Browsing by Author "Mersland, Roy"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Board Committees and Performance in Microfinance Institutions: Evidence from Ethiopia
    (2018) Dato, Muluneh; Mersland, Roy; Mori, Neema
    This paper empirically relates subordinate board structures with improved financial and social performance in microfinance institutions (MFIs). The research question is analyzed using a panel data from 23 microfinance institutions in Ethiopia over a period of 2006— 2011. Random effects panel data estimation is applied to analyze the link between board committees and MFI's performance. In MFIs with larger than average boards, the findings demonstrate significant ties between financial and outreach performance and how their boards are structured. The structure of board committees moderates the relation between board size and financial and outreach performance measures. Importantly, board committee benefits MFIs through better operational self-sufficiency, lower operating expenses, greater outreach to customers, and outreach to poorer customers using average loan size as our proxy. Practitioners within microfinance sector, and those operating in advisory and regulatory roles to the sector could benefit from the argument advanced in the paper in that normative recommendation to restructure boards or establish committees requires reevaluating the board characteristics vis-à-vis the optimal monitoring, controlling, and advising needs of the institution. Prior literature focuses on who sits on boards, how large are the boards, and how independent are they. This paper advances our understanding of the structure of board committees and how this may affect the performance of MFI. This approach provides better representation of director's role and is thereby a good test of board effectiveness.
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    Boards in microfinance institutions: how do stakeholders matter?
    (Springer, 2014) Mori, Neema; Mersland, Roy
    Microfinance Institutions provide financial services to poor people. Governance of these organizations is important so that they can operate efficiently and sustainably. This study analyzes the influence of stakeholders (donors, employees, customers, and creditors), on board structure (board size and CEO duality), and on organizational performance. We use a global data set of 379 microfinance institutions from 73 countries, collected from rating organizations. Supported by stakeholder theory, agency theory and resource dependence theory, we find stakeholders to be important and have various influences on microfinance institutions. We find donors to be associated with small boards, non-duality and better performance. Employees are associated with large boards, while customers are associated with duality and good financial performance. Creditors opt for duality and better social performance. Implications and areas for future research are discussed.
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    Boards in Microfinance Organizations: Do Stakeholders Matter?
    (2014) Mori, Neema; Mersland, Roy
    Microfinance organizations provide financial services to low income people. Governance of these organizations is important for them to efficiently reach poor people and survive financially. Board is one among several governance mechanisms. This paper empirically analyses the influence of stakeholders who sit on boards, on financial and outreach results of microfinance organizations. Based on resource dependence and stakeholder theories, we analyze four types of stakeholders; donors, customers, employees and creditors. Results show that stakeholders are important in microfinance and that more non-profit organizations have donors on boards than for-profit organizations while customers and employees are found to be more represented on for-profit organizations. Regression results show that stakeholders through their resource provision role contribute both positively and negatively to financial and outreach results. Implications and areas for future research are further discussed.
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    The influence of the CEO’s business education on the performance of hybrid organizations: the case of the global microfinance industry
    (Springer, 2017-08) Mori, Neema; Pascal, Daudi; Mersland, Roy
    Microfinance institutions (MFIs) are typical examples of hybrid organisations, meaning organisations pursuing both a financial and social logic. This study examines the question of whether financial and social performance improves when an MFI’s chief executive officer (CEO) has a business education. We apply the random effects instrumental variable regression method to examine the influence of the CEO’s business education on the MFI’s financial and social performance. Our panel dataset that includes 353 MFIs from across the globe indicates that ‘only’ 55% of the MFIs have a CEO with a business education. The empirical results indicate that MFIs with CEOs who have a business education perform significantly better, financially and socially, than MFIs managed by CEOs with other types of educational backgrounds. The findings suggest that CEOs with a business education seem better at managing the much-debated tradeoff between providing small loans and producing healthy financial results.