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Commercial Microfinance and Social Responsibility: A Critique

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  • Nair, Tara

Abstract

Working within the logic of maximising investor returns, the strategic focus of Indian microfinance institutions seems to have shifted from serving the poor borrowers to chasing profits. The commercial transformation of MFIs has been accompanied by changes in the structure of ownership, management and nature of their stakeholder commitment. This essay discusses some of the critical inadequacies in the approaches advocated and currently practised by the commercial MFIs in order to restore the sector’s focus on poor borrowers.

Suggested Citation

  • Nair, Tara, 2010. "Commercial Microfinance and Social Responsibility: A Critique," MPRA Paper 24412, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:24412
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    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/24412/1/MPRA_paper_24412.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. Narayan, 2009. "India," Chapters, in: Peter Draper & Philip Alves & Razeen Sally (ed.), The Political Economy of Trade Reform in Emerging Markets, chapter 7, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Scott L. Thomas, 2000. "Ties That Bind," The Journal of Higher Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 71(5), pages 591-615, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Saxena, Vibhor & Bindal, Ishaan & LeMay-Boucher, Philippe, 2020. "Social groups and credit shocks: Evidence of inequalities in consumption smoothing," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 311-326.
    2. Nitin Navin & Pankaj Sinha, 2019. "Market Structure and Competition in the Indian Microfinance Sector," Vikalpa: The Journal for Decision Makers, , vol. 44(4), pages 167-181, December.
    3. Isabelle Guérin & Vincent Guermond & Nithya Joseph & Nithya Natarajan & Govindan Venkatasubramanian, 2021. "COVID‐19 and the Unequalizing Infrastructures of Financial Inclusion in Tamil Nadu," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(4), pages 927-951, July.
    4. Dawood Ashraf & Muhammad Suhail Rizwan & Barbara L’Huillier, 2022. "Environmental, social, and governance integration: the case of microfinance institutions," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 837-891, March.
    5. Sumit Mitra & Pradeep Kumar Hota, 2019. "Organizational Stigma and Resource Mobilization Challenges in a Social Enterprise: Arguing for a Grounded Research," Working papers 339, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    commercial microfinance; social responsibility; India;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages

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