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The main purpose of this study is to test whether ethical financial behavior as a mediator promotes microfinance inclusion and survival of the poor young women microenterprises in rural Uganda.

The methods recommended by Kenny et al. (1998); Shrout and Bolger (2002); MacKinnon et al. (2004); and Preacher and Hayes (2004) were used to establish the existence of non-zero monotonic association between microfinance inclusion and survival through testing the mediating effect of ethical financial behavior in SmartPLS.

The results from the structural equation modeling revealed a significant full mediating effect of ethical financial behavior in the relationship between microfinance inclusion and survival of the poor young women microenterprises. Microfinance inclusion and ethical financial behavior explain 62 % of the variation in survival of the poor young women microenterprises in rural Uganda.

Whereas significant results were obtained from this study, the data were collected only from rural-based poor young women microenterprises located in northern Uganda. Extending the sample to cover the whole country may provide a more representative picture. Besides, it would be useful to compare results across developing countries as this may provide information about the generality of our findings.

The findings from this study can be useful to managers of microfinance institutions in developing countries to adopt practice that can promote financial discipline among rural poor young women microentrepreneurs. Routine financial education and business mentorship can be organized through workshops, trainings and seminars to teach rural poor young women microentrepreneurs how to manage money, especially business loans borrowed from the microfinance institutions to put it into right use. This can help them to meet timely loan repayment to increase access to future microfinance loans.

This study provides the first evidence on the use of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and theory of reasoned action (TRA) to explain microfinance inclusion of the poor young women microentrepreneurs in rural Uganda. The study uses a blend of TPB and TRA derived from psychology and sociology to explain repayment intention and ethical behaviors of the poor young women borrowers, which determines the microfinance lending cycle to make microcredit available for them to engage in entrepreneurship to come out of poverty to attain wellbeing.

Using an institutional lens and drawing on the arguments of the external enabler perspective, this study aims to examine the role of digital technology adoption on the performance of microenterprises, with a focus on their level of formality. It further explores these relationships in the context of an external crisis, like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study uses data from 7,510 Indian microenterprises collected by the World Bank and applies a mediated-moderation model to analyse the relationship between digital technology adoption, formality and microenterprise performance during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The results reveal a significantly positive relationship between digital technology adoption and microenterprise performance. Importantly, we argue that this relationship between digital technology and microenterprise performance is strongly mediated by the level of a firm’s formality. Moreover, this study also finds that the relationship between digital technology adoption and microenterprise performance will be positively moderated by the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has on the microenterprise, suggesting that the pandemic enhanced the benefits of digital technology adoption for microenterprises.

This study expands on the positive relationship between technology adoption and microenterprise performance by investigating the moderating role of COVID-19 impact and the mediating role of firm formality. The key contribution of this research is the mediating role of formality between digitalisation and firm performance. By testing this novel mediating relationship, we theorise that the adoption of digital technology helps microenterprises to overcome certain institutional voids in an emerging market context, serving as a viable conduit for formalisation. In turn, higher levels of formality lead to higher microenterprise performance. We also contribute to the emerging stream of literature discussing the role of an external enabler, such as the COVID-19 pandemic in entrepreneurship. In the end, the study offers novel policy implications.

This study aims to investigate the impact of Islamic fintech lending on the performance of microenterprises in Indonesia.

This study conducted a survey involving 400 microenterprises located in East Java, Indonesia. This investigation used a two-year panel data set and used the double differences-in-differences (DID) approach for rigorous analysis, including both standard DID and adjusted DID.

The findings demonstrate that microenterprises benefiting from Islamic fintech lending witnessed significant growth in their annual revenue, indicating a positive impact of Islamic fintech on their performance. In addition, these microenterprises showed an increase in the number of employees, suggesting improved business expansion and sustainability due to access to Islamic fintech lending services.

This study’s limitations arise from its focus on a specific region and time frame. However, recognizing potential future developments enhances its relevance and applicability within Islamic finance literature.

