The challenges of supporting necessity entrepreneurs: Understanding loan officer exit in microfinance

Necessity entrepreneurship can serve as a pathway out of poverty for low-income individuals, with microfinance often providing important financial support. Yet the relational lending strategies common among microfinance institutions may influence loan officer turnover and, in turn, compromise entrepreneurs' access to credit. While there is some reason to suspect that relational lending with poor entrepreneurs will increase retention, we propose that serving the poor may make loan officers more likely to quit: loan officers in commercial microfinance institutions are unlikely to have strong commitments to poverty alleviation and may be taxed by the challenging fieldwork associated with lending in poor areas. Qualitative and quantitative data from a microfinance bank in Latin America support our expectations, showing that exit becomes more likely when loan officers' work involves more poor clients and that the effect is strongest when such work demands intensive fieldwork in low-income areas. Supplementary analyses of trends across the global microfinance industry demonstrate that poor clients have a stronger impact on exit in for-profits than non-profits, suggesting that prosocial motives among non-profit employees may have a buffering effect. Overall, our study reveals how providing services to necessity entrepreneurs can have negative, unexpected consequences for frontline employees.     

Globalization and affordability of microfinance

We study how globalization can differentially affect financial inclusion through the lens of microfinance. Based on an institutional logics perspective, we argue that MFIs embody both social logic and market logic with regard to provision of affordable microfinance loans. Speicially, social logic is amplified by greater social globalization and the stronger presence of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) in the microfinance industry. In contrast, economic globalization catalyzes MFIs' market logic, leading to weaker or greater affordability of microfinance, depending on the relative strength of the profit-maximizing motive and real competition. We test these predictions by focusing on MFI interest-rate setting and using longitudinal data from 2030 MFI observations across 50 countries from 2002 to 2012. We find that country-level social globalization measure is negatively associated with the average MFI loan interest rates and that country-level economic globalization measure has an inverse U-shaped relationship with the average MFI loan interest rates. These results support our hypotheses and suggest a more nuanced view on how globalization affects affordability of microfinance.     

When institutional change outruns the change agent: The contested terrain of entrepreneurial microfinance for those in poverty

We argue that institutional change moves through stages punctuated by recurring attempts to formally redefine the boundaries and logics of organizational fields that institutional entrepreneurs initially establish. With a grounded theory model, we demonstrate that institutional change in microfinance started with dominant development logic, shifted to market logic, and got stuck in a conflict over regulatory logic. We show how the role of the entrepreneur can change markedly over time while the institutional change process continues unabated. We present institutional entrepreneurship as an evolving phenomenon and suggest that the interplay between institutional entrepreneurs and established organizational fields is highly nuanced.     

吉林省农村小额信贷发展建议

小额信贷作为一种新型金融制度和扶贫机制,在我国发展了近二十年,对缓解农村金融供求紧张状况,提高农民收入,促进农村经济发展起到了重要的作用。尽管取得了一定成就,但小额信贷还存在诸多制约其可持续发展的因素。分析吉林省农村小额信贷的具体情况,剖析制约其发展的障碍,可以促进小额信贷发展。     

Gender discrimination and lending to women: The moderating effect of an international founder

Much of the microfinance rhetoric revolves around fighting female poverty, which is often the result of discriminatory gender norms. Also, the microfinance industry has always been influenced by foreign actors, who, according to the literature, promote women’s empowerment. Yet, little is known about how microfinance institutions’ (MFIs) outreach to women is affected by the interplay between societal norms and the actions of these foreign actors. In response, this study draws on two streams of institutional theory, institutional logics perspective and institutional work theory, to investigate the influence of gender discrimination on microfinance outreach to women and to test the moderating effect of an international founder. Using data on 213 MFIs from 65 countries, the results show that gender discrimination negatively impacts microfinance outreach to women, but that the negative effect is mitigated by having an international founder. These findings are discussed, and several avenues are opened for future research.     

