Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to thoroughly examine sources of mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry and to identify consequences of and remedies to these problems. Design/methodology/approach – Extensive field experience relating to individual...

Purpose – The paper's aim is to thoroughly examine solutions to mission diffusion and mission drift in the microfinance industry. Design/methodology/approach – Extensive field experience relating to individual microfinance institutions and industry trends provide the grounding for a review...

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) have largely focused on urban markets, leaving the rural poor underserved. The high costs of serving rural markets has often been identified as the key impediment to serving these markets, resulting in saturation and heavy competition in urban markets while poor...

The microfinance industry seeks to alleviate poverty by providing business loans and related financial services to clients who are too small to be served profitably through the formal financial sector. Microbusiness lending is considered to be among the most powerful tools available for...