Abstract
Responding to questions increasingly posed by finders regarding what works best in assisting small businesses and what impacts are caused by program interventions, this paper aims to help program administrators answer these questions. Focusing on business development service provision, specific conceptual measures and quantitative variables are presented with examples in an effort to provide some guidance for collecting and analyzing data. The paper elucidates how program planners may emphasize the impact of their interventions, thereby explaining to finders what works best and how to prove it. It presents two major reflections about measures that yield robust results. The first conceptual measure explored relates to measuring changes in knowledge or empowerment levels among program participants. The second area examines how to demonstrate that program services may have led to a change or difference in businesses assisted by gauging business characteristics and sales or costs. Presented together, findings generated from both quantitative and qualitative methods are the most persuasive and compelling means of informing audiences about the effects of enterprise development programs.
Recommended Citation
Nichols, Tristi. 2004. "Assessing Program Effects or Impact in Enterprise Development Programs." Journal of Rural Social Sciences, 20(2): Article 6. Available at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/jrss/vol20/iss2/6
Publication Date
12-31-2004
