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Journal of Marketing: Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? (Academic paper)

Journal of Marketing: Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? (Academic paper)

Journal of Marketing: Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? (Academic paper)

Promoting growth by differentiating products is a core tenet of marketing. However, establishing and quantifying marketing’s causal impact on firm growth, while critical, can be difficult. This article examines the effects of a business support intervention in which international professionals from different functional backgrounds (e.g., marketing, consulting) volunteered time to help Ugandan entrepreneurs improve growth. Findings from a multiyear field experiment show that entrepreneurs who were randomly matched with volunteer marketers significantly increased firm growth: on average, monthly sales grew by 51.7%, monthly profits improved by 35.8%, total assets increased by 31.0%, and number of paid employees rose by 23.8%. A linguistic analysis of interactions between volunteers and entrepreneurs indicates that the marketers spent more time on product-related topics than other volunteers. Further mechanism analyses indicate that the marketers helped the entrepreneurs focus on premium products to differentiate in the marketplace. In line with the study’s process evidence, firms with greater market knowledge or resource availability benefited significantly more than their peers when matched with volunteer marketers. As small-scale businesses form the commercial backbone of most emerging markets, their performance and development are critically important. Marketers’ positive impact on these businesses highlights the need for the field’s increased presence in emerging markets.

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Journal of Marketing: Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? (Academic paper)

The Economist: Africa is full of schemes to help entrepreneurs

The Economist: Africa is full of schemes to help entrepreneurs

Down a narrow alley in Kampala, Uganda’s capital, Ivan Zziwa has built a mini-conglomerate. He fixes phones, sells accessories, blends juice, hires out chairs and offers mobile money services, with the help of four people. He says online conversations with a volunteer mentor in Spain prompted him to expand into wholesale and door-to-door deliveries. This offered a way to market his existing businesses to new customers. It may also reduce risk.

The mentoring was arranged by Grow Movement, an ngo that pairs volunteer consultants from all over the world with small businesses in Africa. A forthcoming study finds that entrepreneurs who received this long-distance coaching increased their monthly sales by a quarter. They did so not by changing their business practices, such as accounting, but by changing their entire business. One stationer describes how he started making his own exercise books, which was cheaper than buying them. A rural businessman selling liquid soap and fertiliser decided to expand into solar lights, water filters and cooking stoves after his mentor prodded him to look for unmet needs.

As elsewhere, however, most African success stories involve a lucky break. Ms Buyondo’s came when a savings group at church lent her money and two teachers agreed to work for deferred pay. Mike Duff mentored Mr Zziwa. He recalls how chance encounters and nuggets of advice while studying at the London School of Economics helped his own career (he now runs an eco-retreat). He describes his Skype conversations with Mr Zziwa as the “uberisation” of good fortune. Mr Elumelu talks of his foundation trying to “institutionalise luck”. Starting a business will always be a game of chance.

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    Journal of Marketing: Do Marketers Matter for Entrepreneurs? (Academic paper)

    Stanford Social Innovation Review: Six Ways to Support Small and Growing Businesses in Emerging Markets

    Stanford Social Innovation Review: Six Ways to Support Small and Growing Businesses in Emerging Markets

    Mentorship can be helpful, but different mentorship structures achieve different outcomes. Available evidence suggests that mentorship can help entrepreneurs change their practices and accelerate business growth. But not all mentorship programs are alike, and different types of mentors can affect entrepreneurs differently. A study in Uganda found that a program with international mentors made entrepreneurs more likely to significantly “pivot” their overall business strategy. (The study was the randomised control trial on Grow Movement)

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