Microfinance - Publications - Faculty & Research

Professor Ashraf's research applies insights from psychology, sociology, and economics to understand and affect behavior in development. Her current research interests fall into three broad categories: technology adoption, motivation and incentive design, and... View Details

Keywords: Health; Microfinance; Agriculture; Women's Empowerment

Research Summary

Overview

Chu's research is focused on business and low income sectors, particularly in the use of commercial platforms to deliver what has traditionally been considered public responsibilities. In the last three decades, business models have emerged to meet the underserved... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Microfinance; Base Of The Pyramid; Role Of Profit And Social Impact; Private Sector Development; Emerging Markets; Business Ventures; Health Care and Treatment; Management; Social Enterprise; Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Banking Industry; Health Industry; Latin America; North and Central America; Asia; Africa

December 20, 2007
Article

Profit And Poverty: Why It Matters

By: Michael Chu

Commentary on investing in microfinance View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Profit; Poverty; Financial Services Industry

Citation

Teaching Interest

Overview

Chu's teaching focuses on businesses providing goods and services to the emerging middle class and low-income sectors that constitute the market below the well-served top of the socio-economic pyramid. In developed countries such as the USA, this may be 40-50% of the... View Details

Keywords: Business At The Base Of The Pyramid; Emerging Markets; Low-income; Social Impact; Microfinance; Inclusive Finance; Impact Investing

2005
Chapter

Microfinance: The Next Ten Years

By: Michael Chu

A review of the history of commercial microfinance and a view on the key developments in the next decade. View Details

Keywords: History; Microfinance; Financial Services Industry

Citation

13 Mar 2023
Research & Ideas

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

In the 50 years since modern microfinance was introduced as a tool to fight poverty, institutions have distributed hundreds of millions of loans to people in developing countries. Such loans are repaid at rates often as high as 98... View Details

Keywords: by Jen McFarland Flint; Financial Services

19 May 2003
Lessons from the Classroom

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

Harvard Business School MBA '03 students Raj De Datta, Arvind Krishnamurthy, and Meghna Modi recently won the Social Enterprise track of the annual HBS Business Plan contest with their plan for brokering microfinance loans to families in... View Details

Keywords: by Carla Tishler; Financial Services

Teaching Interest

Executive Education

By: Shawn A. Cole

Shawn Cole regularly teaches executive education. He has taught in the ACCION microfinance in the HBS-ACCION Microfinance Program on Strategic Leadership, View Details

Article

In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First

By: Srikant M. Datar, Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas

In the debate over whether microfinance works, few microfinance institutions articulate what, exactly, their ultimate goals are and how, exactly, they will achieve them. The authors cut through the confusion by mapping a clear theory of change for microfinance. If the... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Customer Focus and Relationships; Social Entrepreneurship; Microfinance; Goals and Objectives; Success; Social Enterprise; Poverty

Citation

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October 2014 (Revised December 2014)
Case

Gentera: Beyond Microcredit

By: Rajiv Lal and Lisa Mazzanti

Gentera, whose largest subsidiary is Compartamos Banco, has been a fantastically successful endeavor since it started in the 1990s. But in 2014, Gentera faces challenges in expanding beyond group-lending and micro-credit into microfinance and beyond in order to fulfill... View Details

Keywords: Financial Inclusion; Compartamos; Gentera; Micro-lending; Microfinance; Insurance; Banking Industry; Insurance Industry; Mexico City

Citation

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September 2011 (Revised December 2011)
Case

CARD Group: Mutually Reinforcing Institutions

By: Cynthia A. Montgomery, Michael Shih-Ta Chen and Dawn Lau

CARD (Center for Agricultural and Rural Development) is a Philippines-based microfinance organization that began as an NGO and has since expanded into eight related entities providing services to the poor. Under Founding Director Dr. Aristotle Alip's leadership, CARD... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Partners and Partnerships; Non-Governmental Organizations; Business Strategy; Competitive Strategy; Financial Services Industry; Philippines

Citation

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Article

Management Accounting and Control: Lessons for and from the World's Tiniest Businesses

By: Srikant M. Datar, Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas

The article discusses skills microentrepreneurs need to manage and expand their businesses. After interviewing hundreds of microfinance clients around the globe, the authors were able to identify five tools drawn from management accounting where improved knowledge... View Details

Keywords: Governance Controls; Expansion; Business or Company Management; Microfinance; Cost Management; Risk Management; Budgets and Budgeting; Accounting; Opportunities

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Article

Las Microfinanzas: Creación simultánea de impacto social y valor comercial

By: Michael Chu

Microfinance is the best known and most successful expression of inclusive business. When the disbursement of financial services in small sizes to enterprising people in the informal sectors of the economy is capable of yielding superior commercial returns, it enables... View Details

Keywords: Microfinance; Economy; Investment Return; Service Operations; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Poverty

Citation

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April 2011 (Revised March 2021)
Case

BANEX and the No Pago Movement (A)

By: Shawn Cole and Baily Blair Kempner

This case examines Grassroots Capital's decision of whether or not to continue investing in a Bolivian microfinance bank that is suffering financial distress. View Details

Keywords: Base Of The Pyramid; Political Risk; Microfinance; Insolvency and Bankruptcy; Government and Politics; Investment; Risk Management; Financial Services Industry; Bolivia

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28 Jun 2004
Research & Ideas

Microfinance: A Way Out for the Poor

It's a pittance in the West. A loan of only $500 to $1,200, however, can make all the difference for a man or woman eking out a living in the developing world. Just that much—the typical range of microfinance loans, according to Michael... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

Publications

Publications

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La Ceiba: Navigating Microfinance and Relationships in Honduras (A) and (B)

Organization Building Amid Multiple Institutional Logics: The Case of Commercial Microfinance Organizations

Who Killed Bhavani Manjula? A Story of Microfinance in Andhra Pradesh (A)

Do Group Dynamics Influence Social Capital Gains Among Microfinance Clients? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Urban India

Doing Bad by Doing Good? Theft and Abuse by Lenders in Inadequately Regulated Microfinance Markets

Overview

Overview

Profit And Poverty: Why It Matters

Overview

Microfinance: The Next Ten Years

What Would It Take to Unlock Microfinance's Full Potential?

Business Plan Winner Targets India Dropouts

Executive Education

In Microfinance, Clients Must Come First

Gentera: Beyond Microcredit

CARD Group: Mutually Reinforcing Institutions

Management Accounting and Control: Lessons for and from the World's Tiniest Businesses

Las Microfinanzas: Creación simultánea de impacto social y valor comercial

BANEX and the No Pago Movement (A)

Microfinance: A Way Out for the Poor

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