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The purpose of this study is to explore the interplay among self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations within microfinance institutions (MFIs) and to examine the extent to which organizational resilience plays a significant role in shaping these dynamics as a mediator.

This paper adopted a cross-sectional research design combined with analytical and descriptive approach to collect the data. Smart partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to construct the measurement model and structural equation model to test the mediating effect under this study.

The results revealed that organizational resilience is a significant mediator in the relationship between self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations among microfinance institutions in Uganda.

The data for this study were collected only from microfinance institutions in Uganda. Future studies may collect data from other formal financial institutions like commercial banks and credit institutions to test the mediating effect of organizational resilience. More still, the study adopted only a single approach of using a questionnaire. However, future research through interviews may be desirable. Likewise this study was cross-sectional in nature. Therefore, a longitudinal study may be useful in future while investigating the mediating role of organizational resilience traversing over a long time frame.

A possible implication is that microfinance institutions which desire to have sustainable innovative solutions for their business operations in disruptive circumstances may need to scrutinize their capacity to be resilient and self-organize.

Microfinance institutions play a great role to the underserved clients. Thus, for each to re-organize to be able to provide services that meet users’ needs, without physical products so as to ensure long-term financial and social welfare combined with the ability to bounce back and adapt in times of economic downturn to avoid mission adrift.

While most studies have been carried out on organizational resilience, this paper takes center stage and is the first to test the mediating role of organizational resilience in the relationship between self-organization, networks and sustainable innovations, especially in microfinance institutions in Uganda. This paper generates strong evidence and contributes to the powerful influence of organizational resilience in enhancing the level of sustainable innovations based on self-organization and networks.

This study aims to examine the influence of training and development (TAD), including performance appraisal (PFA), on the performance of microfinance institutions in a developing economy.

A random sampling drew 100 microfinance institutions in Ghana's Greater Accra Region. Then, a purposive sampling approach selected a cross-section of employees in these institutions. Finally, the data were collected from a sample of 367 respondents, such as managers, utilizing a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test hypothesized relationships.

The study results indicate that PFA has a statistically significant positive relationship with organizational performance, and this relationship is partially mediated by job satisfaction (JBS). Interestingly, the TAD process does not have a statistically significant positive relationship with organizational performance when JBS is present in the model. In fact, JBS fully mediates the relationship between TAD and organizational performance.

The study is limited to microfinance in tiers two and three in Greater Accra city of Ghana and did not include the entire country. Although the city of Accra provides a generalized representation of the research, which can be replicated, some variables and results may be impacted if other tiers of microfinance organizations are incorporated.

TAD, as well as PFA, enhance the performance of microfinance and can be utilized as tools for competitive advantage in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (e.g. microfinance institutions). The study accentuates the value of TAD, PFA and JBS in microfinance in a developing country like Ghana.

This is an original study investigating the effect of TAD and PFA practices on the performance of SMEs in a developing country like Ghana. Also, the study analyses JBS as a mediation variable to performance using SEM, which advances the research methodology in this research field.

The paper explores the beliefs and perceptions of microfinance institution (MFI) managers about environmental threats and the role that green microfinance can play in mitigating them, to assess their influence on these institutions' engagement in green activities.

Drawing on protection motivation theory, the study follows a qualitative case study approach, focusing on the MFIs of the developing country of Cabo Verde.

Findings indicate that MFI managers understand and are aware of the environmental threats and identify their customers as the most vulnerable to them. They seem motivated to increase their green activity in the future as it is generally seen as effective in mitigating the problems. However, their response capacity is hindered by limitations such as a lack of financial conditions and technical environmental knowledge.

MFIs play an important role in promoting self-employment and breaking the poverty cycle, but their funds are also often used to develop environmentally damaging practices. Green microfinance can contribute to targeting a triple bottom line; considering together people, profit and the planet, provided implementation challenges are addressed.

Although the environmental behaviour of MFIs has been previously studied, the understanding of the core beliefs of MFI managers that can support their environmental actions is still limited. Thus, the study contributes to advancing the knowledge of green microfinance by considering individual-level factors in understanding organisational greening.

The main purpose of this paper is to establish whether trust plays a significant mediating role in the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. The main focus of this paper is to specifically test whether relational social capital built by young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups can be more effective in promoting economic exchange in under-developed financial markets since interpersonal trust has recently been found to harbor group collusion, especially among kins. Overall, the paper distinguishes trust among individuals based on their age, gender and ethnic diversity.

This study used structural equation model to test whether trust significantly mediates the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises using Analysis of Moments Structures (AMOS) based on recommendations by Hair et al. (2022) and Baron and Kenny (1986).

The findings from this study revealed that trust significantly and positively mediate the relationship between access to microcredit and survival of young women microenterprises in under-developed financial markets in sub-Saharan Africa. Trust developed from relational social capital among young women from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups create a stronger basis for economic exchange in under-developed financial markets.

While this study generates a positive evidence on the impact of access to microcredit on survival of young women microenterprises, the results cannot be over emphasized and generalized because the data were collected from only a single developing country. Future research may extend the current study to include other developing countries to make a more justified comprehensive analysis.

