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Self-help groups (SHGs) have widely been accepted by developing nations for their contribution to inclusive development. Despite its importance and the recognition of the same, SHGs and their members face several challenges. The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively investigate the inhibiting factors affecting the effectiveness of women SHGs. The paper also proposes a roadmap for all the self-help promoting institutions, such as banks, state and central government, and non-government organizations to address the challenges.

The study adopts an exploratory research design to undertake this applied research. It uses phenomenographic and interpretative approaches. Qualitative data have been collected from 24 members belonging to eight SHGs from the eastern Indian state of Odisha with the help of a semi-structured interview schedule. The result has been analyzed by using content analysis.

The study finds that SHG members in Odisha face several challenges in the form of financial bottlenecks, entrepreneurial obstacles, capacity-building impediments, mentor-ship challenges, socio-structural challenges and group dynamics.

The study finds many unique and contextual inhibiting factors, which are valuable additions to the existing literature. At the same time, the result may not be applicable to other kinds of SHGs, such as Alcoholic Anonymous, as their nature, composition and deliverables are quite different from the SHG that the current study has taken into consideration.

The proposed roadmap would be useful to policymakers, non-government organizations and other agencies involved in the promotion and capacity building of SHGs operating in Odisha in particular and India in general.

The literature is mainly concerned with the impact evaluation of SHG programs. This study investigates the challenges faced by SHGs in a systematic way and provides a roadmap to address the same in a comprehensive way.

This study aims to assess the impact of participation in self-help group (SHG) on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Primary data was collected using multistage random sampling from the rural women of Jharkhand, India. The propensity score matching method was adopted using the psmatch2 command in STATA.

The results show a significant positive change in women’s self-esteem, self-confidence, self-efficacy, autonomy, knowledge and skills, reduction in agony and quality of life after participation in SHG. This reveals that participation in SHG has a significant positive impact on the psychological empowerment of rural tribal women.

Despite the numerous studies on rural women’s empowerment, there is little evidence of literature focusing on the impact of participation in SHG on psychological empowerment, specifically in the tribal context. This study primarily focuses on women belonging to the scheduled tribe category of Jharkhand, one of the poorest states of India.

Microfinance programs across the countries are designed on the self-help and peer pressure model, aim at microentrepreneurship development. Despite of significant studies on microfinance-supported microentrepreneurship (MSM), not a single literature examines it from the systems thinking. In addition to that, the extant literature did not look MSM from the behavioral perspectives. To address the above gaps, the present study aims to examine self-help group (SHG)-based microfinance programs from the systems approach using the Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) model.

Information gathered from 786 women SHG members from four states of India through a structured interview schedule. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted to process data. Additional statistical tests were performed to test the reliability and validity.

It was found that the “positive stimulus” (social intermediation, financial intermediation and business development services) positively impacted; and “negative stimulus” (intermediation accountability, and intermediation assumption) negatively impact, to “motive” (attitude, subjective norms, and perceived control) for micro-entrepreneurship in the SHG-based microfinance. Further, “motive” positively predicted “behavioral intention”; the “behavioral intention” positively determined “consequences” of micro-entrepreneurship. Intermediation as stimuli acted as “input”; the motive and behavioral intention acted as the “process”, and the consequence acted as the “output” in the SHG-based microentrepreneurship system.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this paper is the first one to examine the behavioral systems of microentrepreneurship programs through the Stimulus-Organism-Behavior-Consequence (SOBC) model.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2022-0801

The purpose of this paper is to study the production methods and potential of self-help groups (SHGs) for linking to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) in the Union Territory of Puducherry region.

The variables for the research work were identified through a literature review relating to SHGs production methods and 251 primary data were collected through the random sample using the survey method. The statistical software of IBM-SPSS was used to analyze the data using the statistical methods of descriptive statistics like frequency analysis simple mean and inferential statistics such as chi-square, correspondence analysis, correlation and ANOVA test.

The majority of SHGs consisting of 49.8% are willing to pay an amount up to Rs. 5,000 if training is provided through MSME organizations, a higher number of SHGs have indicated that they are very much interested in ancillary production activities, 35.5% of SHGs are using no machines and ANOVA test result shows that there is a significant difference between numbers of years of functioning with respect to production activity.

The authors have selected the Union Territory of Puducherry was taken as the sample region of the study due to its high rural poverty levels of 16.9%.

The research study endeavors to study the various production methods and preferences of SHGs and it will be of immense utility to the government, banks, microfinance organizations and other policymakers.

Existing literature reviews are conducted on various problems in service and manufacturing sectors, it is essential to conduct empirical research on an inclusive sector like SHG production activities and preferences in emerging economies like India.

The purpose of this study is to gain meaningful insights into a microfinance programme in two different agro-ecological settings in India. The study, using primary survey data, attempts to examine individual, household and environmental characteristics that determine participation in a self-help group (SHG)–bank linkage programme in Odisha.

