to and facilitators of vocational and business training effectiveness for women. This systematic review by Chinen and colleagues examined the effects on employment, income, sales, and profits. They find that vocational and business training, on average, leads to minor improvements in women's economic well-being. Differences in the programmes' effectiveness suggest that having a gender focus leads to larger impacts on women. The authors conclude that skill-building programmes may be effective when carefully designed with local gender norms in mind."

"This case explores the evolution of the cross-sector relationship between Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Walmart Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2000-2015. It focuses on partnerships that sought to build the capacity of smallholder farmers in the developing world. The case explores the ways in which this collaboration came about, how it was supported by the partners, and the level of success achieved as measured by the Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Walmart Foundation, and USAID.

After reading and discussing the material, students should: understand the opportunities and challenges inherent in bridging public and private goals in the context of a partnership between a multinational company and a large development agency; understand different types of partnerships and how they can deliver different types of value to the partners; and understand how internal structure, cross-organizational interaction and resource flow, and shifting strategic objectives can influence partnership development and success."

"High-growth entrepreneurship has been demonstrated to be a catalyst for high socio-economic impact influence. Although just 5% to 7% of all American businesses are high-impact, these businesses create most of the new jobs in the United States. Similarly, according to a 2012 Endeavor report, high-growth entrepreneurial companies annually generate 30 more jobs than the average comparable company. High-growth entrepreneurs create jobs, inspire existing and would-be entrepreneurs to invest in their communities, and contribute to their entrepreneurial ecosystems to generate new businesses. Though each entrepreneur and each company are different, all share one thing in common: their exceptional leadership, which allows them to realize their vision and transmit their passion to their teams, investors, and communities. In the Latin American and Caribbean region, little is known about high-growth entrepreneurs and even less is known about women whose companies achieve high growth: Who are they? How did they succeed in reaching this level of growth? What motivates them? What are their biggest challenges and ambitions? What do they need to keep their businesses growing? This report aims to collect information to get to know them better and to explore common aspects of women whose businesses have experienced high levels of growth (referred to as high-growth women entrepreneurs onwards in this report)."

"Business training programs are a popular policy option to improve the performance of enterprises around the world, and the number of rigorous impact evaluations of these programs is growing. A critical review reveals that many evaluations suffer from small sample sizes, measure impacts only within a year of training, and experience problems with survey attrition and measurement that limit the conclusions one can draw. Over these short time horizons, there are relatively modest effects of training on the survivorship of existing firms. However, there is stronger evidence that training programs help prospective owners launch new businesses more quickly. Most studies find that existing firm owners implement some of the practices taught in training, but the magnitudes of the improvement to practices is often modest. Few studies find significant impacts on profits or sales, although some studies with greater statistical power have done so. There is little evidence to guide policymakers regarding whether any identified effects are due to trained firms drawing sales from competing businesses rather than through productivity improvements or to guide the development of the provision of training at market prices. We conclude by summarizing some directions and key questions for future studies."

"What do accelerators do? Broadly speaking, they help ventures define and build their initial products, identify promising customer segments, and secure resources, including capital and employees. More specifically, accelerator programs are programs of limited-duration—lasting about three months—that help cohorts of startups with the new venture process. They usually provide a small amount of seed capital, plus working space. They also offer a plethora of networking opportunities, with both peer ventures and mentors, who might be successful entrepreneurs, program graduates, venture capitalists, angel investors, or even corporate executives. Finally, most programs end with a grand event, a “demo day” where ventures pitch to a large audience of qualified investors."

"Social impact accelerators (SIAs) seek to select startups with the potential to generate financial returns and social impact. Through the lenses of signaling theory and gender role congruity theory, we examine 2324 social startups that applied to 123 SIAs globally in 2016 and 2017 and find that SIAs are more likely to accept startups that signal their economic and social credibility. Moreover, while we find that the influence of these signals is strongest when they are congruent with the stereotypes associated with the lead founder's gender, men seem to experience better outcomes from gender incongruity than women."

"Being an SGB in a developing economy is already challenging: talent acquisition, currency fluctuations, slim profit margins, changing political landscapes, and lower negotiating power with suppliers are a few of the issues SGBs have to tackle every day. It is a testament to the ingenuity, skill and tenacity of these organizations that despite this, there are thousands of successfully operating SGBs across the globe, with increasing numbers in developing economies. This report looks at how we can support SGBs to scale their success. What technical, practical and material assistance is needed to help SGBs scale so more people are positively impacted? Our hope is that this report isn’t just an interesting read, but rather a practical roadmap, and a call to action."

"The purpose of this spot survey is to identify the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the current generation of Indian social entrepreneurs as seen by those who spend the most time evaluating them-impact investors. By drawing on the opinions of these investors, it is possible to identify the areas in which critical skills and competencies are stronger than expected or are chronically absent, and how to start a substantive conversation on improving the ecosystem for early-stage social businesses. Unlike other reports in the impact investment space, this report looks at both successful deals that got done and deals that fell through. The insights are designed to assist incubators and accelerators in designing curricula for their investees, and to allow impact investors to develop more effective strategies for addressing pipeline challenges."