This study offers valuable insights for microentrepreneurs, Islamic fintech platforms, policymakers and regulators, helping them make informed decisions and support the microenterprise sector in Indonesia.

This study brings new insights and adds value by examining the unique relationship between Islamic fintech lending and microenterprise performance, which can contribute to better understanding and decision-making in this field.

The extensive use of mobile money (MM) has been widely recognized as a digital engine of socioeconomic development in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper aims to focus on the effects of MM use and stockouts on informal microenterprise performance and investigate whether MM use mitigates the relationship between stockouts and firm performance.

This study utilizes firm-level data from the latest World Bank Informal Sector Enterprise Surveys across six SSA countries. We employ instrumental variable-adjusted and propensity score-weighted regressions to investigate the buffering effect of MM use.

We find a significantly positive effect of MM use and a significantly negative impact of stockouts on informal microenterprise performance. Importantly, we establish that MM use attenuates the negative impact of stockouts on firm performance. We further document that the attenuating effect of MM use is more profound for firms using MM for transactions with supply chain partners, located in communities with high MM use rates, and operating in the retail industry.

Our research generates important managerial and policy implications. Future policies should capitalize on MM to foster an effective financial ecosystem in which informal microenterprises can survive and grow, thereby deepening their contributions to sustainable development.

Whereas the business benefits of MM among small, medium and large firms are well-documented, the role of MM use on informal microenterprise performance is less understood. This study fills the research gap in the literature by focusing on the influence of MM use on the relationships between informal microenterprise operations and performance.

The purpose of this study was to examine the determinants of financial performance of the rural microenterprises, with microcredit access as the mediating variable.

A survey using a self-administered questionnaire to the managers/owners of the rural microenterprises was adopted. The data was collected on the three study variables; financial literacy, credit access and financial performance. A total of 148 fully completed and useable questionnaires were used in the analysis. The researchers performed factor analysis, correlations, regression and mediation analysis to test the hypotheses.

The study revealed the existence of a statistically significant and positive relationship between financial literacy and microcredit access, microcredit access and financial performance. On the other hand the financial literacy had a significant but negative impact on the financial performance of the rural microenterprises. In the final analysis, financial literacy is only effective in impacting financial performance when mediated by microcredit access. We conclude that policies that emphasize financial literacy are ineffective in fostering the financial performance and growth of the microenterprises.

The study is original as it addresses the combined effect of credit rationing and resource based view theories to explain the financial performance of informal rural microenterprises that are the key livilihood business undertaking in many developing countries.

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine whether performance of microenterprises located in a microenterprise zone (MEZO) in China is positively related to key management practices, entrepreneurial orientation, marketing capability, and technology capability. The paper aims to introduce the concept of MEZOs as a supplemental tool for governments to strengthen microenterprise activity.

A total of 150 randomly selected microenterprises located in a MEZO in Changchun, an industrial city in Northeast China, completed a survey consisting of a three‐part measure of microenterprise performance developed by Zinger et al. and entrepreneurial orientation. Factor analysis was performed on 11 management issues and correlation analysis was performed.

The study found that key management practices, marketing capability, and technology capability of microenterprises in MEZOs do have a positive impact on performance sales, net profit, and growth.

The study's results are limited by a sample in one city in one province of China collected in one month. The data are cross‐sectional rather than longitudinal. Sample bias may exist.

This study is valuable to government officials, policy makers, non‐government organizations and consulting firms as they examine new measures to unleash the economic power of microenterprises.

MEZOs need to be explored as one solution to aide microenterprise development to improve the poverty level, create jobs, and stimulate economic activity.

To the authors' knowledge, this is the first exploratory study of the performance of microenterprises located in a MEZO in China. Through research, the factors that contribute to microenterprise performance and success can be better understood and the impact that the MEZO model has on microenterprises can be better delineated.

To enhance the loan repayment performance of microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Pakistan, this study aims to analyze the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on loan repayment performance and microenterprises’ business performance while considering the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance on the relationship between social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance.

