Publications

2015
Working Paper

Service Quality, Inventory and Competition: An Empirical Analysis of Mobile Money Agents in Africa

By: Karthik Balasubramanian and David F. Drake

The use of electronic money transfer through cellular networks ("mobile money") is rapidly increasing in the developing world. The resulting electronic currency ecosystem could improve the lives of the estimated 2 billion people who live on less than $2 a day by... View Details

Keywords: Operations Strategy; Base Of The Pyramid; Mobile Money; Inventory Management; Competition; Currency; Service Operations; Mobile and Wireless Technology

2021
Working Paper

Friends and Family Money: P2P Transfers and Financially Fragile Consumers

By: Tetyana Balyuk and Emily Williams

We assess the impact that real time money transfer technology has on consumer outcomes, particularly during periods of financial fragility. We do this by developing a new data set that documents use of Zelle—the most widely used P2P money transfer technology in the... View Details

Keywords: P2P Money Transfers; Real Time Payments; Fintech; Finance; Information Technology; Personal Finance; Financial Condition

March 2016
Case

M-Pesa: Financial Inclusion in Kenya

By: Rajiv Lal, Lisa Cox and Sarah McAra

M-Pesa, a mobile money transfer service launched in 2007 in Kenya by telecommunications company Safaricom, allowed people to send money via mobile messaging to contacts, such as friends and family, or even to pay for goods and services, such as groceries or a taxi... View Details

Keywords: Mobile Money Transfer; Market Transactions; Emerging Markets; Developing Countries and Economies; Mobile and Wireless Technology; Telecommunications Industry; Kenya

Educators

28 Sep 2015
Research & Ideas

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

business strategy 101 for most entrepreneurs, so why have so many mobile money service offerings failed? It’s a question being studied by Rajiv Lal, the Stanley Roth, Sr. Professor of Retailing at Harvard... View Details

Keywords: by Dina Gerdeman; Financial Services; Telecommunications

2015
Working Paper

Mobile Money Services—Design and Development for Financial Inclusion

By: Rajiv Lal and Ishan Sachdev

Mobile money services are being deployed rapidly across emerging markets as a key tool to further the goal of financial inclusion. Financial inclusion, the development of novel methods to enable individuals at the base of the pyramid to access formal financial services... View Details

Keywords: Social Marketing; Poverty; Emerging Markets; Product Launch; Economic Growth; Financial Services Industry

24 Apr 2014
News

Unlocking mobile money in emerging markets

Monique Maddy (MBA 1993) is focusing her entrepreneurial energies on connecting the world's poor to global commerce through their cell phones. In 2007 she launched Ezuza, a Mexico City–based mobile money... View Details

2017
Working Paper

Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World

By: Karthik Balasubramanian, David F. Drake and Douglas Fearing

Mobile money systems, platforms built and managed by mobile network operators to allow money to be stored as digital currency, have burgeoned in the developing world as a mechanism to transfer money electronically. Mobile money agents exchange cash for electronic value... View Details

Keywords: Currency; Mobile Technology; Market Platforms; Developing Countries and Economies

28 Sep 2015
News

Six Lessons from Mobile Money Ventures in Developing Countries

26 Jun 2017
Working Paper Summaries

Inventory Management for Mobile Money Agents in the Developing World

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian, David F. Drake, and Douglas Fearing; Financial Services; Banking

15 May 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money Services-Design and Development for Financial Inclusion

Keywords: by Rajiv Lal & Ishan Sachdev; Banking

2018
Working Paper

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

By: Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake and Karthik Balasubramanian

When workers make operational decisions, the firm's global knowledge and the workers’ domain-specific knowledge complement each other. Oftentimes workers have the final decision-making power. Two key decisions a firm makes when designing systems to support these... View Details

Keywords: Employees; Decision Making; Training; Performance Improvement; Money; Mobile Technology; Developing Countries and Economies; Financial Services Industry

20 Jun 2018
Working Paper Summaries

Show or Tell? Improving Agent Decision Making in a Tanzanian Mobile Money Field Experiment

Keywords: by Jason Acimovic, Chris Parker, David F. Drake, and Karthik Balasubramanian; Banking; Financial Services

01 Dec 2015
News

Research Brief: What Makes a Mobile Money Service Thrive in an Emerging Market?

for individuals to save money safely, transfer funds inexpensively, and lift themselves out of poverty. So what is it that can make a much-needed service flourish? After studying 10 View Details

Keywords: Erin Peterson

Article

Reputation When Threats and Transfers Are Available

By: Ernesto Dal Bo, Pedro Dal Bo and Rafael Di Tella

We present a model where a long-run player is allowed to use both money transfers and threats to influence the decisions of a sequence of short-run players. We show that threats might be used credibly (even in arbitrarily short repeated games) by a long-lived player... View Details

Keywords: Crime and Corruption; Decision Choices and Conditions; Game Theory; Mathematical Methods; Interests; Power and Influence; Reputation

Find at Harvard

02 Feb 2015
Working Paper Summaries

Mobile Money: The Effect of Service Quality and Competition on Demand

Keywords: by Karthik Balasubramanian & David F. Drake; Banking

June 2005
Article

Compensatory Transfers in Two-Player Decision Problems

By: Jerry R. Green

This paper presents an axiomatic characterization of a family of solutions to two-player quasi-linear social choice problems. In these problems the players select a single action from a set available to them. They may also transfer money between... View Details

Keywords: Bargaining; Cost Allocation; Decision Making

Find at Harvard

2014
Teaching Note

Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run By Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD. (TN)

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li

Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details

Keywords: Internet; China; Mobile Devices; Finance; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; China

Purchase

2014
Case

Zenglibao: An Internet Money Market Fund Run by Tianhong Asset Management Co., LTD.

By: F. Warren McFarlan, Yongjun Jin and Xiaohui Li

Mobile Internet has imposed an increasing impact on traditional finance. Firstly, some financial business modules can be operated via mobile Internet, and the corresponding transaction cost is greatly reduced. For example, payment by traditional bank draft is replaced... View Details

Keywords: Finance; Internet; China; Mobile Devices; Internet and the Web; Mobile and Wireless Technology; China

Purchase

March 2025
Case

GiveDirectly: Can Direct Cash Transfers End Extreme Poverty?

By: Natalia Rigol, Benjamin N. Roth, Sarah Mehta and John Schultz

Founded in 2008, GiveDirectly was a nonprofit organization that used direct cash transfers—giving people cash via mobile money—to combat poverty worldwide. By August 2024, the organization had transferred over $800 million to poor people in targeted communities and... View Details

Keywords: Economics; Ethics; Growth and Development; Philanthropy and Charitable Giving; Research; Nonprofit Organizations; Poverty; Africa; Asia; Latin America; North and Central America; United States