scholarly journals The impact of innovation and technology on microfinance sustainable governance

2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 420-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberto Moro Visconti ◽  
Maria Cristina Quirici

Technical or social innovation, concerning also the creation and commercialization of new products, strategies and management, has a deep actual - and especially trendy - impact on microfinance institutions (MFIs), contributing to reshape their business model, with an impact on their overall risk profile. Innovation is mostly an opportunity even for MF risk mitigation, considering its pervasive impact on risk factors. This original analysis is addressing, in a multidisciplinary and innovative comprehensive way, apparently weakly related topics such as MF governance, and IT issues, within recessionary cycles. This hardly investigated frontier faces key trendy issues, which are likely to deeply reengineer the relationship among different stakeholders, as it has already happened, on a different and more sophisticated scale, with traditional banking. To the extent that technology (with access to Internet, social networks, cashless electronic payments, etc.) reshapes the equilibriums among different stakeholders, it is likely to have important – albeit under-investigated - corporate governance consequences, softening the conflicts of interest among stakeholders and reinforcing the business model, making it more resilient during recessions, with positive externalities on both sustainability and outreach.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 240
Author(s):  
Euis Amalia ◽  
Indra Rahmatullah

<p class="Abstract">Sharia microfinance and financial technology have a very significant role as an effective solution for accessing finance for small and micro-enterprises (MSEs). The research aims to investigate the business model used, type of contracts employed, other legal aspects, and the risk mitigation dimension involved. By utilizing qualitative methods and critically analyzing a specific case study related a business model by the alliances between PT Ammana Fintech Sharia and a sharia microfinance institution, BMT Syahida Ikaluin. In generating the data, <em>interviews</em> with several experts and practitioners. The study found that the business model used was based on crowdfunding, compliant with sharia principles dan has a strong basis both in positive law and Islamic edict (<em>fatwa)</em>. The research showed that the strategic alliance between a sharia microfinance institution and financial technology is capable of strengthening access to capital sources for small and micro-enterprises. It also improves community financial literacy and financial inclusion. This research could contribute to the creation of innovative products concerning sharia microfinance and sharia financial technology. Furthermore, it could also become a benchmark in formulating policies to strengthen these strategic institutional alliances.<em></em></p><p class="Abstract"><br /><em></em></p><p class="Abstract"><br /><em></em></p>


2020 ◽  
pp. 231971452094899
Author(s):  
Nyamugira Biringanine Alexis

This research brings together the recent empirical contributions related to the capital structure of microfinance institutions. Based on the review of the literature, we examine the implementation of standard finance theory to explain the change in the microfinance’s capital structure. The lack of appropriate theories to explain the microfinance’s capital structure entails the importance of this review of the literature. The review of empirical researches shows that the pecking order theory is applicable in the microfinance industry with respect to some specification while the industry’s business model evolves aligning with the life-cycle theory. Lastly, the impact of capital structure within the sector affirms the predictions of the profit-incentive theory.


2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1960-1979
Author(s):  
N.A. Egina ◽  
E.S. Zemskova

Subject. The study focuses on the impact of the digital economy determinants of the education transformation. Objectives. The article provides our own approach treating the education capital as a specific asset of the digital economy, which has an acceleration effect and sets up new trends in education through integrative networks. Methods. The study is based on principles of the systems integration, cross-disciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. Results. The socio-economic progress was found to be determined with properties of human capital, which are solely specific to the digital economy. In new circumstances, it gets more important for actors of global, national, corporate and social networks to more actively cooperate within distributed networks in order to train high professionals, who would have skills in information networks. Thus, they would raise a new form of human capital – the capital of network education (network-based education capital). We describe positive externalities that arise when the educational sector joins communication processes. We illustrate how educational forms evolves, which are typical of a certain phase of the socio-economic development. The education capital was discovered to grow into a specific asset generating the quasi-rent and working as a social ladder only provided more actors are involved into the network. Conclusions and Relevance. Studying the evolution of educational forms through the cross-disciplinary method, we discovered the need for a system approach, which would help substantiate its transformation in the time of the digital economy, and the emergence of network-based education. These are technologies and tools of the digital economy that become unique factors generating the acceleration effect of the educational capital and ensuring the use of diverse network effects for the formation of intellectual capital and their social transformation.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 246-266
Author(s):  
Murilo Carvalho Sampaio Oliveira

