The impact of COVID-19 on the efficiency of microfinance institutions
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Zheng C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC7521446 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Irrespective of the promising opportunity to improve profit efficiency by at least 73%, microfinance institutions operating in Sub-Saharan Africa are efficient only for 27%, far below the average value. The conclusion is drawn after analyzing the profit efficiency of the microfinance institutions using the stochastic frontier approach applied to data obtained from 128 microfinance institutions operating in 34 Sub-Saharan African countries. The study results suggest the presence of uniform profit efficiency experience across time among microfinance institutions. Microfinance institutions operating in low-income countries and credit union form microfinance are economically more efficient than their counterparts. Furthermore, the profit efficiency of microfinance institutions is significantly affected by total assets, cost per loan, loan per staff, legal status, and the county's income group of microfinance. Notably, the profit efficiency of microfinance institutions is adversely affected by the presence of female borrowers and female loan officers suggesting that gender diversity plays a role in the efficiency of microfinance institutions. Finally, we recommend that the managing body of microfinance work more on improving labor efficiency, earning asset utilization, loan collection efficiency, women's involvement and the hottest technology implementation.
| S-EPMC11299832 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 forced to transform face-to-face mode of teaching to virtual in educational institutions around the globe that not only impact institutional stakeholders, but also posed as a threat to entire humanity because, all parties related to education had to change their activities. The intentions of this study therefore firstly, to determine the content analysis by interviewing tertiary students and secondly, to determine the frequency distribution by questionnaire developed from results of the content analysis. To better understand the consequences of this outbreak, we took an interview from forty respondents, including undergraduate and postgraduate students across Bangladesh. Results of Content analysis revealed that stakeholders of tertiary education are encountering severe problems in mental health, financial, technical, and study. A questionnaire was designed based on results were obtained through content analysis and distributed using email, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram from May 20 to May 30, 2021. A total number of 505 valid questionnaires were received from respondents. Frequency distribution analysis disclosed that 60% respondents have no separate reading rooms. Laptops and desktops are commonly used for online classes, but unfortunately, 21% respondents have no personal electronic gadgets. Moreover, 55% reported spending less time to study during the coronavirus outbreak. Furthermore, 88% respondents reported experiencing mental health-related stress, anxiety, and depression problems. The proportion that suffered financial crisis, family disruptions, internet and technology related problems were 79%, 83% and 72% respectively. Since coronavirus pandemic is a totally new phenomenon in the world, not much empirical literature exist. So we fill the gap, investigating the issue empirically using content and frequency distribution analysis. Policy implications and recommendations are discussed accordingly.
| S-EPMC8776340 | biostudies-literature
Project description:According to strategic management theory, dynamic capability plays a significant role in enhancing organizational performance. Using a cross-sectional research design, the current study quantitatively assesses the mediating effect of dynamic capability on the relationships of total quality management, customer intellectual capital, and human resource management practice with the performance of microfinance institutions. An online survey involving 120 members of Induk Koperasi Kredit, a credit union association in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, is conducted. All the data are subjected to variance-based partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis. The obtained results demonstrate the significant and positive influence of total quality management and human resource management practice on dynamic capability. Furthermore, dynamic capability is found to mediate the relationship between total quality management and human resource management practice on the performance of microfinance institutions. However, this study is unable to conclude that total quality management and human resource management practice have any significant impact on the performance of microfinance institutions. Nonetheless, this study demonstrates the crucial need for microfinance institutions to enhance their management activities via dynamic capability to enhance performance. This is one of the earliest studies conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic to examine the capabilities and performance of microfinance institutions in Indonesia. Notably, the performance of microfinance institutions can be further sustained by improving customers' intellectual and dynamic capabilities.
| S-EPMC10204987 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveWe analyzed the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19) to understand leading research institutions, collaborations among institutions, major publication venues, key research concepts, and topics covered by pandemic-related research.MethodsWe conducted a descriptive analysis of authors' institutions and relationships, automatic content extraction of key words and phrases from titles and abstracts, and topic modeling and evolution. Data visualization techniques were applied to present the results of the analysis.ResultsWe found that leading research institutions on COVID-19 included the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the US National Institutes of Health, and the University of California. Research studies mostly involved collaboration among different institutions at national and international levels. In addition to bioRxiv, major publication venues included journals such as The BMJ, PLOS One, Journal of Virology, and The Lancet. Key research concepts included the coronavirus, acute respiratory impairments, health care, and social distancing. The ten most popular topics were identified through topic modeling and included human metapneumovirus and livestock, clinical outcomes of severe patients, and risk factors for higher mortality rate.ConclusionData analytics is a powerful approach for quickly processing and understanding large-scale datasets like CORD-19. This approach could help medical librarians, researchers, and the public understand important characteristics of COVID-19 research and could be applied to the analysis of other large datasets.
