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Full-Text Articles in Business
Banking On Customer Loyalty, Craig Churchill
Banking On Customer Loyalty, Craig Churchill
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Enhancing customer loyalty is a microfinance institution's most important business strategy. Every critical element involved in managing microfinance operations--from product pricing to staff incentives, from marketing to eligibility requirements, from client screening to the menu of available services--can (and should) be formulated to promote loyalty. While most MFIs recognize the importance of client retention, few have designed business strategies to maximize customer loyalty. Hopefully that will change. This article details the economic impact that customer loyalty has on a microfinance institution (and the negative effect of desertion).
Replication: Regressive Reproduction Or Progressive Evolution?, Graham Wright
Replication: Regressive Reproduction Or Progressive Evolution?, Graham Wright
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Increasing numbers of organizations are "replicating" the programs of successful microfinance institutions (MFIs). This approach allows rapid start-up using tested models and systems. These strengths are also weaknesses, though, since the models being replicated usually require substantial modifications to make them appropriate for local conditions. Furthermore, close adherence to "blueprints" is likely to substitute for careful research into the needs and opportunities for the provision of financial services to the poor--and thus the design of appropriate systems. Replication also risks the suppression of innovative ways of providing still better financial services--particularly when promoted by powerful apex funding organizations, as is …
Credit Scoring For Microfinance: Can It Work?, Mark Schreiner
Credit Scoring For Microfinance: Can It Work?, Mark Schreiner
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
In rich countries, lenders often rely on credit scoring--formulae to predict risk based on the performance of past loans with characteristics similar to current loans--to inform decisions. Can credit scoring do the same for microfinance lenders in poor countries? This paper argues that scoring does have a place in microfinance. Although scoring is less powerful in poor countries than in rich countries, and although scoring will not replace the personal knowledge of character of loan officers or of loan groups, scoring can improve estimates of risk. Thus, scoring complements--but does not replace--current microfinance technologies. Furthermore, the derivation of the scoring …
Microfinance In The United States: The Working Capital Experience— Ten Years Of Lending And Learning, Jeffrey Ashe
Microfinance In The United States: The Working Capital Experience— Ten Years Of Lending And Learning, Jeffrey Ashe
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Working Capital is the United States' largest peer-group lending program. This article reviews what Working Capital has learned about the market, its customers, program impact, and service delivery over its ten year history. It presents a model for understanding how participating in peer lending groups develops “social and economic capital” in poor communities. The article then discusses how participants judge the group model as they identify the characteristics of successful groups and the impact of the group on their businesses, on themselves personally, and on the larger community. The rest of the article discusses how Working Capital evolved from a …
Book Review- Microfinance And Poverty: Questioning The Conventional Wisdom By Hege Gulli, Lisa M. Jones
Book Review- Microfinance And Poverty: Questioning The Conventional Wisdom By Hege Gulli, Lisa M. Jones
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Moving Microenterprises Beyond A Subsistence Plateau, Beth C. Haynes, Kristie K. Seawright, William C. Giauque
Moving Microenterprises Beyond A Subsistence Plateau, Beth C. Haynes, Kristie K. Seawright, William C. Giauque
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Enthusiasm for microcredit programs has increased during the past decade. The attention these programs have drawn stems philosophically from progress in cultivating self-sufficiency among those in abject poverty, and practically from the viability and high loan repayment rates of many microfinance institutions. The programs assume that lack of capital is the main barrier to the economic progress of the poor. The lack of entrepreneur business management experience and training, however, may create a barrier equally powerful and limit the growth potential of microenterprises. Microcredit programs could foster even greater economic progress by ensuring that clients receive appropriate human capital development. …
Impact Assessment Of Microfinance And Organizational Learning: Who Will Survive?, James G. Copestake
Impact Assessment Of Microfinance And Organizational Learning: Who Will Survive?, James G. Copestake
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
To what extent is it possible for organizations to reflect honestly on their own performance, draw appropriate conclusions, and then act on them? For many microfinance organizations this is now a question of survival. This paper argues that formal impact assessment can assist in the transition from donor-controlled replication projects to autonomous and adaptable organizations--but it often fails to do so. Pitfalls include inadequate attention to methodological detail and to the links between impact assessment and wider aspects of organizational change. The paper starts by highlighting the complexity of the overall task to which impact assessment is expected to contribute. …
Vol. 02 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Vol. 02 No. 2 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Capital Enhancement Guarantees And Risk Management By Capital-Constrained Lenders, J.D. Von-Pischke
Capital Enhancement Guarantees And Risk Management By Capital-Constrained Lenders, J.D. Von-Pischke
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Commercial lenders require capital to bear risk. The capital enhancement guarantee (CEG) encourages lenders to make loans they would not otherwise make, such as microenterprise loans. The CEG is auctioned and awarded to bidders who promise the greatest amount of new lending for a given increment of permanent capital. Whether the incremental lending causes losses or gains for the lender, the incremental capital is free. The CEG subsidizes innovation in risk management. It places the analytical focus on risk and its cost, supports the key party to the lending decision, promotes skill in managing risk, is transparent, minimizes moral hazard, …
In Search Of "Sound Practices" For Microfinance, Christopher Dunford
In Search Of "Sound Practices" For Microfinance, Christopher Dunford
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The notion of "best practices" for all microfinance is challenged in favor of "sound practices" that are appropriate for particular organizational strategies and situations. A simple conceptual framework is offered to facilitate understanding of the current diversity of experiments with product-market pairs (e.g., group-based lending to poor women struggling to earn enough for family survival). Since the microfinance movement is still in a mode of intensive learning, we should not presume too soon what will be "best" for all product-market pairs. We can expect to discover a somewhat different set of sound practices for each distinct product-market pair.
