Maitrot, Mathilde Rose Louise orcid.org/0000-0001-9365-6380 (2019) Understanding social performance:a ‘practice drift’ at the frontline of Microfinance Institutions in Bangladesh. Development and change. pp. 623-654. ISSN 0012-155X
Abstract
This article examines the role of microfinance staff and procedures in enabling microfinance's social mission. It does so primarily through studying institutional ruling relations and practices in rural Bangladesh. Attempting to move away from the linear and deterministic approaches of impact studies, it ethnographically scrutinizes the everyday practices of implementers. Findings point to the emergence of systemic practices that jeopardize microfinance institutions' potential to perform their social mission. These include low client-selection standards, hard selling of loans and forceful loan renewal, little follow-up on loan use, and abusive and violent client-retention and repayment-collection strategies. This is conceptualized as a 'practice drift' as distinct from the commonly reported 'mission drift'. Rather than stemming from planned, top-down changes in institutional mission and strategy, practice drift emerges from a displacement of decision-making processes to the branches. The article argues that observed changes in microfinance practice are enabled by decentralized structures and management systems that leave the choice of tactics used to achieve targets to the discretion of field staff.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 The Authors. |
Keywords: | Microfinance,Bangladesh,street-level bureaucracy,NGO,Poverty,organisational capacity |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of York |
Academic Units: | The University of York > Faculty of Social Sciences (York) > Social Policy and Social Work (York) |
Depositing User: | Pure (York) |
Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2018 12:40 |
Last Modified: | 18 Mar 2025 00:07 |
Published Version: | https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12398 |
Status: | Published |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1111/dech.12398 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:127565 |
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Description: Microfinance's practice drift
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Description: Ma-trot-2018-Development_and_Change
Licence: CC-BY 2.5