Does institutional logic matter in microfinance delivery? An empirical study of microfinance clients

Purpose: From an institutional theory perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the combined impact of financial capital (microcredit) and human capital development (entrepreneurship training) delivered by financial non-governmental organisations (FNGOs) on the performance of micro and small enterprises (MSEs) in Ghana. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a multiple linear regression analysis, the study used primary data collected from 506 Ghanaian MSEs. Microcredit was measured using four main constructs, namely, loan cost, loan amount, the flexibility of loan repayment and loan accessibility. Entrepreneurship training was measured using four main constructs, namely, training content, training efficiency, training frequency and training accessibility. MSE performance was also measured using three main indicators, namely, sales, employment and profitability growth. The study controlled for business age, industry category, manager’s educational level and gender. Findings: The results of this study show that the combined delivery of financial and human capital development by FNGOs has a significant impact on MSE performance. The social welfare logic adopted by FNGOs seems to be legitimate to the needs and growth of MSEs in Ghana. However, the cost of microcredit remains a drawback, constraining the performance of MSEs in Ghana. Research limitations/implications: This study was carried out in the Volta Region, which is one of the ten regions of Ghana. Even though the sample size suffices, the findings from this study could not be generalised to the whole of Ghana. Also, this study is a quantitative study and could benefit from a triangulated method where the qualitative inputs could offer insights into the findings in this study. Originality/value: Theoretically, this study contributes to the understanding of institutions and the type of impact they have on the growth of MSEs. Practically, the provision of a conducive environment and access to financial capital is crucial to the growth of MSEs. Also, the adoption of the social welfare logic in microfinance delivery could be one of the major steps in promoting the performance of MSEs in Ghana.</p

FNGOs and financial inclusion:investigating the impact of microcredit on employment generation in Ghana

Financial Non-Governmental Organisations (FNGOs) are regulated microfinance institutions (MFIs) that operate with a social welfare logic in the delivery of microcredit to the financially excluded in Ghana. The microcredit is aimed at supporting the financially excluded individuals to create sustainable Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) for the generation of both skilled and unskilled employment. From the institutional theory perspective, this study aims at investigating the impact of microcredit provided by FNGOs on employment growth among MSEs in Ghana. The major contribution of this study is the fact that, there is a little study on FNGOs and their impact on employment growth in the Ghanaian context. Therefore, this is one of the few studies which highlights the role of FNGOs in promoting financial inclusion through the provision of microcredit for employment generation purposes. Through a multiple regression analysis, the study uses primary data collected from 506 MSEs in Ghana. The results show that microcredit which is flexible in repayment mode, accessible, and adequate has a positive impact on employment generation among MSEs in Ghana. However, the current cost of microcredit in Ghana has a negative impact on employment growth among MSEs in Ghana

Fulminant invasive aspergillosis of the mediastinum in an immunocompetent host: a case report

Introduction: Invasive aspergillosis is a serious complication in immunocompromised patients. It is an opportunistic disease, which predominantly occurs in the lungs, although dissemination to virtually any organ is possible. Invasive aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient with extension to the mediastinum has rarely been reported. Here, we present the case of a patient with no apparent immunodeficiency state, who presented with Aspergillus endocarditis and fulminant invasive aspergillosis with extensive involvement of the mediastinal structures, which ultimately was responsible for her death. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case in the literature on fulminant invasive mediastinal aspergillosis with extension to the pulmonary vasculature and concomitant Aspergillus endocarditis in an apparently immunocompetent patient without pre-existing lung disease. Case presentation: Our patient was a previously healthy 47-year-old Asian woman, who presented to our emergency room with severe progressive shortness of breath of one month’s duration, associated with orthopnea and unstable vital signs. Conclusion: Invasive aspergillosis has been described in the presence of pulmonary disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and one case has been reported in a patient without preexistent disease, but none of these have been fatal. Our case is therefore the first reported case of its kind. Our case shows that fulminant aspergillosis can occur in an immunocompetent host and can be fatal. We conclude that invasive aspergillosis should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis on the basis of immunocompetency

A Study on Need Achievement of High and Low Achievers

The study was undertaken to study the Need achievement of High and Low achievers of 9th grade students. The sample for the study was (300 high achievers and 300 hundred low achievers) selected randomly from two educational zones (Budgam and Soibugh) of district Budgam (J&amp;K). For the measurement of Need achievement Mukherjee’s Incomplete Sentence Blank Urdu adaptation (Khan, 1992) was used. The results of the study highlight that the High achievers have high need achievement, possess ‘hope of success’, have ‘high ego-ideal’, possess ‘perseverance’, have ‘realistic attitude’ are in favour of ‘internal control of fate’, while as low achievers have low need achievement, have fear of failure, possess low ego-ideal, are not perseverant, have unrealistic attitude and possess a feeling of external control of fate. The study has also revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between need achievement and Academic achievement of high and low achiever groups. Keywords: Need Achievement, High Achievers, Low Achievers

Access to finance and the role of microfinance for women entrepreneurs in Pakistan

