Financial sustainability of for-profit versus non-profit microfinance organizations following a scandal

Why do some organizations suffer more than others in the wake of an industry scandal? Although ex-ante greater opportunistic behavior of organizations is one factor, we argue that ex-post greater targeting of organizations is another important factor. Using the context of microfinance organizations...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Adbi, Arzi (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2023
In: Journal of business ethics
Year: 2023, Volume: 188, Issue: 1, Pages: 57-74
Further subjects:B Organizational forms
B Microfinance
B Financial Sustainability
B Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
B Ethical transgression
B Scandal
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Summary:Why do some organizations suffer more than others in the wake of an industry scandal? Although ex-ante greater opportunistic behavior of organizations is one factor, we argue that ex-post greater targeting of organizations is another important factor. Using the context of microfinance organizations (MFOs), we examine why the financial sustainability of for-profit and non-profit organizations may be heterogeneously affected following a scandal. Leveraging the 2010 Indian microfinance scandal as our research setting and analyzing longitudinal data, we find a substantial decline in the financial sustainability of Indian MFOs relative to their counterparts within the rest of South Asia. Compared to Indian non-profit MFOs, Indian for-profit MFOs suffered substantially more. Intriguingly, these results hold not only in the full sample, but also in the matched sample of comparable for-profit and non-profit MFOs. Further analysis reveals that the adverse impact on for-profit MFOs was much bigger in the scandal's epicenter. Our findings suggest that some organizations may suffer more than others not only due to their engagement in actual malfeasance but also due to their greater targeting by the social control agents. We discuss the implications of this study for social enterprise managers and policymakers.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05287-8