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Full-Text Articles in Business
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Front Matter, Journal Of Microfinance
Journal of Microfinance / ESR Review
No abstract provided.
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.
A Marketing Research Study For Snowbird / Prepared By Wasatch Marketing Research, Robert Dean, Chelsea Green, Todd Hillstead, Sharah Smith
A Marketing Research Study For Snowbird / Prepared By Wasatch Marketing Research, Robert Dean, Chelsea Green, Todd Hillstead, Sharah Smith
Student Works
Snowbird resort offers year-round activities catering to the winter and summer recreationalists. As part of its service, Snowbird has 12 restaurants that provide a variety of food and atmospheres that resort patrons can choose from. Snowbird seeks to increase its revenues by finding ways to attract more guests to any of its 12 restaurants. Snowbird and WMR identified three target groups from which data could be collected. These three groups were the following: condominium owners/timeshare guests, rental guests, and skier/rider. Both parties set research objectives and then questionnaires were created to obtain the desired data from the three target groups. …
A Marketing Research Study For Wilson Diamonds, Robin Day, Kristen Jones, Xiaoyu Liu, Brandon Smith
A Marketing Research Study For Wilson Diamonds, Robin Day, Kristen Jones, Xiaoyu Liu, Brandon Smith
Student Works
Utah Valley has a very high concentration of university students. University students in Utah Valley also have the reputation of getting married quickly after starting their university careers. Because of the high number of engagements that take place in Utah Valley there are a large number of jewelry stores located around the valley trying to serve university student preferences and needs. This study will allow Wilson Diamonds to better understand student needs and implement solutions to better serve university students. The Tabor Group comprised of Robin Day, Kristen Jones, Xiaoyu Liu, Brandon Smith, Jeniffer Tabor.