Microfinance is considered to be a promising solution for poverty reduction and entrepreneurship development in the developing as well as developed economies. The central argument of the thesis is that microfinance services to poor entrepreneurial women helps in the development of their enterprise and entrepreneurial abilities. The thesis also investigates the role of microfinance in women’s economic empowerment, well-being of the family and further access to finance from commercial banks. The study is guided by the current state of knowledge and previous research on the impact of microfinance on women’s development. This empirical study is based on 300 questionnaire responses from women borrowers from microfinance institutions. The findings are triangulated with 50 interviews from women entrepreneurs and 14 interviews from loan officers and heads of microfinance providers to gain a deeper insight into finance constraints on women in Pakistan and to seek the lenders’ point of view. The findings suggest that women micro entrepreneurs can only access microfinance; and commercial bank loans are unavailable to them due to the lack of track record and collateral. Findings suggest that the injection of an optimal size of microcredit in female enterprises with training and mentoring facilities improves the profit of enterprise; this enhances the contribution to the household income that increases family welfare. The outcome on the well-being of the family is the same whether the loan is used for business or consumption resulting in the conclusion that the fungibility of the loan also benefits women borrowers. The argument that microfinance programme contributed to the development of entrepreneurial skills is not well supported by the empirical findings. Finally, evidence shows that the objectives of female economic empowerment and entrepreneurship are attained by those microfinance schemes that provide formal training, saving facilities and social benefits with credit in the package. The analysis discloses the issue of multi-borrowing in the semi urban areas of Punjab where there is a concentration of microfinance institutions with no centralised database of borrowers. These empirical results contribute to the wider microfinance literature by studying the relatively less researched developing economy of Pakistan. The study makes a theoretical and methodological contribution to the study of microfinance

Can Large Language Models Support Editors Pick Related News Articles?

Editors and journalists play an important role on news platforms. Besides creating trustworthy news stories, they also provide valuable expertise on which stories are placed on the front page and hand-pick related articles for platform users to read further. This paper focuses on the specific task of related article selection commonly carried out daily by editors and journalists on news platforms. This is typically a manual process that utilizes an internal search tool to first find a pool of potential candidate articles. Then, from those candidate articles, editors and journalists hand-pick the top related articles for a given news article as a form of expert-selected suggestions for the readers. Although this task can be an important part of the editorial process in news platforms, it may become time-consuming and demanding, often requiring significant human effort. In addressing this challenge, we propose an automatic mechanism to support editors and journalists in this task by incorporating one of the latest Large Language Models (LLMs), i.e., GPT4o-mini, to shortlist a set of related articles and recommend them to be checked by journalists and editors. Our evaluation of the proposed approach, based on a real-world dataset from one of the largest commercial Norwegian news platforms (i.e., TV 2), demonstrates the effectiveness of the approach in supporting editors and journalists in their task of selecting relevant news articles.publishedVersio

The impact of financial development on economic indicators: a dynamic panel data analysis

The study investigates the effect of financial development on major economic indicators, i.e., economic growth, inflation, and employment by applying System GMM estimation technique for a panel of 120 countries for the period 1997 to 2017. Four distinct proxies of financial development are used, i.e., private sector credit, liquid liabilities, money and quasi money, and bank credit. The results contradict the traditional supply-lending hypothesis and reveal negative impact of financial development on economic growth. Moreover, financial development is found to be positively associated with inflation and employment growth. It is suggested that there is need to reform and strengthen the supervision of financial intermediaries to ensure sound prudential lending practices. Furthermore, more credit needs to be allocated to highly productive firms

Fulminant invasive aspergillosis of the mediastinum in an immunocompetent host: a case report.

Introduction: Invasive aspergillosis is a serious complication in immunocompromised patients. It is an opportunistic disease, which predominantly occurs in the lungs, although dissemination to virtually any organ is possible. Invasive aspergillosis in an immunocompetent patient with extension to the mediastinum has rarely been reported. Here, we present the case of a patient with no apparent immunodeficiency state, who presented with Aspergillus endocarditis and fulminant invasive aspergillosis with extensive involvement of the mediastinal structures, which ultimately was responsible for her death. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first reported case in the literature on fulminant invasive mediastinal aspergillosis with extension to the pulmonary vasculature and concomitant Aspergillus endocarditis in an apparently immunocompetent patient without pre-existing lung disease. Case presentation: Our patient was a previously healthy 47-year-old Asian woman, who presented to our emergency room with severe progressive shortness of breath of one month’s duration, associated with orthopnea and unstable vital signs. Conclusion: Invasive aspergillosis has been described in the presence of pulmonary disease, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and one case has been reported in a patient without preexistent disease, but none of these have been fatal. Our case is therefore the first reported case of its kind. Our case shows that fulminant aspergillosis can occur in an immunocompetent host and can be fatal. We conclude that invasive aspergillosis should not be excluded from the differential diagnosis on the basis of immunocompetency

The impact of entrepreneurial orientation on debt financing of family businesses: Evidence from Nigeria

This is an accepted manuscript of a chapter published by Emerald in Family Business Debates: Multidimensional Perspectives Across Countries, Continents and Geo-political Frontiers, published on 28/11/2022, available online: 10.1108/978-1-80117-666-820221018 The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.There exists a shortage of studies that establish linkages between entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing in family businesses. In line with this research stream, the purpose of this chapter is to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing of family businesses. Specifically, the study investigates how the five entrepreneurial orientation dimensions– risk-taking, innovativeness, proactiveness, competitive aggressiveness, and autonomy influence family business debt financing. By adopting a qualitative research methodology and based on empirical evidence gathered through a 10-case study design involving face-to-face interviews with owners of family businesses in Nigeria, the study examines the influence of entrepreneurial orientation on debt financing. The results suggest that the entrepreneurial orientation of family businesses seems to play a pivotal role in influencing debt financing. If a firm is entrepreneurial-oriented, it is reasonable to expect that it will focus attention on new and emerging opportunities for obtaining debt financing. The study advances research on entrepreneurial orientation and debt financing in family businesses. It develops an empirically theoretical framework at the intersection of the family business and entrepreneurial orientation research, filling a gap in the literature. Future research could substantiate the findings of this study on a broader empirical base, using quantitative methods. This study offers a new perspective to the study of entrepreneurial orientation and, at the same time, contributes with findings from research on entrepreneurial orientation to the study of debt financing in family businesses