Publications

Purchase

13 Jun 2011
HBS Case

Mobile Banking for the Unbanked

meant paying a hefty percentage of his wages for bus fare, plus a day of lost work. Click to watch. Safaricom and Vodafone initially built M-PESA, a money-transfer application that resides on a phone's SIM card, as a tool for microfinance... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Banking; Communications; Telecommunications

03 May 2010
Research & Ideas

What Is the Future of MBA Education?

and management than I did since we began researching and writing this book. Datar: I am looking at how implementation and execution strategies vary across countries. I'm also continuing my research in microfinance. I am particularly interested in understanding how... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace; Education

1 Jul 2007
Conference Presentation

The Secret of Commercial Microfinance's Sustainability: Turning Social Workers into Bankers or Bankers into Social Workers? Neither

By: Julie Battilana and Silvia Dorado

Keywords: Microfinance

04 Apr 2007
Research & Ideas

The Business of Global Poverty

pyramid so it makes good business sense—not a sense of do-gooding—to go after it." Today, market forces, private-sector know-how, and grassroots initiatives such as microfinance are all being looked to as tools to alleviate poverty.... View Details

Keywords: by Garry Emmons

April 1994
Case

Working Capital: Micro-Enterprise Development Via Peer-Group Lending

By: Bruce R. Scott

Keywords: Microfinance; Working Capital

November 1997 (Revised February 1998)
Case

Finansol: Financiera para Microempresas (Spanish Version)

By: James E. Austin, Roberto Gutierrez, Marc Labie and Enrique Ogliastri

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Microfinance

June 2003 (Revised March 2006)
Case

ACCION International

By: John A. Quelch

ACCION International is a major nonprofit player in microfinance. Reviews the organization's history and evolution, details current activities and relationships within its network, and assesses the organization's challenges moving forward. View Details

Keywords: Networks; Nonprofit Organizations; Microfinance

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17 Oct 2011
Research & Ideas

How ‘Hybrid’ Nonprofits Can Stay on Mission

charitable donations like a typical nonprofit would. Commercial microfinance organizations often adopt a hybrid model, for example: they provide business loans to poor people who wouldn't traditionally qualify, but they still depend on... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

January 2001 (Revised September 2002)
Case

First Marblehead Corporation (A)

By: D. Quinn Mills and Matt Salloway

Daniel Meyers, chairman and CEO of First Marblehead Corp., provides financial engineering services to educational institutions. This case deals with the market for student loans. View Details

Keywords: Financing and Loans; Education; Markets; Microfinance; Management Teams; Financial Services Industry; Education Industry

11 May 2020
Working Paper Summaries

Targeting High Ability Entrepreneurs Using Community Information: Mechanism Design in the Field

Keywords: by Reshmaan Hussam, Natalia Rigol, and Benjamin N. Roth

March 1998 (Revised April 2001)
Case

Corposol (Abridged Version)

By: James E. Austin

The social enterprise Corposol has become the largest lender to microentrepreneurs in Colombia. Its rapid growth and diversification into other services and geographical areas has created organizational and resource strains. View Details

Keywords: Social Enterprise; Growth Management; Diversification; Microfinance; Financial Services Industry; Colombia

April 2005
Case

ACCION in Nigeria

By: Michael Chu and Barbara Zepp Larson

Keywords: Microfinance; Financial Services Industry; Nigeria

January 2018 (Revised February 2020)
Case

Financial Inclusion at Omidyar Network

By: Vikram S. Gandhi, Caitlin Lindsay Reimers Brumme and James Barnett

A team of investors at Omidyar Network explore two different investment possibilities in the budding financial inclusion space using their investment framework to consider capital alternatives available for both investments, each of which carries highly divergent... View Details

Keywords: Impact Investing; Micro Finance; Investment; Investment Return; Investment Activism; Investment Portfolio; Microfinance; Africa; Philippines

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February 2008 (Revised February 2009)
Case

The International Finance Corporation's Grassroots Business Initiative

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Katharine Lee

Grassroots Business Initiative was set up to financially assist small enterprises engaged in creating social value. Three years later, Harold Rosen, its creator, wished to explore an alternative funding model to provide it with scale and sustainability. View Details

Keywords: Social Entrepreneurship; Venture Capital; Microfinance; Investment Funds; Social Enterprise