RESUMO:Este artigo trata dos impactos das plataformas digitais no Direito do Trabalho, tomando como exemplo sintomático o padrão da plataforma Uber. Inicia discutindo o cenário da economia digital e suas transformações nos modos de organizar a atividade empresarial, caracterizando a disrupção destas tecnologias e examinando criticamente se tais inovações situam-se realmente no discurso de economia do compartilhamento. Adiante, aborda as condições fáticas das plataformas de trabalho, questionando a dimensão formal-jurídica de liberdade e a condição econômica de hipossuficiência. Examina o caso da Uber como paradigma do modelo de organização empresarial desta economia digital e a situação dos seus motoristas tidos como parceiros para, ao final, pontuar algumas conclusões a cerca da necessidade do Direito Trabalho estar conectado com essas novas relações sociaisABSTRACT:This article deals with the impact of digital platforms in Labor Law, taking as a symptomatic example the standards of the Uber platform. It begins by discussing the the digital economy scenario and its transformations in the way business activity organize itself, characterizing the disruption of these technologies and critically examining whether such innovations are really part of the sharing economy speech. Hereinafter, it addresses the factual conditions of work platforms, questioning the formal-legal dimension of freedom and the economic condition of hypo-sufficiency. It examines the case of Uber as a paradigm of a business model organization in the digital economy and the situation of its drivers, taken as partners in order to, in the end of it, point some conclusions about the need of Labor Law to be connected with these new social relationships.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Matias López ◽  
Juan Pablo Luna

ABSTRACT By replying to Kurt Weyland’s (2020) comparative study of populism, we revisit optimistic perspectives on the health of American democracy in light of existing evidence. Relying on a set-theoretical approach, Weyland concludes that populists succeed in subverting democracy only when institutional weakness and conjunctural misfortune are observed jointly in a polity, thereby conferring on the United States immunity to democratic reversal. We challenge this conclusion on two grounds. First, we argue that the focus on institutional dynamics neglects the impact of the structural conditions in which institutions are embedded, such as inequality, racial cleavages, and changing political attitudes among the public. Second, we claim that endogeneity, coding errors, and the (mis)use of Boolean algebra raise questions about the accuracy of the analysis and its conclusions. Although we are skeptical of crisp-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis as an adequate modeling choice, we replicate the original analysis and find that the paths toward democratic backsliding and continuity are both potentially compatible with the United States.


2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (6) ◽  
pp. 520-548
Author(s):  
Martin D. Gould ◽  
Nikolaus Hautsch ◽  
Sam D. Howison ◽  
Mason A. Porter

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2028
Author(s):  
Marek Jóźwiak ◽  
Patrycja Sieg

In the article presented, the authors have attempted to define the development of post-industrial facilities, on the example of a thematic trail located in Bydgoszcz, as well as to assess the impact of this route on the city’s attractiveness. The TeH2O thematic trail is an example of a business model that utilizes post-industrial facilities for the development of a business partnership between the route facilities, the objects located in the vicinity, as well as the route participants. The article discusses the use of post-industrial facilities for tourist purposes and the legal aspects associated with the process of transforming such facilities. This paper presents the results of a research carried out on two groups of respondents, i.e., the residents of the city of Bydgoszcz and the tourists who have visited or are about to visit the city of Bydgoszcz. As a result of the research carried out, it has been found that the thematic trail examined affects the attractiveness of the city of Bydgoszcz. Both the respondents from the city of Bydgoszcz as well as the tourists visiting the city acknowledged it. The TeH2O thematic trail is more popular among the inhabitants of Bydgoszcz than among the visitors.