Navigating contradictory logics in the field of luxury retailing

When designing luxury retail experiences, luxury managers are often encouraged to focus on a single logic: the logic of distinction. Evidence suggests, however, that multiple logics influence the field of luxury retailing. In this paper, we explore the implications of such multiplicity, focusing particularly on logics coming into tension with one another. Our research questions are: 1) What are the logics that come into conflict in luxury retail settings and 2) How can luxury retail managers navigate conflicts between logics to facilitate positive customer experiences in luxury retail settings? Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in the luxury field, we find conflicts mainly between three logics: distinction, pragmatism, and hedonism. We show that each logic is underpinned by different values, different linguistic practices, and different focal objects. We further find that conflicts between the logics tend to become acute during specific interactions during the customer journey. Our findings also suggest that since luxury boutiques are by and large designed to enforce the distinction logic, luxury retailers at times struggle to accommodate and navigate the conflicts that occur between these logics. We identify three interrelated sets of practices, collectively referred to as experiential hybridization, that effectively allow luxury retailers to address the challenge of logic complexity. Theoretically, our research helps illuminate institutional logics as a factor that informs customers’ experiences in contemporary retail fields such as luxury. Managerially, we suggest ways for luxury retailers to manage logic conflict and deliver superior customer experiences.     

Developing a microfinance model to break the cycle of poverty

Multigenerational poverty is common in developing countries. Illiteracy, poor health, and unemployment compound a person’s ability to break the cycle of poverty. In this article, we break down the process of designing, testing, and implementing a microfinance model to help end multigenerational poverty in an impoverished refugee village in Uganda. We describe key decisions in developing the model and assess its effectiveness as an instrument in achieving this service objective. We believe our grassroots primary research can benefit many NGOs that might be contemplating lending programs in developing nations, as well as other collegiate institutions interested in implementing sustainable programs that allow students the opportunity to work on global issues in developing nations.     

Microfinance Performance and Social Capital: A Cross-Country Analysis

In recent years, the microfinance industry has received a substantial amount of cross-border funding from both public and private sources. This funding reflects the increasing interest in microfinance as part of a more general trend towards socially responsible investments. In order to be able to secure sustained interest from these investors, it is important that the microfinance industry can show evidence of its contribution to reducing poverty at the bottom of the pyramid. For this, it is crucial to understand under what conditions microfinance institutions (MFIs) are able to reduce poverty. This paper contributes to this discussion by investigating the relationship between the extent to which social capital formation is facilitated within different societies and the financial and social performance of MFIs. This focus on social capital formation is important, because in many cases MFIs use group loans with joint liability to incentivize asset-poor borrowers to substitute the lack of physical collateral by their social capital. Hence, the success of a large part of the loan relationship between MFIs and their borrowers depends on the social capital those borrowers can bring into the contract. We carry out a cross-country analysis on a dataset containing 100 countries and identify different social dimensions as proxies for how easy social capital can be developed in different countries. We hypothesize that microfinance is more successful, both in terms of their financial and social aims, in societies that are more conducive to the development of social capital. Our empirical results support our hypothesis.     

Toward a theory of transformative entrepreneuring: Poverty reduction and conflict resolution in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector

This study illustrates how entrepreneurship may catalyze prosperity as well as peace in entrenched poverty–conflict zones. We bring to life a conceptualization of transformative entrepreneuring by assessing interrelationships between poverty and conflict indicators from the perspective of rural dwellers in Rwanda's entrepreneurial coffee sector. Our findings suggest that individuals' perceptions of poverty alleviation and conflict reduction are sequentially linked, notably via increased quality of life. This enables us to advance theory on entrepreneuring by unpacking the mechanisms through which entrepreneurial processes may transform the lives of such ‘ordinary’ entrepreneurs in settings where economic and social value creation are desperately needed.     

Institutional logics and social enterprises: Entry mode choices of foreign hospitals in China

When social enterprises, being defined by their social mission and profitability, internationalize, they need to respond to institutional logics in the host country. By juxtaposing institutional logic and entry mode choice literature, this paper shows how social enterprises accommodate different institutional logics when they enter foreign markets. We collected data on Chinese healthcare reform, governmental policies and their changes, and conducted 36 in-depth interviews and three expert group meetings. By analyzing five non-Chinese hospitals entering China, we show how social enterprises, as hybrid organizations, respond to governmental, commercial, and social institutional logics, when entering a foreign market.     

