About the Initiative

The Digital Transformation for Inclusive Business Development Project is run by IE Foundation with the support of JPMorgan Chase Foundation. The project acknowledges that there is a gap in our current tech-savvy society, with many small or “micro” businesses excluded from the opportunities available to tech-focused entrepreneurs in the startup ecosystem. To close this gap, the project focuses on leveraging existing e-commerce and online marketing tools for these micro businesses.

The Social Objective

Ten small business owners collaborate with candidates from the IE Master in Visual and Digital Media, who worked with them to implement online stores and develop e-commerce strategies. The objective was to increase sales and strengthen the quality of jobs. The long-term goal is to bring more stability to their businesses and help them generate new jobs in the near future, thus leading to a positive social impact.

Measuring Impact

This initiative combines fieldwork with academic research to assess the impact on the selected small business owners, before learnings from the projects are consolidated. The assessments consider both the quantitative and qualitative impact, and use control and treatment groups in order to compare results. The quantitative assessment measures whether beneficiaries of the initiative saw a positive impact on sales figures, compared to the average sales increase of small business owners in the control group. Qualitative assessment consists of individual case studies on each of the beneficiaries.

Results

As well as showing an increase in sales figures, beneficiaries in the treatment group show greater confidence in their stores’ potential to generate revenue in the future. The knowledge generated was disseminated to other private organizations and public institutions, providing another level of support to small business owners.