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Journal ArticleDOI

On Ethical Violations in Microfinance Backed Small Businesses: Family and Household Welfare

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TLDR
In this article, the authors find that high dependency ratios in the family are correlated with such ethical violations, and also find that ethical violations have a significant economic cost, consistent with prior scholarship in family-business domain.
Abstract
The microfinance business model focuses largely on lending to the woman in the household, rather than the man. The belief is that women are more trustworthy borrowers than men, and that lending to women may have increased social impact. Yet in several cases, women do not have control over the loan backed business despite being the borrower of record. Such takeover of the business by the man constitutes an ethical violation. We find that high dependency ratios in the family are correlates of such ethical violations. Further, we also find that ethical violations have a significant economic cost, consistent with prior scholarship in the family-business domain. While access to microfinance increases household welfare, this beneficial impact reduces by over 50% in the presence of an ethical violation. Our results suggest that microfinance lenders need to move beyond the traditional role of just being a lender to providing advice on issues like family planning, and money management, and enforcement, thus moving closer to the solidarity economy paradigm of integrating savings and credit into broader canvases of social relationships and social structures.

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Citations
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Micro-credit initiatives for equitable and sustainable development : who pays?; a case study of the Grameen Bank Program in rural Bangladesh

A. Rahman
TL;DR: In this paper, anthropological research on the micro-credit program of the Grameen Bank shows that bank workers are expected to increase disbursement of loans among their members and press for high recovery rates to earn profit necessary for economic viability of the institution.

Integrating agency and resource dependence theory : firm profitability, industry regulation, and board task performance

TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated whether organizational profitability and environmental factors (industry regulation) affect board task performance and found that past firm performance is negatively associated with board monitoring and advice tasks.
Posted Content

The empirics of microfinance: what do we know?

TL;DR: In this paper, a large-scale systematic analysis of the trade-off between financial performance and outreach of micro-finance institutions is presented, where three empirical contributions provide new insights with respect to why and how joint liability group lending works.

Before microfinance: The social value of microsavings in Vincentian poverty reduction

TL;DR: In this paper, a critical review of the literature and case studies from the Philippines, the author suggests a value-based Vincentian approach to integrate micro-finance into community empowerment and 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.
Posted Content

Considering the Concept of Entrepreneurial Resources in Ethnic Business: Motivation as a Biographical Resource?

TL;DR: In this article, the concept of motivation as an important resource for entrepreneurship is developed using theories of Anthony Giddens and Talcott Parsons and examining the biographical narratives of self-employed migrants.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

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

TL;DR: In this article, a critical review of the literature and case studies from the Philippines, the author suggests a value-based Vincentian approach to integrate micro-finance into community empowerment and 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.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Study of Codes of Ethics for Mexican Microfinance Institutions

TL;DR: In this paper, a comparative case study of the codes of a Mexican microfinance network and seven micro-finance institutions is presented, where the authors analyze the content of MFIs' codes compared to those of traditional organizations.
Journal ArticleDOI

Conflict and Confluence: The Multidimensionality of Opportunism in Principal–Agent Relationships

TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a more comprehensive framework explaining a potential three-directional problem, that is, agents behave opportunistically against the interests of principals, principals behave opportunistic against agents' interests, and relationships between agents and principals representing confluence of interests affect third-party stakeholders.
Journal ArticleDOI

Erratum to: Globalizing Business Ethics Research and the Ethical Need to Include the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid Countries: Redefining the Global Triad as Business Systems and Institutions

TL;DR: The bottom-of-the-pyramid countries are considered developing countries with per capita income of less than U$1,000 as discussed by the authors, and a majority of the countries in the world are still considered developing.
Trending Questions (1)
What are the legal implications of unethical loan recovery practices for both lenders and borrowers? A case of microfinances?

The provided paper does not discuss the legal implications of unethical loan recovery practices for both lenders and borrowers in the case of microfinances.