The findings from this study highlights the importance of using a blend of social policy guided by norms combined with formal regulations as an informal contract enforcement mechanism to achieve efficient economic exchange in under-developed financial markets. Relational social capital formed on the basis of informal norms among groups from diverse population can supplement formal laws to enforce contractual obligations in microcredit access, especially among youthful microentrepreneurs, who seems to have stronger relational behaviors than adults. Financial institutions such as banks should use informal contract enforcement system to increase the scope of financial inclusion of young microentrepreneurs, especially in unbanked rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive where formal laws are weak and sometimes not functional. The findings also show that younger people have a stronger relationship behavior than adults. Therefore, policy should create structures that can promote social activities among youth. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive through their respective Ministry of Gender, Labour and Youth Affairs should create youth clubs that can increase interaction and relational social capital among the younger population to derive economic empowerment. sub-Saharan African governments, Uganda inclusive should rely more on social policy based on relational social capital as a missing link to promote and achieve economic development.

This paper provides an evidence on the unique role of age, gender and ethnicity in information sharing and exchange based on social policy in the financial market to limit group collusion. The authors indicate that diversity in relational social capital among young women microentrepreneurs prohibit strategic defaults, which promotes access to microcredit for survival of women micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through socialization. High level of interaction among younger women microentrepreneurs from homogeneous and heterogeneous groups allow them to close the information gap to timely meet borrowing contractual obligations to derive economic benefits. The paper shows that younger women have more trust than older women while searching for economic value through socialization. In fact, social policy can wholly supplement formal policy to promote growth and survival of young women microenterprises, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda inclusive.

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of income and geographic diversification on the double bottom line of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Middle East and North Africa (MENA) countries where conventional and Islamic MFIs coexist. The idea is to explore whether diversification impacts MFIs' financial performance and outreach differ for Islamic microfinance.

The authors test the effect of diversification and business models of MFIs on their performance and poverty outreach. The authors’ data set is an unbalanced panel sample of 81 (Islamic and conventional) MFIs in MENA countries covering 1999–2018, comprising 743 MFI-year observations.

The authors find that increasing income diversification in microfinance and focusing on rural areas decreases the financial performance of MFIs in MENA countries. Islamic MFIs benefit from income diversification by increasing their financial performance. The results provide evidence of a nonlinear relationship between income diversification and the financial performance of MFIs. Although conventional MFIs improve their depth of outreach by diversifying their income, Islamic MFIs have a lower breadth of outreach because they show a higher degree of income diversification.

This research contributes to the ongoing debate of whether MFIs should focus on or diversify their services to Islamic microfinance. Therefore, the findings of this study are practically crucial for MFIs' stakeholders to understand the contribution of diversification strategies in improving the Islamic MFIs to achieve both financial and social objectives.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first research that addresses the impact of diversification strategies in Islamic microfinance. Additionally, using a panel data set of conventional and Islamic MFIs in MENA countries spanning 1999–2018, this study provides empirical evidence on the diversification versus focus issue from the microfinance industry and the subset of Islamic microfinance.

Despite being a Muslim-dominated country, Bangladesh has widely embraced traditional microfinance since its inception in the mid-1970s. However, Islamic microfinance, which has a lot to offer to the poor, is still in its infancy and has yet to gain momentum in the country. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze the importance of Islamic microfinance and propose alternative Shariah-compliant microfinance models in Bangladesh.

This study is based on the desk research method, which relies on existing literature to collect secondary data on key concerns of traditional microfinance programs. In addition, institutional-level secondary data were also collected from the Microcredit Regulatory Authority (MRA) of Bangladesh. Guided by the Maqasid-al-Shariah, this study then proposes several Islamic microfinance models to overcome selected challenges faced by the microfinance industry in Bangladesh.

This study suggested three composite Shariah-compliant microfinance models, which are likely to help the underprivileged and thus ensure the achievement of the sustainable development goals in Bangladesh. The first model explained how the operational strategy of incumbent microfinance institutions (MFIs) could be restructured, while the second proposed the organizational strategies for establishing a new MFI. The third model used the notion of Sadaqah (charity) to address the multiple borrowing issues of the industry. Meanwhile, the successful transformation of the conventional microfinance industry to an Islamic one is dependent on the effective collaboration between the regulatory authorities, practitioners and MFIs.

Albeit the paucity of literature on the topic, the findings of this study will guide policymakers/practitioners in designing relevant microfinance models to help transform conventional microfinance into Islamic microfinance in Bangladesh.

This study explores the effect of income diversification strategy on credit risk and market risk of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Ghana as an emerging market.

The study is based on quarterly data of averagely 271 MFIs that have operated from 2016 to 2018. The dataset is unbalanced and pooled cross-sectional with 3,259 data points. The study measures the diversification strategy using income diversification indices, and accounting ratios to measure the other variables. We utilised the weighted least squares (WLS) approach to explore the nexus.

