Leveraging informal lending mechanisms to facilitate technology transfer and microenterprise in developing countries

Kory Hansen, Jin Ju Kim, Stephen Suffian and Khanjan Mehta

Technology in Society, 2015, vol. 41, issue C, 65-75

Abstract: This article discusses how Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (ROSCAs or merry-go-rounds) can concurrently overcome four challenges faced by small enterprises in developing communities: access to financial capital, technology transfer, vertical and lateral knowledge transfer, and reliable market linkages. Based on primary data from Kenya, three models of partnership between ROSCAs and diverse external organizations are presented and compared against each other. These approaches are designed to help ROSCA groups engage in small enterprises, while creating business opportunities for agricultural technology manufacturers and the formal banking industry. The ultimate purpose of such collaborations is to improve rural livelihoods, strengthen food value chains, and foster food security.

Keywords: Social capital; Informal lending; Technology transfer; ROSCA; Micro enterprise (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160791X14000712
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:teinso:v:41:y:2015:i:c:p:65-75

DOI: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2014.12.001

Access Statistics for this article

Technology in Society is currently edited by Charla Griffy-Brown

More articles in Technology in Society from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().