Kalam, Asif (2021) Institutional challenges of the Grameen model: UK and USA experiences. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
The microfinance movement, pioneered by Dr Muhammad Yunus, who founded the Grameen Bank (GB), has earned fame as a model of poverty alleviation affording micro-entrepreneurs with credit. The GB model inspired many other countries to replicate it, including the UK and USA where at different periods numerous micro-lending initiatives surfaced adopting the model. The study considers the environment in which the Grameen model emerged in UK and USA, seeking to understand the nature of institutional challenges of adopting the model in these countries. For this purpose, it compares various operational aspects of microfinance institutions (MFIs) identifying at the backdrop the core features of the GB model and the environmental factors that have led to mitigation of institutional challenges in its country of origin. The findings indicate that that one or more core enabling elements were missing, either by design or imposed upon by the milieus leading to heightened institutional complexities in the UK experiences. As a result, for some MFIs, this has caused a change in organizational identity, framing and nature of alignment with partners. Such a situation has been worsened by an unfavourable environment for adoption of the model including the individualist nature of communities and regulatory distortions. Due to all such problems, organizations have generally struggled to secure legitimacy. In the US, most MFIs confronted similar complexities to the UK case studies in adopting the model in their respective contexts, resulting either in discarding of the peer group technique or ceasing operations. One organization, Grameen America (GA), stands out distinctive as it has revived the effective use of the Grameen model, widely perceived as archaic in the US industrialized contexts. Unlike most MFIs, GA has been particularly successful in doing so, as it has upheld the core elements of the original model and aided by favourable socio-economic environments.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Dec 2021 14:30 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2023 15:10 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/46906 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00046906 |
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