Percorrer por autor "Fonseca, Salvador"
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- Factors influencing sustainable poverty reduction: a systematic review of the literature with a microfinance perspectivePublication . Fonseca, Salvador; Moreira, Antonio; Mota, JorgeThis research examined factors that help microfinance achieve sustained poverty reduction based on a systematic literature review (SLR). A search was conducted on the SCOPUS database up to December 2023. After analyzing hundreds of documents, a subset of 30 articles was subject to in-depth analysis, exploring factors and corresponding measurement indicators for sustainable poverty reduction in microfinance contexts. This article emphasizes that sustained poverty reduction is a gradual process requiring ongoing efforts from both Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) and governments. Two key success factors are empowering borrowers and ensuring the microfinance programs themselves are profitable. When implemented in an integrated and coordinated manner, these factors can empower individuals to escape poverty by fostering self-employment and income generation, ultimately reducing dependence on external support. Additionally, the study highlights the role of personality traits in influencing long-term entrepreneurial success. The findings provide valuable tools for MFIs and policymakers. MFIs gain a practical framework to guide their interventions towards sustained poverty reduction. Policymakers can leverage the identified factors and indicators when designing and implementing microfinance policies with a long-term focus on poverty alleviation. This study breaks new ground by presenting an operational framework that categorizes and integrates two critical factor groups: empowerment and beneficiary profitability. Furthermore, it links these factors to corresponding measurement indicators within a unified framework, enabling a more holistic assessment of poverty reduction efforts.
- The impact of microfinance on individuals’ empowerment: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Fonseca, Salvador; Mota, Jorge; Moreira, AntonioThis study aims to conduct a systematic literature review (SLR) to identify the main factors of individuals’ empowerment from the perspective of microfinance. Methodology/approach: To achieve the proposed objective, an SLR was conducted using the SCOPUS database from 1950 to 2021. From a set of 690 papers, only 43 related to empowerment factors were considered and analyzed to segment the factors and their respective sub-factors according to their nature. Findings: This SLR documents that microfinance is a tool for the economic, psychological, political, and social empowerment of people with business ideas, but without access to the traditional financial system. Also found are financial and nonfinancial/social factors of empowerment that must operate systematically to produce the desired effects. Practical implications: The results of this research can help microfinance institutions (MFIs) and policy makers to determine the best strategy for individuals’ economic, psychological, political and social empowerment through the microfinance lens. Originality/value: It identifies a set of empowerment factors for needy individuals with entrepreneurial ideas who, through microfinance, can find a mechanism to exit poverty.
- Profitability of microfinance institutions and borrowers: a systematic literature reviewPublication . Fonseca, Salvador; Moreira, Antonio; Mota, JorgeUsing the SCOPUS database, this paper conducts a systematic literature review to identify the drivers of financial profitability for both microfinance institutions (MFIs) and borrowers. Among the 174 papers reviewed, 39 addressed the profitability drivers of MFIs and borrowers. For, MFIs several factors stand out: financing for women and group credit, portfolio quality; client monitoring; appropriate active and passive interest rates; and control of operating costs. For borrowers, training in small business management; the generation of innovative and well-structured business ideas, access to microcredit and adequate passive interest rate, monitoring by MFIs and investment-focused credit, are found to drive profitability without jeopardizing their scope and depth of their operations. In this way the MFIs can grow and expand their services in a financially sustainable way, and better serve excluded individuals. These results may provide a valuable framework to MFIs and borrowers to consider in their activities. Additionally, the findings are valuable also to policymakers when designing microfinance policies aimed at poverty reduction. A possible conjecture resulting from this study is that the financial sustainability of microfinance does not lie in subsidization, but in the application of market rules. By identifying two sets of factors that drive profitability, for MFIs and for borrowers, this paper provides an interface that incorporates measurement indicators.