Title: Social business microfinance - different models to empower women

Authors: Michael Wirtz; Christine Volkmann

Addresses: Chair of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal, Gausstr. 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany ' Chair of Entrepreneurship and Economic Development, Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, University of Wuppertal, Gausstr. 20, 42119 Wuppertal, Germany

Abstract: Social business is a concept founded by Grameen Bank founder and Nobel Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus. It encompasses the use of business methods in order to solve social problems. A core business of this field is microfinancing which traditionally focuses on the empowerment of women, making them small business entrepreneurs. We present three organisations dedicated to the special concept of social business and use qualitative data in order to find out where they differ in their methods of providing microloans. Our findings are that all organisations use both group elements and individual elements of loan provision models. Our paper provides an insight into what is special about the different models of social business microfinance.

Keywords: social entrepreneurship; social business microfinance; female empowerment; women entrepreneurs; loan provision.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEI.2015.072526

International Journal of Social Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 2015 Vol.3 No.5, pp.323 - 338

Received: 11 Feb 2015
Accepted: 21 Mar 2015
Published online: 16 Oct 2015 *

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