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (Supplement_5) ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  

Abstract The role of the corporate sector in research sponsorship is growing. So too is the evidence that corporations whose products are potentially damaging to health or the environment influence science and the ways in which science is used in policy and practice. Such efforts are a key part of corporate attempts to maintain or increase the consumption or use of industry products, and to secure favourable policy outcomes. The products and practices of corporations are responsible for a growing proportion of the global disease burden. Non-communicable diseases, many driven by consumption of unhealthy commodities and exposure to chemicals, account for over 73 percent of global deaths. It is increasingly important to understand the complex and multifaceted ways corporations seek to influence science; the impact these strategies have; and the ways this influence can be addressed. This workshop brings together global experts to explore these issues. Drawing on examples from several industries (e.g. tobacco, alcohol, food, and pharmaceuticals), it aims to: Increase understanding of the ways corporations whose products are potentially damaging to health influence science. We present a newly developed, evidence-based typology which draws together the vast existing literature in this field, to present a simplified way of understanding corporate influence on science. Delegates will be provided with materials that provide a means for recognising such influence.Examine the influence that corporations have on the first stage in the research process - research agendas. We present examples from tobacco, food and pharmaceutical industries which illustrate the mechanism through which industry funding of science drives researchers to study questions that are favourable to industry. The desired outcome is to maximise research on the benefits of industry products (positioning these products as solutions to complex problems), minimise research on the harms of their products, support their policy and legal positions, and impede potential regulation of their products.Increase awareness of the involvement that corporations have had in altering the mechanisms though which science is used in policymaking. Delegates will hear how corporations promoted and embedded policymaking reforms which increase reliance on and provide a conduit for industry-favourable science.Suggest ways forward concerning management of conflicts of interest in the publication of health research. Here we will discuss the roles that journals can play in governing conflicts of interest and issues of transparency in the publication of academic research.Suggest ways forward for funding research on unhealthy commodities. We present criteria for tobacco industry-supported research funding programs, and discuss the applicability of similar programs for funding research on other unhealthy commodities, and on the practices of other industries such as the fossil fuels industry. Key messages Corporations have been seen to skew evidence bases, manipulate interpretations of science, and influence use of science in policy and practice – such influence is a major threat to public health. This workshop exposes industry tactics in this area and begins to identify ways for dealing with them.


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-385 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chukwuma C. Nwuba ◽  
Uche S. Egwuatu ◽  
Babatunde M. Salawu

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate client influence on mortgage valuation in Nigeria to establish and rank the means of influence clients employ, and the impact of firm characteristics on client influence. Design/methodology/approach – A combination of cross-sectional survey and focus groups research designs was adopted. Questionnaire structured on five-point Likert format was used to collect data from a sample of valuation firms in five Nigerian cities. Descriptive statistics, χ2, and moderated hierarchical linear model were used for data analysis. Findings – Clients’ means of influence on valuation are more of subtle approach than threat or coercion. The most prevalent means are respectively, plea for assistance, promise of continued retainership on banks’ valuer panels, and disclosing the loan amount. Client influence differs across cities; firm characteristics have no influence on client pressure. Practical implications – The research provides basis for valuation bodies to review practice rules and standards and seek for legislation for valuer independence. It can serve as material for teaching and training in professional ethics. Social implications – Biased valuations jeopardises credit risk mitigation process with potential for destabilising banks, finance sector, and consequences for the economy. Originality/value – The study provides empirical evidence of the nature of client influence across several major Nigerian cities. In contrast to existing Nigerian studies that focus on single cities, the study covers several cities. It therefore provides a broad basis for problem-solving and decision-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol 170 ◽  
pp. 120877
Author(s):  
Demetris Vrontis ◽  
Donato Morea ◽  
Gianpaolo Basile ◽  
Isabella Bonacci ◽  
Andrea Mazzitelli

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