Do microfinance institutions benefit from integrating financial and nonfinancial services?

This article examines the impact of microfinance ‘plus’ (i.e. coordinated combination of financial and nonfinancial services) on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Using a global data set of MFIs in 77 countries, we find that the provision of nonfinancial services does not harm nor improve MFIs’ financial sustainability and efficiency. The results however suggest that the provision of social services is associated with improved loan quality and greater depth of outreach.

Credit Risk Research: Review and Agenda

This article provides a comprehensive review of scholarly research on credit risk measurement during the last 57 years applying bibliometric citation analysis and elaborates an agenda for future research. The bibliography is compiled using the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science (WOS) database and includes all articles with citations over the period 1960–2016. Specifically, the review is carried out using 1695 articles across 72 countries published in 442 journals by 2928 authors. The findings suggest that credit risk research is multifaceted and can be classified into six streams: (1) defaultable security pricing, (2) default intensity modeling, (3) comparative analys…

Risk Management and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions

Risk management and efficiency are very crucial for the survival of every organization. “Indeed, better risk management may be the only truly necessary element of success in banking” (Alan Greenspan) and “the obvious rule of efficiency is you don’t want to spend more time organizing than it’s worth” (Daniel Levitin). In microfinance, risk management and efficiency are important for the achievement of both the financial and social objectives of microfinance institutions, which aim primarily to provide financial services to the unbanked populations in the world. Giving uncollaterized loans to vulnerable borrowers is risky yet that is what microfinance institutions do. In this dissertation, I …

Excessive Focus on Risk? Non-performing Loans and Efficiency of Microfinance Institutions

Motivations for Business Start-up: Are There any Differences Between Disabled and Non-disabled Microfinance Clients?

Should Microfinance Institutions diversify or focus? A global analysis

Abstract This paper investigates the effects of revenue diversification on the financial performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs). The long-standing question about whether financial institutions should diversify or focus is a topic of ongoing debate. Using a global sample of MFIs, we investigate which view is appropriate for microfinance institutions. The results show that, diversification across revenue streams improves sustainability and profitability of MFIs. This suggests that revenue diversification is an important strategy for the sustainability of microfinance.

Geographic diversification and credit risk in microfinance

Abstract This paper examines the relation between geographic diversification and credit risk in microfinance. The empirical findings from the banking industry are mixed and inconclusive. This study extends the discussion into a new international setting: the global microfinance industry with lenders having both social and financial objectives. Using a large global sample of microfinance institutions (MFIs), we find that geographic diversification comes with more credit risks. However, this finding is more pronounced among non-shareholder MFIs like NGOs and cooperatives, compared to shareholder-owned MFIs. Moreover, the results show that MFIs can mitigate the effect of geographic diversifica…

Motivations for Business Start-up: Are There any Differences Between Disabled and Non-disabled Microfinance Clients?

We use an Ecuadorian sample to investigate if there are differences in motivations for business start-up between persons with and without disabilities. Generally, we do not document significant differences. The reason might be that we use a sample selected among customers of the microfinance bank Banco D-MIRO. Without targeted incentives, disabled microfinance customers must resemble non-disabled customers. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

How the Learning Environment Influences Bullying: The Case of Two Universities in Ghana

In response to a growing concern about bullying and victimisation at universities, this study examined students’ perceptions of the university learning environment (LE) concerning their experience of various negative behaviours and victimisation at the University of Ghana (Legon Campus) and the University of Cape Coast in Ghana. The study was a cross-sectional survey of 751 respondents. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis indicated how students’ perceptions of the universities’ LE related to students’ bullying experiences. The results revealed an inverse relationship between students’ perceptions of the LE and their experiences of negative behaviours and victimisation…

Does It Pay to be Green? A Study of the Global Microfinance Industry

This article examines whether it pays to be green in the microfinance industry. Environmental issues are important for all businesses around the world, and thus many microfinance institutions (MFIs) started embracing them as an additional objective alongside their traditional social and financial objectives. This article is among the first to test the relationships between environmental performance and both the financial and social performance of MFIs. Using a sample of 234 rated MFIs in 58 countries, we find that being green is associated with higher social and financial performance. Specifically, MFIs with environmental policies have higher financial performance (i.e., higher returns on …

Motivations for business start-up: are there any differences between disabled and non-disabled people?

Masteroppgave i økonomi og administrasjon – Universitetet i Agder 2014 This master‟s thesis seeks to investigate whether motivations for business start-up between persons with and without disabilities differ. The motivation for this study is that, disabled entrepreneurs may have unique reasons which need the attention of all stakeholders who advocate for equal human rights. The study uses a unique sample of 273 from Ecuadorian micro-bank. The findings indicate that persons without disabilities are more materialistic than persons with disabilities. Materialism relates to opportunity-driven entrepreneurship where individuals start business as a result of available market opportunities. The re…