Abstract
The use of microfinance in poverty alleviation and, by extension, as an instrument for sustainable social and economic development, represents a novel idea in sustainable finance. This study employed science mapping to examine 4049 Scopus-indexed documents explicitly concerned with microfinance. The goals of the review were to document the distribution of microfinance literature by type, volume, time, and geography, and to identify influential authors, articles, and a potential intellectual structure of this knowledge base. The first microfinance research was conducted in 1989, but the field attracted increased attention only after 2006, when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus. This study does not find any single dominant school of thought in the field of microfinance, but rather identified three thematic research clusters: (1) a concentration on institutional aspects of microfinance, (2) scholars who used sophisticated research methods to evaluate the impact of microfinance, and (3) groundbreaking microfinance literature related to social justice more generally. As the first-ever, comprehensive bibliometric review of research on microfinance, this study provides benchmarks against which to assess the future evolution of this literature, a reference for scholars entering this domain, and targets for future development of this field of sustainability scholarship.
Highlights
Microfinance originated to provide the poor in the developing world a basis for self-determination through entrepreneurship, and to motivate them to move towards new goals and a sustainable future
Microfinance can be conceptualized as a powerful preventive mechanism through which societies can reduce problems that threaten social, cultural, and economic sustainability, such as forced human migration, cultural conflicts, and political unrest [1]
Yunus founded one of the first significant microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Bangladesh, which served as a model that spread throughout the world
Summary
Microfinance originated to provide the poor in the developing world a basis for self-determination through entrepreneurship, and to motivate them to move towards new goals and a sustainable future. The significance of microfinance was further underscored by the United Nations’ (UN) adoption of microfinance within its global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of 2012 [32]. The purpose of this review of research is to document the growth and evolution of research on microfinance. It aims to analyze a significant portion of the accumulated knowledge base published on microfinance. RQ2: Which authors have the most significant influence on global microfinance research, and what is the intellectual structure of the knowledge base?. This study is the first comprehensive bibliometric review of research on microfinance based on documents extracted from the Scopus database [37,38]. This study seeks to provide a set of bibliometric benchmarks against which the future evolution of research on microfinance can be assessed
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