Re-thinking the regulatory environment of credit reporting: Could legislation stem privacy and discrimination concerns?

This paper examines the activities carried out in the UK by Credit Reference Agencies, current business practices, and the legal standing of credit reporting. It suggests areas and issues for further legal debate and policy consideration. Ultimately, this study puts forward the case for specific legislative intervention to strike a balance between privacy rights, discrimination concerns, and the needs of the credit industry

Group Lending Model - A Panacea to Reduce Transaction Cost?

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have stepped up towards commercialization and sustainability yet they face challenges in terms of transaction cost that limit their growth prospects. Transaction cost is incurred in forming the group of members, searching for the potential clients, monitoring, and administration, in providing training to the clients etc. Group lending has emerged as an effective tool in reducing this cost by transferring its burden on the group. Though the concept of group lending is not new in micro finance but in India it was introduced by NABARD in 2004-05 owing to its key advantage of income generation. This paper aims to analyze whether group lending programme has some role to play in reducing transaction cost of MFIs. It also discusses the concept of transaction cost, characteristics of group lending as well as process of forming a group. The results reveal that internal management of small and medium MFIs is not working efficiently which results in increased costs. Large MFIs do not face such problems

Social entrepreneurial business models: An exploratory study

Although social entrepreneurial organizations have begun to receive more scholarly attention, we still know relatively little about how they are able to create both social and economic value. This paper presents a comparative case analysis of three social entrepreneurial organizations, based in Bangladesh, Egypt and Spain, whose success has been widely recognized. Analysis of these organizations' business models reveals common patterns: in their use of strategic resources, in their value networks, and in their customer interface. The findings suggest that successful social entrepreneurial organizations pro-actively create their own value network of companies that share their social vision; develop resource strategies as an integral part of the business model; and integrate the target group into the social value network. Propositions are advanced regarding the business models of successful social entrepreneurial organizations.social entrepreneurship; business model; developing countries;

Supporting community needs for rural water management through community-based co-design

We set out to support three rural communities in Uganda to manage their water supplies using a locally relevant and fit-for-use technological intervention developed with the Community-Based Co-design (CBCD) method. This participatory and inclusive approach allowed us to introduce Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to communities that are untrained and inexperienced in technology design. We describe the intervention and identify research learnings for CBCD. Our design experience with the communities highlights the barriers and enablers of using the CBCD method with rural users. We conclude with reflections on the use of intermediaries and the issue of reciprocity in community-based ICT for development researc

The impact of financial technology on loan risk and payment systems: evidence from Africa

Fintech can disrupt the delivery of traditional financial services but can equally improve banking for the poor and has the potential to provide new solutions to old problems. Further, signalling theory provides a firm ground to understand how signals can be used by lenders to screen for quality borrowers, reduce uncertainty and facilitate lending. Particularly to informationally opaque borrowers in developing countries. My thesis proposes a model to screen loan applicants based on clients’ adoption of financial technology. Using machine learning algorithms, my results show that, adopters of Fintech are associated with lower default likelihood. I find asymmetric relationship between new and repeat borrowers who adopt Fintech and loan spread. However, clients with bank account only are more likely to default compared to those who adopt Fintech and have bank account. This suggest that Fintech can unlock opportunities for adopters to improve their credit score by linking their Fintech account to their respective bank accounts. Further, over the past decade, payments using Fintech has become critical to the financial systems in most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the third chapter of my thesis, I empirically investigate the impact of the use of financial technology on the payments systems in Africa, financial inclusion and signiorage. Using the VAR-VEC model, my results show that Fintech provides financial inclusion. A variance decomposition analysis show that majority of the forecast error variance is due to own shock. Further, my results show a long-run causal relation between mobile money and payment system transaction, and the use of currency. This confirm that Fintech, can transfer informal cash to the formal banking system and lead to a significant reduction in the social burden of signiorage. The final chapter of my thesis investigate the impact of borrowers’ self-declared religiosity and religious connectedness on loan risk. Using a credit scoring algorithm, I find a significant reduction in default probabilities when borrowers signal as trustable to lenders via their voluntary self-declared religiosity. Further, I find that, all things being equal, borrowers who voluntarily self-declare their religiosity to signal their credit risk are likely to be charged higher interest rate. However, those who self-declare their religious connectedness are associated with the likelihood of receiving lower interest rate, and female borrowers who signal their credit by self-declaring their religiosity are associated with lower default likelihood