The findings show that income diversification is associated with better loan quality and credit risk management. Market risk increases with the level of income diversification of microfinance firms. It is evident that large MFIs can manage their credit risks well and can have a low default rate, depicting an overall U-shaped nexus. On the other hand, the effect of size on market risk is an inverted U-shaped. The effect of asset tangibility on credit risk is positively significant while the effect on market risk is negatively significant. High profitability enhances credit risk management leading to lower loan losses while in the case of diversified and profitable MFIs, they tend to invest more in government securities. The results suggest that MFIs that hold more cash and cash equivalents tend to have high loan loss provision and more government securities suggesting much attention should be paid to optimal cash management.

The results throw light on the credit risk and market risk profile of the firms and the effect of diversification strategies on them. The findings are relevant for effective macroprudential regulation, market regulation and prudential regulation of the microfinance sector.

The findings reveal the nature of income diversification strategy of MFIs in emerging markets such as Ghana, pointing out how they affect the risk exposure of MFIs that lend to the pro-poor population.

This is a premier formal assessment of the nexus between income diversification strategies and risk management among MFIs that serve the pro-poor population in the emerging market context.

This study aims to present a bibliometric analysis of Islamic social finance (ISF) by addressing gaps in the existing research, exploring the current trends of publications and determining possible future research directions in this field.

Relevant bibliometric data of published research during 1914–2022 was extracted from the Scopus database and 1,355 studies were considered for the analysis. Biblioshiny app from RStudio, VOSviewer and Microsoft Excel were the tools used for analysis.

The identified current research streams are management and distribution of ISF funds especially zakat through fintech; governance and accountability of ISF institutions; Islamic microfinance for poverty alleviation and financial inclusion; ISF for promoting sustainable development and achieving United Nations sustainable development goals; waqf endowments and cash waqf; and Islamic charities. The identified themes for future research directions are Islamic fintech, integration of ISF, sustainable development, economic recovery, social entrepreneurship, sustainable ISF ecosystem and supporting refugees.

It provides extensive and up-to-date literature on the current trends in ISF and future research themes which can be useful for researchers, professionals and policymakers in the field.

The findings of this research contribute to the solutions to socio-economic challenges and support sustainable development through ISF.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first attempt to provide a pervasive bibliometric review on ISF by including various aspects of ISF and extending the study period to more than 100 years.

This paper aims to assess the effects of external governance mechanisms on the performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Togo.

Using annual time series data from a sample of 30 MFIs during the period 2011–2015, the authors apply panel data econometrics in their estimations.

The results indicate that the notation by a rating agency positively and significantly affects the financial return of MFIs. The quality and the regularity of the audits negatively and significantly influence the financial performance (measured by return on assets and operating self-sufficiency) but favorably and significantly influence social performance (increased number of active borrowers (NAB) and reduced size of loans). Furthermore, supervision increases the amount of individual loans but decreases the NAB, which means deterioration in social performance. Overall, this paper shows that external governance mechanisms significantly affect the performance of Togolese MFIs, but with varying effects depending on the mechanism considered.

The sample size of 30 MFIs is small, and the geographic coverage of the study is restricted to MFIs operating in the city of Lomé, Togo. The authors did not have access to the information regarding the portfolio at risk at 30 days, even though it is a measure of financial performance. Likewise, we did not have access to the appendices to the financial statements for the calculation of prudential ratios. This method, which consists of asking the institutions using a questionnaire if they comply with prudential standards, may be biased because this study cannot verify the authenticity of the responses given that the standards are quantitative.

The study findings advocate that improving the financial and social performance of MFIs requires improving the quality of external governance mechanisms. MFIs should then pay close attention to well-functioning external governance mechanisms.

As MFIs are key social actors in a society, all mechanisms that contribute to their efficiency benefit society.

This study contributes to the corporate governance literature by showing that external governance mechanisms influence performance. These external mechanisms are complementary disciplinary measures to internal governance mechanisms and other tools.

Earlier studies on employee turnover have invested enormous scholarly mileage to understand and address human resource challenges. Considering the substantial evidence on the negative and non-linear relationship between employee turnover and firms’ performance, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of employee turnover on the social outreach (e.g. breadth of outreach) of microfinance institutions (MFIs), also known as the financial inclusion agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals.

To achieve the study objective, the authors collected unbalanced panel data of 1,391 MFIs, covering a total of 96 economies and a period of 2010–2018. The organizational and macroeconomic data were obtained from the World Bank’s Mix Market and World Development Indicators databases, respectively, and subsequently analysed using the pooled ordinary least squares, random effects model, fixed effects model and generalized method of moments.

Overall, the authors found that employee turnover has a positive impact on the social outreach of MFIs, which suggests that employee turnover reduces organizational blindness and groupthink, potentiates efficiency gains and minimizes retention costs. On the contrary, this study does not find evidence of a non-linear effect of employee turnover on the outreach objectives of MFIs. Meanwhile, these effects were observed to vary depending on the proxy, sub-samples and techniques used in the analysis.

Motivated by the paucity of literature, the study has uniquely investigated the effect of employee turnover on the social outreach objective of MFIs by using relatively recent and global-level data. The study findings can help managers and the human resource departments to make optimum decisions about employee turnover management.