microfinance - Publications - Faculty & Research

27 Apr 2023
Cold Call Podcast

Equity Bank CEO James Mwangi: Transforming Lives with Access to Credit

Keywords: Re: Caroline M. Elkins; Banking; Financial Services

Research Summary

Overview

Engaged with field work in South Asia and East Africa, Professor Hussam places a focus on exploring questions with strong theoretical motivation in the economics literature as well as relevant downstream policy implications. Her research spans four broad interests.... View Details

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Globalization - Faculty & Research

demanding than what the minimalist nature of duties of forbearance initially would suggest. 2014 Working Paper Finance and Social Responsibility in the Informal Economy: Institutional Voids, Globalization and Microfinance Institutions By:... View Details

01 Jun 2002
News

Up to the Challenge: Ipsita Dasgupta - Global Perspective, Local Results

provide microfinance to entrepreneurs. “People in developing countries grasp technology very quickly, but the big battle is literacy,” she remarks. Creating Web sites that use images and numbers instead of text is one tactic for crossing... View Details

Keywords: Julia Hanna; development; leadership; social issues; management; technology; Finance; Management, Scientific, and Technical Consulting Services; Professional Services

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Winners & Runners-Up | New Venture Competition

partnering with microfinance and vocational training institutions. FoodSTOP Feyi Boroffice, HBS Opeyemi Boroffice Social Enterprise Track Runner-Up Efficient produce distribution system. Business Track, 2002 FishLogic Javier Segovia... View Details

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CSV in Practice - Institute For Strategy And Competitiveness

address lack of health-seeking behavior Packaging of OTC medicines to reflect consumers’ limited spending power A dense network of local distributors to reduce stock-outs Frequent health camps for physicians in rural areas Microfinance... View Details

Research Summary

Hybrid organizing

By: Julie Battilana

While historically the commercial and social sectors have evolved on fairly separate tracks, over the last 30 years we have witnessed a blurring of the boundaries between these two sectors. In an effort to account for this transition, Professor Battilana’s second... View Details

14 Mar 2024
Blog Post

IFC India: SELCO - Last Mile Solar Powered Energy for Rural India

to perform work they previously wouldn’t have been able to do (e.g., roti machine with space for a wheelchair). SELCO has also built partnerships with Indian banks and microfinance organizations to enable entrepreneurs and families to... View Details

24 Sep 2019
Blog Post

Launching a Career in Clean Energy

renewables and storage while at HBS? Getting involved with clubs is one of the best ways to meet people outside of your section and connect with people in any industry. I served as a leader for the Microfinance Club and was also involved... View Details

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Global Activities 2020

collaboration, which is leading to meaningful results for a microfinance organization in Santiago, Chile. Middle East & North Africa South Asia Understanding Entrepreneurial Opportunity in Kazakhstan Professor Victoria Ivashina introduced... View Details

16 May 2005
Research & Ideas

Nonprofit Networking: The New Way to Grow

furthering her own organization." Women's World Banking, based in New York, also utilizes a network strategy in its work. When president Nancy Barry (HBS MBA '75) started leading the organization in 1990, it served approximately 50,000 with View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

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

November 2022 (Revised October 2024)
Case

'A Marshall Plan for Africa': James Mwangi and Equity Group Holdings

By: Caroline M. Elkins, Debora L. Spar, Zeke Gillman and Julia M. Comeau

Financial Inclusion. Dignity. Trust. These were the core principles driving James Mwangi’s transformation of Equity Building Society, insolvent in 1991, into what is, today, Equity Group Holdings, East and Central Africa’s largest retail banking institution. Raised in... View Details

Keywords: Income Inequality; Micro Finance; Microcredit; Microfinance; Banks and Banking; Equality and Inequality; Mission and Purpose; Business Model; Social Entrepreneurship; Banking Industry; Financial Services Industry; Africa; Kenya

Citation

Educators

Purchase

30 Aug 2004
Research & Ideas

Real Estate: The Most Imperfect Asset

working with HBS professor Michael Chu on a microfinance case involving the largest concrete manufacturer in Mexico, CEMEX, and its self-construct housing program for families whose incomes average $3,780 per year. CEMEX has over 80,000... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Johnston; Construction; Real Estate

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

Ela Bhatt

Keywords: Microfinance

Muhammad Musa

Keywords: Development; Microfinance

01 Mar 2023
News

The Exchange: Micro Management

Image by John Ritter 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... View Details

Keywords: Jen McFarland Flint; Funds, Trusts, and Other Financial Vehicles; Finance

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