Primary data are collected by a stratified random sampling method. The sample size is 300 households and information is collected by canvassing a pre-designed schedule to women through door-to-door in-depth interviews. In addition, focus group discussions have been conducted to get qualitative information. A probit binary model is applied to examine the factors determining participation in a SHG–bank linkage programme. A composite index of women empowerment is computed taking three dimensions: autonomy, economic empowerment and the gender relationship. Further, ordinary least square multiple regression and treatment effect evaluation by propensity score matching is carried out to study the impact of participation on women empowerment.

The study finds that the programme has by-passed the poorest of the poor. It is observed, however, that participation in microfinance has a positive and significant impact on women empowerment.

Given the research methodology adopted in this study, one concern is whether the results generalise. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed propositions further.

To improve status of women particularly in developing and underdeveloped regions, microfinance can act as a catalyst.

Microfinance in the form of SHG–bank linkage should be promoted, particularly for those social groups and religious communities where women are discriminated. Their participation in SHG–bank linkage programme will improve their social status through empowerment.

This study illustrates how microfinance can improve the status of women.

The paper identifies the influence of socio-economic factors and livelihood training in stimulating micro-entrepreneurship among women self-help group (SHG) members.

The study is based on a sample of 416 women SHG members drawn from all the four districts of Sikkim using cluster sampling procedure. A multivariate binary logistic model is used to find the impact of socio-economic factors, and a Poisson regression has been used to find the impact of training on fostering micro-entrepreneurship. The result is validated using a propensity score matching approach which corrects for the potential self-selection bias in the sample. Subsequently, a covariate adjustment estimator verifies the robustness of the approach.

The study finds that “size of landownership”, “amount of loan borrowed”, “member's age”, “number of earning and dependent members”, “number of years of SHG enrolment” as well as the “district to which the member belongs to” have a statistically significant influence on the graduation of SHG members to micro-entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it is found that members attending the livelihood training programmes had a significantly higher number of microenterprises.

The study differentiates itself by providing empirical evidence on how socio-economic factors and livelihood training stimulate micro-entrepreneurship among SHG women of Sikkim, which has so far remained unexplored. Moreover, advanced econometric method has been used to eliminate the possible self-selection bias involved with training participation and thereby provides reliable and robust results.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-01-2023-0070

Gender equality and women empowerment which are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development goals have attracted researchers and policymakers worldwide. Various programmes and interventions aiming at empowerment have been designed and implemented by both national and international agencies. One of the flagship programmes of NABARD introduced in the year 1992, the self-help group (SHG)–bank linkage model is also known for its impact on the availability of credit and empowerment of women. Later, the SGSY scheme was restructured into the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) in the year 2013. Initially, SHGs focussed on savings and credit linkage, but now the emphasis has been changed to generate livelihoods and economically empowering women on a sustainable basis through training women to establish micro-enterprises. In this facet, the journey of microfinance in empowering women is systematically analyzed. The state of Haryana has consistently outperformed other states in terms of economic and agricultural growth but it ranks poorly in terms of its key human development indicators. Despite high productivity and low poverty, the state faces challenges related to the health and nutrition of children. Literature provides evidence that the health and nutrition status of children and women is closely linked to women empowerment. Using secondary sources of data, we conclude that micro-finance can be a useful tool for empowering women provided the roadblocks are identified and the requisite support is provided to women entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this is to classify the social and economic factors which impact the involvement of women in self-help groups (SHGs) for their economic as well as social empowerment.

The research has been conducted in Nainital district of Uttarakhand (India) in 2018. Primary data have been gathered from women respondent only on factors relating to the ownership of asset, housing characteristics and other demographic details. Both SHG and non-SHG women members have been chosen as key informants during the survey. Multi-stage purposive and stratified random sampling has been used for the selection of respondents and SHGs. The logit regression model has been formulated to describe the causes that influence the participation of women in SHGs. Also, an empowerment index has been constructed to measure the effect of SHGs on women empowerment.

The results show that factors including age, education, family type and distance from the market have a significant impact on the participation of women in SHGs. Also, there is a significant difference in both these values which suggests that the value of the empowerment index gets significantly increased after joining the SHGs.

Analytically derived factors have been used to develop an empowerment index. Hence, the present research is valuable for marketing practitioners, entrepreneurs and professionals from the development sector who intend to work amongst SHGs, primarily with women. The paper is valuable for academic researchers in this area so that the limited body of knowledge, on the empowerment index, could be developed.

The present research is unique because the authors did not find work, especially in the context of rural India, in the said area. Factors impacting the participation of women in SHGs along with the impact of participation on empowerment have been explored using the logit regression model, leading to the development of an empowerment index.