Understanding SE Growth: The Case of Bangladesh

This thesis seeks to explore the hybrid nature of Social Enterprises (SEs) by investigating how they incorporate co-existence of social and economic goals and embed in multiple institutional domains. By synthesising insights from three literature domains - hybrid organisations, institutional views and strategic management - this thesis advances the understanding about the hybrid nature of SEs mainly in two ways. First, it examines the extent to which managerial tensions may result in hybrid SEs due to co-existence of values and influences from pluralistic institutional domains. Second, it explores how such organisations mobilise resources and capabilities in order to respond to internal tensions. The three research questions addressed in the thesis are: i) What is the nature of SE growth in Bangladesh?; ii) How does the institutional context influence SE growth in Bangladesh? and iii) What role do SEs’ resources and capabilities play in responding to the institutional influences? The study adopts a multiple case study approach, collecting data from eleven Bangladeshi SEs. With rapid rise of hybrid forms of SEs in Bangladesh, the findings of the study have both practical and policy implications. The insights on SEs’ internal tensions can enable Bangladeshi policy makers to realise the needs and challenges of hybrid SEs in the country. This may aid the development of customised policies, incentives and support systems that are required to facilitate the growth of such organisations. The insights on the management of tensions can aid the leaders and managers in hybrid SEs to respond to their internal tensions more appropriately.The study identifies six operational models through analysis of the social goal, economic mission, income source, governance structure and institutional setting of the studied cases. These models are: SEs that are fully reliant on grant, NGOs with trading elements, NGOs with full reliance on trading, social business es, public and private limited corporations, and NGOs with conventional subsidiary enterprise. The findings further showed that the studied SEs have pursued social and economic goals simultaneously through adoption of four growth strategies: expansion, diversification, autonomous growth and partnership. The study identifies a number of competing pressures originating from multiple institutional domains which have affected the way they accomplished their social and economic goals. This interplay between SEs’ dual goals and institutional influences led to ten different tensions inside the studied cases. The management of these tensions, at the functional level, involved orchestration of SEs’ resources and capabilities in a particular way. The specific ways of mobilisation of resources and capabilities ultimately led the SEs towards five different growth paths: i) forced adoption/coercive adoption, ii) proactive response, iii) adapt, iv) influence, and v) side-stepping

Managing stakeholder communication in the Ghanaian telecommunication industry

Thesis (PhD (Communication Management))--University of Pretoria, 2022.The telecommunications business in Ghana has grown rapidly during the previous three decades. Thus, it is critical to establish effective communication among key stakeholders and consumers. This study's main purpose is to design a strategic framework for managing consumer and stakeholder interest in Ghana's telecommunications industry. Pragmatic research philosophies were used to support quantitative and qualitative research methods. Inductive and deductive research methods were utilised to collect data from 421 respondents for analysis, interpretation, and discussion. Awareness raising, discourse, education, training, capacity development, relevant operational information, implementation and monitoring are important communication strategies. The study found that most consumers and key stakeholders are unaware of telecommunications interests. However, those few stakeholders aware of telecommunications interests claim the communication strategies are not well managed. National Communications Authority, telecommunications service providers, and the Ministry of Communications oversee telecommunications interests. A lack of effective communication resources, insufficient information, and poor service quality are some of the challenges key stakeholders and consumers face in managing communication interests. In addition to properly defined communication channels, regular interaction, the development and implementation of a communication plan, regular feedback, open and thorough engagement, and effective involvement of stakeholders and consumers in the formulation and implementation of communication policies, the findings revealed are means of improving communication interest. The study developed a strategic communication plan to be adopted by the key stakeholders and consumers. The study also employed theories that formed a solid foundation for the study.Communication ManagementPhD (Communication Management)UnrestrictedFaculty of Economic And Management Science