Apps on smartphones can be distracting, waste time, and lead to information overload. But marketing analytics apps have the potential to improve sales and profits for small businesses and even boost entrepreneurs’ mental performance, say Texas A&M’s Stephen J. Anderson and Chicago Booth’s Pradeep. This is suggested by research by K. Chintagunta, Rupali Kaur of INSEAD, and Naufel J. Vilkasim of the London School of Economics. .
The findings could encourage business owners, managers and entrepreneurs to use such apps and platforms, as the rewards of higher profits far outweigh the costs, researchers said. Additionally, the findings “are related to” policy makers and impact investor [emphasis theirs] “We aim to support small and medium-sized enterprises and promote financial inclusion, especially in developing countries,” they write.
They conducted research in Rwanda and highlighted the relevance of this to emerging markets with high levels of entrepreneurial activity. They say the findings have great potential for these markets and suggest that these entrepreneurs have a unique ability to leverage data and analytical applications for transformative growth. I claim that there is.
Anderson, Chintagunta, Kaul, and Vilcassim designed a mobile phone app called Market Manager to help track and analyze business data, and distributed Android smartphones to 300 startups while ensuring access to fast and stable internet connections. I did.
For many participants, this was their first experience with a smartphone. However, as mobile phones have become more widespread around the world, policymakers and impact investors have turned to them as an important tool for improving people’s lives. “Despite this enthusiasm, there is little empirical evidence about the causal role of such technologies in stimulating change at the individual entrepreneur level or at the overall business level,” the researchers wrote. There is.
They divided entrepreneurs who had cell phones into two groups. One is a “placebo” group of 50 people who received no support or the app. The 250-person treatment group was provided with an app and visited monthly by an analyst who taught them how to enter data and interpret the analyses. An additional control group of 250 business leaders did not receive calls.
