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PurposeThis study investigates the role of national culture between outreach and sustainability of microfinance institutions (MFIs). Despite microfinance's deep embeddedness in cultural contexts, research on the influence of national culture on MFI performance is rather sparse. This paper seeks to fill this gap and, based on cross-country microfinance data, attempts to explain the outreach-sustainability relationship in reference to cultural factors.Design/methodology/approachAn unbalanced panel, consisting of 5,741 MFI-year observations of 1,232 MFIs from 43 countries in six regions, is drawn from the Microfinance Information Exchange (MIX) Market database. Two different econometric models are tested. Model 1 estimates the direct effect of outreach on sustainability, using a fixed-effects estimator. Model 2 examines the moderation effect of national culture on outreach-sustainability relationship, employing correlated random effects approach.FindingsThe results show that depth of outreach and financial sustainability of MFIs are negatively related, and the relationship is moderated by national culture. Power distance and uncertainty avoidance positively moderate the outreach-sustainability relationship, whereas individualism and masculinity negatively moderate the relationship.Originality/valueThe findings suggest that the national culture where MFIs are located plays an important contingent role in their performance and that the magnitude of the trade-off effect varies from culture to culture. The research thus provides further insight in the trade-off debate and contributes to literatures of both microfinance and cross-cultural management.

Microfinance revolution, as it was frequently called, did not happen overnight. Microfinance has a long history of evolution, from a simple idea to a global movement, through which it came into the present shape. But much of its history is yet to be written systematically. In fact, there is no historical research so far from the perspective of microfinance. Little is thus known about the early history of some of the oldest forms of lending to the poor. The current study offers a historical look at microfinance and aims at documenting the evolution of modern microfinance institutions. The object of the research is to recognize the historical depth of microfinance and give a picture of how this idea emerged and developed overtime. The study reveals that moneylending to the poor was always in existence in various forms in different periods of time in both developing and developed countries. It has a long history, particularly in Asia but also in Africa and Europe.

Organizations are under pressure to explore innovative sustainability practices that will enable organizations to handle the deteriorating issues of biodiversity and social inequality. Stern and Dietz’ model offered a set of values with which organizations can create sustainability. This study’s main purpose was to explore how Stern and Dietz’ model underpin the various dimensions of workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior to accomplish corporate sustainability. To achieve the objective of the study, the previous literature was reviewed to construct a conceptual framework. This conceptual model is comprised of three phases egoistic, social altruistic, and biospheric. Based on prior literature, various dimensions of workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior were underpinned to accomplish corporate sustainability. Even though this concept sets out basic guidelines. However relevant knowledge should be regarded in order to reconcile these steps in different instances. This article provides a systematic review of the Stern and Dietz value model to achieve various aspects of organizational sustainability. A constructive framework was developed to create corporate sustainability by incorporating workplace spirituality and organizational citizenship behavior into the context of the Stern Dietz’ value model. Theoretical and practical implications are also discussed in this study.