Exploring Mission Drift Dimensions in Indian Micro Finance Institutions
Prajnan, Journal of Social and Management Sciences, NIBM, 2015
37 Pages Posted: 5 Jun 2017
There are 2 versions of this paper
Exploring Mission Drift Dimensions in Indian Micro Finance Institutions
Exploring Mission Drift Dimensions in Indian Micro Finance Institutions
Date Written: July 1, 2015
Abstract
Mission drift in microfinance industry is becoming an ethical concern in the path of building a financially inclusive society. However, its dimensions and the reasons have not been ascertained conclusively. This paper tries to answer these issues with the help of a filtered dataset comprising of 41 MFIs in India over a period of five years i.e. 2008-09 and 2012-13. The finding of the study states that there is an unquestionable difference in the operations of the drifted and centered (not-drifted) MFIs. Our study indicates a growing number of MFIs drifted in recent years i.e. 27 in 2012-13 vs. 23 in 2008-09. Amongst them, more numbers were from non-NGO sector than NGO sector giving an indication of ownership influence. We also found that both cost inefficiency and profit motive were responsible, however, for a many of the MFIs the inference was hazy. Further, legal status and sustainability of MFIs have surfaced as the significant explaining variables of mission drift but other structural variables have also been identified.
Keywords: Mission Drift, Micro finance Institutions, Cost Inefficiency, Profit Orientation, Social performance
JEL Classification: C33, C35, G21, G28, G32
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation