Testing the Promise of Digital Scaling : In-Person versus App-Based Training for Women Entrepreneurs

Business training has long been a staple of development policy, with annual expenditures exceeding US$ 1 billion in low- and middle-income countries. The vast majority of training is delivered in person, but there is growing interest in alternative modalities to deliver at scale. Digital delivery offers the potential to enhance impact, cost-effectiveness, and accessibility—especially for women, who may face constraints on their time and mobility. Challenges may include gaps in digital skills and ensuring participants’ engagement. This study conducted a randomized controlled trial to evaluate a business training program targeted at women entrepreneurs in Ethiopia. The paper tests two modalities: a smartphone app or in-person sessions, versus a control group. The findings reveal high initial take-up rates for both modalities (over 75 percent), but a significant disparity in completion rates (22 percent for the digital training, versus 71 percent for the in-person training). These results suggest that the potential of digital platforms for scaling up business training must be carefully tested and treated with caution. Despite the high take-up of in-person training, negligible impacts are observed on business practices and performance from either modality. This finding underscores the stylized fact that business training alone may offer limited benefits for women entrepreneurs.