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The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of flexibility in loan products offered to smallholder farmers in Siaya County in Kenya and to examine the effect of flexibility on access to credit.

The paper uses primary survey data from a sample of smallholder farmers in Siaya County in Kenya who had borrowed from various lending institutions within the study area. The paper develops an index variable of loan flexibility using multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) technique. The model is estimated using both OLS and truncated regression analyses. Access to credit is measured as the amount of loan borrowed by each farmer.

The authors find that the level of flexibility of loans offered to farmers is low. Furthermore, the authors find that the level of flexibility is not significantly correlated to access to credit. Further analysis using individual components of flexible loans show that refinancing and lines of credit are more likely to improve access to credit when farmers are more educated and wealthier, respectively. The age of a farmer, the type of lender, the type of loan, education and household wealth are the main determinants of access to credit.

The paper adds to the debate on access to credit by showing that theoretically, while loan flexibility should lead to higher credit access, this is not a key determinant of access to credit in this context.

To enhance the loan repayment performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Pakistan, this study aims to analyze the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on loan repayment performance and microenterprises’ business performance while considering the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance on the relationship between social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance.

The analysis was conducted based on the data gathered via a questionnaire distributed to 316 microenterprises owners. The respondents were selected using the stratified sampling technique by dividing the target population into three influential groups of manufacturing, trading and services microenterprises. The reliability and validity of the constructs were established using (1) factor loading, (2) Cronbach’s alpha, (3) composite reliability, (4) average variance extracted, (5) the variance inflation factor, (6) the Fornell–Larcker criterion and (7) the heterotrait–monotrait ratio. The structural equation modeling technique was then applied, and the hypotheses were tested based on the structure model generated through bootstrapping by using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results confirm the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on microenterprises’ business performance and loan repayment performance. It also supports the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance toward the relationship between social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance while considering the direct impact of microenterprises’ business performance on loan repayment performance.

To date, the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on microenterprises’ business performance and loan repayment performance has been hardly investigated in the context of Pakistan. This study also examines the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance toward social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance. The findings will enable both MFIs and microenterprises to improve their business performance and loan repayment performance through enhanced social ties and the development of more flexible credit products that protect the borrowers’ interests and the interest of lenders.

Information concerning the long‐term consequences of credit repayment decisions is often not available for flexible credit facilities such as credit cards. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of such information in repayment decisions. A dual mental accounting model of money management predicted that repayments would be influenced by both total cost and loan duration information. Experiment 2 also investigated the role of key economic and psychological factors, including some related to a risk defusing operator model of risk management.

In two questionnaire‐based experiments bank customers (n=241; 300) were presented with credit card and remortgage repayment scenarios. In both studies, total cost and loan duration information were varied in a 2×2 randomised‐groups factorial design.

In both studies, analysis of covariance showed that information on the long‐term consequences of repayment decisions lead to significantly higher levels of repayment. However, in Experiment 2, it was found using hierarchical multiple regression that disposable income, level of education, and the perception of, and worry about, repayment difficulties had larger significant effects on repayment levels.

The effects of long‐term consequence information were interpreted in terms of mental accounting and future‐oriented thinking. The effect of concern with future repayment difficulties suggests that borrowers choose lower repayments to control such risks.

Providing total cost and loan duration information for a range of repayment levels could help borrowers make better repayment decisions.

These novel findings contribute to our understanding of borrowers’ repayment behaviour.

Although microfinance (MF) has been established as an effective approach to provide access to financial services for people in low income countries, close to one-third of adults worldwide, about 2 billion people, are still without access. The purpose of this study is therefore to provide knowledge on how MF institutions (MFIs) can innovate and scale their services to improve financial inclusion for more people in need, particularly small holder farmers.

Recent research suggests that Grameen Foundation builds on well-established MF models and focuses on continuously improving the design and increasing the reach of its services. Based on a retrospective longitudinal design, this study draws on dynamic capability theory to identify important lessons in MF innovation at Grameen through analyses of seven key agricultural MF programs.

This study finds that Grameen innovated these programs by sensing country-specific needs; seizing opportunities to use existing technology; creating linkages across multisector partners; adopting a business model that enabled replicability and sustainability of innovation transfer; and 5 integrating solutions that enabled process automation and scaling of outcomes. A key theoretical finding in applying dynamic capabilities theory to studies of innovation in MF revealed the core concepts to be transferrable, valuable, imitable and nonsubstitutable resources.

Using these insights, this study discusses theoretical, practical and policy implications of MF innovation to improve financial inclusion in low-income countries. Practitioners and researchers should assess the transferability of our findings to other MFIs and economic development contexts.

The aim of this paper is to establish a linkage between negative global media news towards Grameen Bank (GB), the largest microfinance organisation in the developing world, and the extent and type of annual report social performance disclosures by GB, over the nine‐year period 1997‐2005.

Content analysis instruments are utilised to analyse GB annual report social disclosure.

The study finds that GB's community poverty alleviation disclosures account for the highest proportion of total social disclosures in the period 1997‐2005. The results of this study are particularly significant in relation to poverty alleviation – the issue attracting severe criticism from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ ) late in 2001. The community poverty alleviation disclosures by GB are significantly greater over the four years following the negative news in the WSJ than in the four years before. The results suggest that GB responds to a negative media story or legitimacy threatening news via annual report social disclosures in an attempt to re‐establish its legitimacy.

This paper contributes to the literature because in the past there has been no research published linking global media attention to the social disclosure practices of major organisations in developing countries.

The paper deals with the challenges and opportunities of enabling resilience of the built environment through building regulations and codes in a developing country context. The purpose of this paper is to explore how voluntary compliance can be achieved, drawing from the views of key stakeholders in this field.

Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh, is a central hub of more than 20 million people. The city is growing rapidly in an unplanned manner to host the increasing population, creating vulnerability to different hazards including earthquakes, fires and building collapses. The Bangladesh National Building Code (BNBC) and the building and planning regulations of the Capital Development Authority are the key instruments for ensuring safety, but lack of compliance is widespread. The views of relevant stakeholders on issues relating to compliance of safe building codes for ensuring disaster resilience were documented and analysed.

It was found that those involved in construction activities are in most cases not aware of the BNBC; landowners were reluctant to follow regulations and codes to avoid extra cost; and construction workers were not interested in compliance as there were no incentives. While enforced deterrence is required, it has its limitations in a context such as Dhaka. Raising awareness and building capacity at all levels can offer a way forward for voluntary compliance. Incorporation of knowledge on regulations and codes for disaster resilience into university and technical education curricula are likely to allow developing the capacity of built environment professionals and widespread awareness can be raised through training, media and public events.

There are many publications on building regulations and codes, but few specifically focussing on disaster resilience. Also, much of the discussion on regulations and codes deals with compliance through enforcement, but hardly any deal with the idea of voluntary compliance. There are also a lot of publications on disasters in the case study city, Dhaka, but comparatively few on building codes and regulations specifically for disaster resilience.

This study aims to investigate the impact of supply chain risk (SCR) information processing capabilities (e.g. SCR information sharing and SCR information analysis) and supply chain finance (SCF) on supply chain resilience, as well as the moderating effect of environmental uncertainty in the relationship between SCF and supply chain resilience.

This paper proposes a theoretical model grounded on the information processing theory. Data collected from 216 Chinese firms are used to test the theoretical model by employing structural equation modelling.

The findings reveal that SCR information processing capabilities have a significant impact on both SCF and supply chain resilience. SCF plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between SCR information processing capabilities and supply chain resilience. In addition, environmental uncertainty moderates the relationship between SCF and supply chain resilience.

First, this paper enriches the knowledge of how information processing capability affects SCF and supply chain resilience as the study considers the more granular SCR information rather than general information that has been discussed in previous studies. Second, this is one of the first papers to establish the relationship between SCF and supply chain resilience in emerging economies. Next, the paper extends the theoretical framework of the antecedents and consequences of SCF. Moreover, the study further facilitates the understanding of the role of the external environment in SCR and SCF management.

Using a unique dataset of a commercial microfinance institution (MFI) in Madagascar, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how credit access probabilities and loan volume rationing magnitudes for farmers change if the MFI switches to offer flexible microfinance loans, which can account for agricultural production specifics.

The authors estimate probit models for the probability of receiving a loan and Heckman models to investigate the magnitude of volume rationing for all micro loan applications and disbursements of the MFI, differentiating between farmers with standard microfinance loans and farmers with flexible microfinance loans.

The results reveal that agricultural firms with flexible microfinance loans have significantly higher credit access probabilities than non‐agricultural firms and agricultural firms with standard microfinance loans. Furthermore, it was found that agricultural firms with flexible microfinance loans are stronger volume rationed than non‐agricultural firms and agricultural firms with standard microfinance loans.

Even if the authors can show that access to credit for agricultural firms in Madagascar can be enhanced by the provisioning of flexible microfinance loans, the investigated MFI only introduced flexible microfinance loans in 2011 and currently only offers them through five branch offices. Thus, the product is new to the MFI, and results might change with increasing outreach to other geographic regions in Madagascar. Furthermore, the conditions for agricultural production in Madagascar are unique, and the results might change in different country contexts.

The paper's findings suggest that flexible microfinance loans can contribute to the financial inclusion of farmers with seasonal production types. They also suggest that standard microfinance loans seem to be adequate for farmers with less seasonal production types, e.g. animal husbandry.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first paper to investigate the effects of flexible microfinance loan provision for credit access of small agricultural firms in developing countries in general, and in Madagascar in particular.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between information integration, supply chain capabilities and credit quality of small and middle enterprises (SMEs) in supply chain finance (SCF).

Grounded in the resource-based view (RBV) and signaling theory, this study proposes a theoretical model. Then, structural equation modeling and interview analysis are employed to test the theoretical model.

The results show that both two aspects of information integration, namely, information technology and information sharing, have positive effects on the SMEs’ credit quality in SCF, and these effects are mediated by supply chain capabilities.

First, the paper contributes to SCF literature by simultaneously examining the role of two dimensions of information integration (information technology and information sharing) in enhancing SMEs’ credit quality. Second, this paper enriches the existing theoretical research on SCF by integrating the SMEs perspective and SCF service provider perspective. Moreover, this paper explores the indirect effects of information integration on SMEs’ credit quality by incorporating supply chain capabilities as a mediating factor.

The purpose of this paper is to understand how knowledge spillover and access in a supply chain network enhance the credit quality in supply chain finance (SCF) of small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Drawing on network theory and a knowledge-based view (KBV) of SCF, this paper proposes a theoretical model and tests it using survey data from a sample of 248 SMEs in China.

The main finding is that both strong ties and dense ties within a supply chain network have positive effects on SMEs’ credit quality, and these effects are mediated by knowledge spillover and knowledge access. Interestingly, knowledge spillover is found to have a positive effect on knowledge access.

This paper is the first to investigate the relationship between supply chain network and supply chain financing from a KBV. The proposed model captures the complexity in the interaction among different attributes of supply chain networks (i.e. strong ties and dense ties), different aspects of knowledge transfer (i.e. knowledge spillover and knowledge access) and SMEs’ credit quality in SCF. The results not only show the importance of SMEs’ supply chain networks to SMEs’ credit quality but also contribute to the understanding of the KBV in SCF.