Bringing Development Back, Into Microfinance, Maria Otero
Bringing Development Back, Into Microfinance, Maria Otero
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Measuring Transformation: Assessing And Improving The Impact Of Microcredit, Susy Cheston, Larry Reed
Measuring Transformation: Assessing And Improving The Impact Of Microcredit, Susy Cheston, Larry Reed
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The question of impact assessment is one that continues to plague microcredit practitioners. Some contend that existing impact assessment studies are meaningless, while others maintain they are absolutely necessary. The authors of this paper advocate a renewed focus on the transformation of clients and their communities, as well as a new impact assessment model to support and document this focus. They outline the key principles for conducting impact audits that include measurement of transformation among clients. They also review a series of practitioner-oriented impact assessment tools and outline future challenges for practitioners, donors, and academics in improving performance through impact …
Microenterprise Development In The Heartland: Self-Employment As A Self-Sufficiency Strategy For Tanf Recipients In Iowa 1993-1998, Salome Raheim, Jason J. Friedman
Microenterprise Development In The Heartland: Self-Employment As A Self-Sufficiency Strategy For Tanf Recipients In Iowa 1993-1998, Salome Raheim, Jason J. Friedman
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
There has been a significant interest in the microenterprise movement regarding its effectiveness as a welfare-to-work strategy. A decade's worth of program results, demonstration projects, and research strongly suggest that the benefits of microenterprise development for welfare recipients outweigh the costs and risks. The state of Iowa has been a leader in promoting microenterprise development as a welfare-to-work strategy. Iowa was the first state in the US to incorporate microenterprise-development training as an eligible activity in its welfare-reform program. Since 1993, the Iowa Department of Human Services (IDHS) has contracted with the Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED), a …
The Impact Of Outcome-Based Assessment On Microenterprise Programs, Margaret A. Johnson, Umasundari Akella, Jule Lalande
The Impact Of Outcome-Based Assessment On Microenterprise Programs, Margaret A. Johnson, Umasundari Akella, Jule Lalande
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The changing environment in the nonprofit sector has subjected microenterprise programs to a new paradigm that emphasizes rationality principles. These principles ask practitioners to increase their outcomes while minimizing costs and to demonstrate that they are doing so with outcome-assessment measurements. This paper presents a case study of what happened to 11 microenterprise programs that adopted outcome assessment. Factors affecting the adoption of outcome assessment were changing norms in the nonprofit sector, demands from state legislators for information on program outcomes, and mandates from funders. A funding formula was implemented; program responses included going along, adopting practices to fit the …
Village Banking Dynamics Study: Evidence From Seven Programs, Judith Painter, Barbara Mknelly
Village Banking Dynamics Study: Evidence From Seven Programs, Judith Painter, Barbara Mknelly
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The primary question examined in this study is whether client loans grow or stagnate over time. Loan growth is important to financial sustainability and is also a proxy for positive impact. The relationship between loan growth and a variety of factors--program loan and savings policies, site selection, membership dynamics--are explored in the context of seven village bank programs. The study concludes that on average, loan size did not stagnant but increased steadily, although at a rate lower than the original village bank model projections. Only programs that allowed non-poverty level loans (loans above US$300) approached the original loan growth rate. …
Are Grameen Replications Sustainable, And Do They Reach The Poor?: The Case Of Card Rural Bank In The Philippines, Hans Dieter Seibel, Dolores Torres
Are Grameen Replications Sustainable, And Do They Reach The Poor?: The Case Of Card Rural Bank In The Philippines, Hans Dieter Seibel, Dolores Torres
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh is known worldwide for its success in providing credit to the poor. However, subsequent replications of its methodology in other parts of the world have been less successful. Is there really an infallible solution that works everywhere, and is outreach to the poor compatible with sustainability? A Grameen replicator in the Philippines, the Center for Agriculture and Rural Development (CARD), has recently set itself firmly on the path to sustainability by becoming a formal sector, rural bank—the first credit NGO in the country to do so. During the period, from 1993 to June 1999, CARD's …
Defying The Odds: Bunking For The Poor, By Eugene Versluysen, Eugene Versluysen
Defying The Odds: Bunking For The Poor, By Eugene Versluysen, Eugene Versluysen
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
The Microcredit Summit's Challenge: Working Toward Institutional Financial Self-Sufficiency While Maintaining A Commitment To Serving The Poorest Families, David S. Gibbons, Jennifer W. Meehan
The Microcredit Summit's Challenge: Working Toward Institutional Financial Self-Sufficiency While Maintaining A Commitment To Serving The Poorest Families, David S. Gibbons, Jennifer W. Meehan
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
Institutional financial self-sufficiency (IFS) is necessary for a microfinance institution (MFI) to obtain the large amount of funds required to reach and benefit truly large numbers of the poor and poorest households. There is no necessary trade-off between serving large numbers of the poorest households and the attainment of IFS by an MFI, as proven by the case studies in this paper. Cost-effective identification of the poor and the poorest women is essential to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of providing microfinance services to them. If the service is not exclusively for the poor and the poorest, it should be …
Announcements, Journal Of Microfinance
Announcements, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
Vol. 01 No. 1 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Vol. 01 No. 1 Journal Of Microfinance, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.