 Microfinance ecosystem: How connectors, interactors, and institutionalizers co-create valueKelly Armstrong, Mujtaba Ahsan and Chamu Sundaramurthy Business Horizons, 2018, vol. 61, issue 1, 147-155 Abstract: Since the mid-1990s, the number of microfinance institutions (MFIs) has grown tremendously, with more than 10,000 worldwide varying in size and approach. Despite this growth, however, the value of MFIs has been hotly debated. Managers and founders of MFIs have also faced the challenge of balancing social and financial objectives and understanding effective ways of evaluating their organization’s effectiveness. In this article, we closely examine the operations of three distinct types of MFIs and offer a framework of how they collectively create value, with each playing a unique role in a symbiotic relationship: Namaste, an interactor; Kiva, a connector; and Accion, an institutionalizer. Interactors build relationships with clients and facilitate the flow of information to connectors and institutionalizers that disseminate this data to capital markets, build confidence, and fuel capital flow into the MF industry. Institutionalizers disseminate innovation and best practices. Thus, it is critical that each MFI recognizes its symbiotic role and evaluates itself accordingly instead of spreading itself across roles. Keywords: Microfinance; Financial ecosystem; Bottom of the pyramid; Microfinance organizations (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:bushor:v:61:y:2018:i:1:p:147-155 DOI: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.09.014 Access Statistics for this article Business Horizons is currently edited by C. M. Dalton More articles in Business Horizons from Elsevier |
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