扶贫的企业力量——来自中国上市公司扶贫效果的证据

随着扶贫攻坚进入新时期,以政府为主导的扶贫攻坚面临诸多约束与局限,亟须广泛动员社会力量,尤其是企业力量共同参与。为回答企业的扶贫参与是否有效,以及地区差异对其是否有影响,本文利用2010—2017年A股上市公司所发布的企业社会责任报告信息,对企业扶贫参与的效果进行了研究。研究发现:(1)西部地区的企业、与消费者直接接触的企业以及规模大、经营业绩好的企业更倾向于参与扶贫攻坚;(2)企业的扶贫参与有助于提高农村居民人均收入,且在欠发达地区,企业参与扶贫的效果更好。这表明以企业为代表的社会力量响应了国家精准扶贫的号召,履行了企业社会责任,确实有助于巩固脱贫成果,实现欠发达地区的脱贫。本文基于企业参与扶贫的视角,拓展了扶贫攻坚另一参与主体——社会力量的相关研究,同时也丰富了企业履行社会责任所带来的社会效益的相关文献。     

Benchmarking the financial performance,growth, and outreach of greenfield MFIs in Africa

We use regressions to benchmark African greenfield microfinance institutions (MFIs) relative to other African microfinance providers and find that greenfields grew faster, improved profitability to levels comparable to the top MFIs, and substantially increased their lending to women. Effects were strongest for greenfields that followed a consultant-led model to establish a deep retail banking presence spanning multiple countries, including the creation of extensive branch networks. Though their loan sizes are larger than most African MFIs, indicating less outreach to the poorest market segments, they have achieved rapid gains in financial inclusion on a broad scale for somewhat more affluent clients.     

Institutional framework and capital structure of microfinance institutions

This article addresses the question of whether institutional frameworks matter in the capital structure of microfinance institutions. We studied a sample of 292 MFIs between 2004 and 2009. Our findings suggest that creditor rights, a country's legal tradition, and the level of financial sector development are significantly related to MFIs' level of external finance. Furthermore, the positive relationship between banking sector development and borrowings enables us to conclude that the microfinance sector and the formal banking sector are complementary. In addition, a split sample technique is used in order to assess the external validity of the model. Findings from this cross-validation strengthen the results obtained from the whole sample and indicate that our model seems to predict well the effect of institutional variables on the capital structure of MFIs.     

Individual responses to competing institutional logics in emerging markets

In this paper, we study individual responses to competing institutional market and community logics. We argue that when individuals experience strong pressures both from market and community logics in hybrid contexts, they are unlikely to choose one logic over another. Instead, they combine both logics act as hybridizers. We identified three roles of local (Kazakhstani and Turkish) managers as hybridizers: bridging between competing logics, boundary spanning and cultural buffering.     

地方政府财政压力与企业精准扶贫投入

地方政府为如期完成精准扶贫任务,在财政压力较大的情况下,是否会将其压力转移到企业?基于2016-2018年上市公司手工收集的精准扶贫数据,本文考察了地方政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响。研究发现:(1)地方政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入具有“促进”作用,在政府财政压力较大的地区,企业精准扶贫投入越多,且在控制了地区农村贫困人口数后依然成立;(2)政府财政压力的影响作用在不同性质企业中存在明显差异,较于国有企业,政府财政压力对非国有企业的精准扶贫投入影响更大;(3)良好的市场化环境削弱了政府财政压力的影响作用,在市场化程度越高的地区,政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响越小;(4)进一步分组检验发现,政府财政压力对企业精准扶贫投入的影响作用主要体现在享受政府财政补贴、税收优惠或银行贷款较多的企业中。本研究的政策启示在于,地方政府需注意企业承担精准扶贫任务的“适当性”。     

Before Microfinance: The Social Value of Microsavings in Vincentian Poverty Reduction

The purpose of this article is to present and discuss the values and limits of microfinance within the context of poverty reduction, international development, and community empowerment. The main thesis is that microfinance requires a more complex strategy than simply the provision of credits. The development of financial capital depends on the increase in human capacity and social capital. Microfinance is revisited under the ethical lenses of global responsibility for alleviating poverty and developing community sustainability. Through a critical review of the literature and case studies from the Philippines, the author suggests a value-based Vincentian approach to integrate microfinance into community empowerment. In connection with the main thesis the author argues that the achievement of economic self-reliance through microfinance is contingent upon the development of capacity building, social capital, and empowerment at the individual, collective, and systemic levels.     