| S-EPMC8485960 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic, through stay-at-home orders, forced rapid changes to social human behavior and interrelations, targeting the work environments to protect workers and users. Rapidly, global organizations, US associations, and professionals stepped in to mitigate the virus's spread in buildings' living and work environments. The institutions proposed new HVAC settings without efficiency concerns, as improved flow rates and filtering for irradiation, humidity, and temperature. Current literature consensually predicted an increase in energy consumption due to new measures to control the SARS-CoV-2 spread. The research team assumed the effort of validating the prior published outcomes, applied to US standardized high-rise office buildings, as defined and set by the key entities in the field, by resorting to a methodology based on software energy analysis. The study compares a standard high-rise office building energy consumption, CO2 emissions and operations costs in nine US climate zones - from 0 to 8, south to north latitudes, respectively -, assessed in the most populated cities, between the previous and post COVID-19 scenarios. The outcomes clarify the gathered knowledge, explaining that climate zones above mixed-humid type tend to increase relative energy use intensity by 21.72%, but below that threshold the zones decrease relative energy use intensity by 11.92%.
| S-EPMC8205289 | biostudies-literature
Project description: Not available
| S-BSST563 | biostudies-other
Project description:Primary outcome(s): The incidence of obstructive colorectal cancer
| 2656898 | ecrin-mdr-crc
Project description:Objectives: To investigate country-specific drivers and barriers of positive COVID-19 vaccine intentions in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), one of the two entities comprising Bosnia and Herzegovina. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was used, using an online behavioural insights survey tool adapted to the context of FBiH. Three survey waves, each including approximately 1,000 adults, were conducted in July, September and December 2020. Fixed-effects regression analysis was used to explore the drivers, barriers and attitudes towards accepting a future COVID-19 vaccine. Results: COVID-19 risk perception, trust in health institutions and negative affect were positive predictors of positive COVID-19 vaccine intentions, as were living in urban areas and having a college education (versus having primary or secondary education). Conversely, being female, feeling that the pandemic was overhyped by the media and the country of vaccine production were negative predictors. Conclusion: This study provided snapshots on the state of attitudes regarding a future COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in 2020. These findings provided useful insights into the efforts to introduce and roll out the COVID-19 vaccines in FBiH. Further efforts should focus on better understanding the demographic, cultural and behavioural contexts of COVID-related vaccination perceptions in FBiH.
| S-EPMC9036943 | biostudies-literature
Project description:IntroductionHealth programs implemented by microfinance institutions (MFIs) aim to benefit the poor, but whether these services reach the poorest remains uncertain. This study intended to investigate the socioeconomic distribution of patients in hospitals operated by microfinance institutions (i.e. MFI hospitals) in Bangladesh and compare the differences with public hospitals to determine if the programs were consistent with their pro-poor mandate.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, we used the convenience sampling method to conduct an interviewer-assisted questionnaire survey among 347 female outpatients, with 170 in public hospitals and 177 in MFI hospitals. Independent variables were patient characteristics categorized into predisposing factors (age, education, marital status, family size), enabling factors (microcredit membership, household income) and need factors (self-rated health, perceived needs for care). We employed Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) to evaluate how these factors contributed to MFI hospital use.ResultsUse of MFI hospitals was associated with microcredit membership over 5 years (OR=2.9, p<.01), moderately poor household (OR=4.09, p<.001), non-poor household (OR=7.34, p<.01) and need for preventive care (OR=3.4, p<.01), compared with public hospitals. Combining membership and income, we found microcredit members had a higher tendency towards utilization but membership effect pertained to the non- and moderately-poor. Compared with the group who were non-members and the poorest, microcredit members who were non-poor had the highest likelihood (OR=7.46, p<.001) to visit MFI hospitals, followed by members with moderate income (OR=6.91, p<.001) and then non-members in non-poor households (OR=4.48, p<.01). Those who were members but the poorest had a negative association (OR=0.42), though not significant. Despite a higher utilization of preventive services in MFI hospitals, expenditure there was significantly higher.ConclusionInequity was more pronounced in MFI hospitals than public ones. MFI hospitals appeared to miss their target population. We suggest that MFIs reorganize health programs toward primary health care to make care equitable and universally accessible. This study holds practical implications for governments, development agencies and microfinance practitioners working at the grassroots level.
| S-EPMC4373946 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Recent exposure to seasonal coronaviruses (sCoVs) may stimulate cross-reactive antibody responses against SARS-CoV-2. Previous studies have shown divergent results regarding protective or damaging immunity induced by prior exposure to sCoVs. It is still unknown whether pre-existing humoral immunity may play a role in the vaccine-induced neutralization and antibody responses. In this study, we collected 36 paired sera in healthy volunteers before and after immunization with inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and analyzed the distribution and intensity of pre-existing antibody responses at the epitope level before vaccine immunization, as well as the relationship between pre-existing sCoVs immunity and vaccine-induced neutralization.
2021-10-13 | E-MTAB-11084 | biostudies-arrayexpress