The analysis was conducted based on the data gathered via a questionnaire distributed to 316 microenterprises owners. The respondents were selected using the stratified sampling technique by dividing the target population into three influential groups of manufacturing, trading and services microenterprises. The reliability and validity of the constructs were established using (1) factor loading, (2) Cronbach’s alpha, (3) composite reliability, (4) average variance extracted, (5) the variance inflation factor, (6) the Fornell–Larcker criterion and (7) the heterotrait–monotrait ratio. The structural equation modeling technique was then applied, and the hypotheses were tested based on the structure model generated through bootstrapping by using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results confirm the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on microenterprises’ business performance and loan repayment performance. It also supports the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance toward the relationship between social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance while considering the direct impact of microenterprises’ business performance on loan repayment performance.

To date, the direct impact of social capital and loan credit terms on microenterprises’ business performance and loan repayment performance has been hardly investigated in the context of Pakistan. This study also examines the mediating role of microenterprises’ business performance toward social capital, loan credit terms and loan repayment performance. The findings will enable both MFIs and microenterprises to improve their business performance and loan repayment performance through enhanced social ties and the development of more flexible credit products that protect the borrowers’ interests and the interest of lenders.

A microenterprise is modeled on Islamic epistemological premises to bring out its extensively applied perspectives using community‐based participatory instruments of Islamic law (Shari’ah). The case study is for Bangladesh, but the model developed has universal implications. Various organizational features of such a microenterprise model with a strong human resource development focus at the grass roots are explained in detail, keeping in view the process‐based systems perspectives in the knowledge‐induced learning process that is embedded in the model of the Islamic microenterprise.

The purpose of this paper is to address the following question: how do we derive a systemic understanding of community, business and microenterprise linkages in the light of the cardinal episteme of Islamic belief, Tawhid?

The worldview of unity of the divine laws termed in the Qur'an as Tawhid (oneness of God or equivalently oneness of the divine laws and also unity of knowledge) is explained in the form of a general socioeconomic paradigm. This worldview is then used to address the complementary relationships between microenterprises and their embedded social environment comprising community and business.

The participatory development interrelationships explained by means of circular causation between the variables representing community, business and microenterprise comprise a specific example of application of the Islamic episteme of unity of knowledge to entities that exist in embedded learning systems. Such learning systems are governed by the episteme of unity of knowledge as explicated by the Qur'an and the Sunnah (Prophetic guidance). These together form the foundation of every Islamic methodological inquiry and application. Examples of microenterprises are Pasar Pagi (morning markets) and Pasar Malam (night markets) in Indonesia. Other comparative examples are given.

This paper shows how participatory development and sustainability‐by learning paradigms arise uniquely from the epistemic foundations of unity of knowledge (Tawhid). The productive transformation of microenterprise groupings through their complementary relationships with community and business is shown to invoke the Tawhidi epistemic worldview. The result of such complementary social embedding is expected to result in enhanced organization and productivity of microenterprises. The paper offers policy prescriptions for such participatory development change.

This study aims to assess the impact of mobile phones on the livelihoods of women microenterprises in two selected districts of Malawi.

This study adopted an interpretive qualitative approach. The authors conducted six focus group discussions with 33 women microenterprise owners in two selected districts of Malawi. This study was guided by the sustainable livelihood approach as an analytical framework.

The findings confirmed that to some extent use of mobile phones by women microenterprises helped them realise their livelihood outcomes. These included improved access to information, improved communication, improved marketing, reduced transport costs and improved efficiency and productivity. However, optimum benefits were highly curtailed by a number of factors such as poor information and communication technologies (ICT) infrastructure, security issues, high cost of talk time and data bundle, lack of ICT literacy, low education and sociocultural factors.

The findings provide evidence on the role of mobile phone technology play in promoting the value for women participating in business activities in disadvantaged communities. Policymakers and other stakeholders can use the findings as a basis for prioritising the improvement of mobile technology infrastructure in rural communities tailor-made to women microenterprises.