陕西实施精准扶贫战略个案研究——以岚皋县为例

在全面建设小康社会的背景下,从岚皋县个案展开对陕西省脱贫攻坚情况的研究。思路为:基于精准扶贫理论,从产业脱贫、易地搬迁脱贫、生态脱贫、教育脱贫、医疗脱贫、就业脱贫、旅游脱贫、兜底脱贫、金融扶贫等角度深入阐述和总结岚皋县脱贫经验,并建议加强岚皋富硒茶的品牌建设和保护生态环境。     

Rebuilding Trust: Ireland’s CSR Plan in the Light of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Caritas in Veritate</Emphasis>

This paper seeks to contribute to the discussion on national corporate social responsibility (CSR) plans from the perspectives of the three logics as articulated in Caritas in Veritate, by using the Irish national CSR plan as an example. Good for Business, Good for the Community: Ireland’s National Plan on Corporate Social Responsibility 2014–2016 maintains that CSR activities can enable organisations to build relationships and trust with communities. One of the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis was the decrease in trust in banking systems and in business more broadly. It is well recognised that relationships of trust are essential to the life of the market, the state and civil society. Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI’s Caritas in Veritate contends that corresponding to the life of the market, the state and civil society are three logics: the logic of exchange (i.e. giving to acquire), the logic of public obligation (i.e. giving through duty) and the logic of gift (i.e. giving due to solidarity). This paper proposes that the normative framework of the three logics of Caritas in Veritate can be read into the Irish national CSR plan. This paper argues that the examples of CSR initiatives proffered by the plan could point organisations in the direction of the logic of gift and therefore enable the rebuilding of relationships of trust with citizens and communities.     

Strategic motivations and choice in subsistence markets

This paper examines the different motivations behind strategic choice in base of the pyramid or subsistence markets. Two strategies are examined through comparative analysis: market extension and strategic intent. Using two commercial bank's micro-lending business strategies in Sri Lanka, a comparative case study suggests that strategic intent is motivated by building capabilities over time that results in successful poverty alleviation, whereas market expansion is motivated by an immediate desire to expand overall sales revenue. This conclusion may help reframe subsistence market or BoP arguments away from such false choices as appropriate size (e.g., multinational corporations versus small and medium size enterprises) toward more useful discussion on understanding why firms participate in subsistence markets and what is the motivation behind their strategic choice. By considering more than just size and scope and studying the motivations behind long-term solutions to poverty alleviation, firm success can be better understood and achieved.     

Predictive and effectual decision-making in high-tech international new ventures – A matter of sequential ambidexterity

This study investigates the international opportunity exploration and exploitation processes of high technology international new ventures (INVs) operating in the global medical devices sector. Drawing upon the effectuation and causation perspectives, we contribute to the micro-foundations of international entrepreneurship research in the early innovation development space by focusing on decision-making logics of techno-entrepreneurs of INVs. Specific focus is afforded to the phases of their exploration and exploitation of international opportunities leading to international new venture creation. In the pre-start-up and start-up stages of international new ventures, we find that sequential ambidexterity applies to how the subject firms manage the exploration and exploitation of opportunities in the delivery of their innovations to global markets.This research advances prior international entrepreneurship studies by focusing on the opportunity and innovation processes on the individual level. We identify different decision-making logics in the different phases and contrary to earlier findings in the international entrepreneurship (IE) area, we found causation logic to dominate the initial stages of exploration and effectuation logic, in the latter stages. Prior commercial experience presented itself as a key determining factor in the decision-making path chosen by international techno-entrepreneurs. Our study further extends the view of organizational ambidexterity by offering empirical insights into the relevance of sequential ambidexterity for understanding the processes of innovation exploration and exploitation in high-tech INVs and the decision-making logics driving these processes.