Abstract
The prime objective of this paper is to propose an evolving service system for cocreation of value in microfinance. Close monitoring and the role of the customer service assistant (CSA) are the key components of this evolving service system. A semi-structured interview strategy was used to elucidate the evolving service system. We conducted 25 interviews with employees of BRAC’s microfinance program, Bangladesh, and its borrowers. The results show that CSA particularly plays a key role in the evolving service system to provide higher financial literacy than before through their professional activities including pre-disbursement orientations and giving 4 days of training to borrowers.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abed, F. H., 2005, Microfinance interventions to enable the poorest to improve their asset base, In J. von Braun, R. Vargas Hill & R. Pandya-Lorach (Eds.), The Poorest and Hungry: Assessment, Analyses, and Actions, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington DC.
Khavul, S., 2010, Microfinance: creating opportunities for the poor? Academy of Management Perspective, 54(3): 57–71.
Maes, J. P. and Reed, L. R., 2012, State of the Microcredit Summit Campaign Report 2012, Microcredit Summit Campaign, Washington DC.
McKernan, S. M., 2002, The impact of microcredit programs on self-employment profits: do non-credit program aspects matter? The Review of Economics and Statistics, 84(1): 93–115.
Al-Mamun, A., Wahab, S. A. and Malarvizhi, C. A., 2011, Examining the effect of microcredit on employment in Peninsular Malaysia, Journal of Sustainable Development, 4(2): 174–183.
Jia, X., Xiang, C. and Huang, J., 2013, Microfinance, self-employment and entrepreneurs in less developed areas of rural China, China Economic Review, 27: 94–103.
Morduch, J., 1999, The microfinance promise, Journal of Economic Literature, 37(4): 1569–1614.
Armendariz, B. and Morduch, J., 2010, The economics of microfinance, MIT Press, Massachusetts.
Rahman, M. W., Wang, X., Ahmed, S. and Luo, J., 2011, The synthesis of Grameenbank, BRAC and ASA: microfinance approaches in Bangladesh, IPRCC Working Paper Services, 4: 1–33.
Grameen Bank, 2015, Credit lending models. http://www.grameen.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=93 (Accessed on 01 February, 2015).
Khandker, S. R., Samad, H. A. and Khan, Z. H., 1998, Income and employment effects of micro-credit programmes: village-level evidence from Bangladesh. Journal of Development Studies, 35(2): 96–124.
Prahalad, C. K. and Ramaswamy, V., 2004, Co-creation experiences: the next practice in value creation, Journal of Interactive Marketing, 8(3): 5–14.
Simanis, E. and Hart, S., 2009, Innovation from the inside out, MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(4): 77–86.
Dahan, N. M., Doh, J. P., Oetzel, J. and Yaziji, M., 2010, Corporate-NGO collaboration: co-creating new business models for developing markets, Long Range Planning, 43(2–3): 327–342.
Yunus, M., Moingeon, B. and Ortega, L. L., 2010, Building social business models: lessons from the Grameen experience, Long Range Planning, 43(2–3): 308–325.
Ashta, A., 2012, Co-creation for impact investment in microfinance, Strategic Change, 21(1–2): 71–81.
Lusch, R. F. and Vargo, S. L., 2014, Service-dominant logic: premises, perspectives, possibilities, Cambridge University Press, UK.
Yin, R. K., 2014, Case study research: design methods (5th Ed.), Sage, London.
Eisenhardth, K. M. and Graebner, M. E., 2007, Theory building from cases: opportunities and challenges, Academy of Management Journal, 50: 25–32.
Gephart, J. H., 2004, Qualitative research and the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, 47: 554–562.
BRAC’s Annual Report, 2013, BRAC annual report. http://www.brac.net/sites/default/files/annual-report-2013/BRAC-annual-report-2013.pdf (Accessed on 23rd January, 2015).
DeMarrais, K, 2004, Qualitative interview studies: learning through experience, In K. deMarrais & S. D. Lapan (Eds.), Foundations for research (51–68), Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ.
Berg, B. L, 2009, Qualitative research methods for the social sciences (7th Ed.), Allyn & Bacon, Boston.
Daly, J., Kellehear, A. and Gliksman, M., 1997, The public health researcher: a methodological approach, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Australia.
Lapadat, J. C., 2009, Thematic analysis, In Mills, A. J., Wiebe, E. and Durepos, G. (Eds), Encyclopaedia of Case Study Research, Vol. 2, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.
Corbin, J. and Strauss, A., 1990, Grounded theory research: procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria, Qualitative Sociology, 13(1): 3–21.
Siddike, M. A. K., Kohda, Y. and Haque, I. T., 2014, Service system for social innovation in education: a developing country perspective, The 3rd Asian Conference on Information Systems, Nha Trang, Vietnam, 1–3 December: 172–179.
Acknowledgments
This study is funded by a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports and Technology (MEXT) in Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan. The authors greatly appreciate MEXT for their financial support. The authors also thank all those involved in BRAC’s microfinance program for their co-operation in this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Japan
About this paper
Cite this paper
Siddike, M.A.K., Kohda, Y., Hoque, M. (2017). An Evolving Service System in Microfinance: A Case Study in BRAC, Bangladesh. In: Sawatani, Y., Spohrer, J., Kwan, S., Takenaka, T. (eds) Serviceology for Smart Service System. ICServ 2015. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56074-6_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-56074-6_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo
Print ISBN: 978-4-431-56072-2
Online ISBN: 978-4-431-56074-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)