Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of microfinance on women-owned microenterprises’ (WMEs) performance in Indonesia. It especially observes how financial, human and social capital influences performance of enterprises. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from a survey conducted in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city, covering more than 100 WMEs. The ordered probit technique is applied to estimate the performance vis-à-vis financial, social and human capital relationships. Findings This study finds a negative relationship between performance and financial capital, and positive relationships between performance-human capital and performance-social capital. However, with respect to human capital, the level of education has a marginally significant relationship with performance. Practical implications Microcredit for the purposes of enhancing business performance might not necessarily be a good idea, if it is unable to generate higher returns. As a business develops, the volume of microcredit should be reduced, and replaced by owners’ own savings and retained profits. Regarding the non-financial factors, it might be useful for policy makers to contemplate providing incentives for spouse involvement in microenterprises run by women, and to consider them in designing credit policies. Group meetings activities should be extended to facilitate members to engage in business-related conversations and to develop social relationships. The ability of loan officers and group leaders to facilitate such conversations appears important. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study provides the first in-depth understanding of the role of microfinance programmes in the case of performance of WMEs in Indonesia, one of the world’s most populous economies.

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This paper investigates the determinants of net interest margins (NIM) of banks in Fiji, a small island developing state in the South Pacific, over the 2000-2010 period. Based mainly on the Ho and Saunders (1981) dealership model and extensions thereto, this study uses a number of panel data estimation techniques to control for possible heterogeneity across banks and various assumptions about errors. Consistent with the theoretical model, NIM has a positive association with implicit interest payment, operating cost, market power and credit risk, and a negative association with the quality of management and liquidity risk. However, the association with bank capital and opportunity cost of required reserves do not conform to expectations. Policy implications are discussed.

Studies on bank profitability vis-à-vis market power and efficiency span a number of years, many countries, regions and methods. Yet, the experiences of the Pacific's small states-where foreign banks are widespread and bank profits relatively high-are still not known, leaving policy makers ill-informed regarding relevant policy development. Ironically, it is here that these relationships need to be more appropriately understood so that the much desired finance-led growth aspirations may be more effectively achieved. This study fills a huge gap in literature by providing fresh evidence on the issue of market power and efficiency vis-à-vis bank profitability in a Pacific island context. Two market power hypotheses-the Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP) and the Relative-Market-Power (RMP) hypotheses together with two measures of the Efficient-Structure (ES)-X-and scale efficiencies are estimated. The non-parametric DEA technique is used to estimate efficiency scores for banks in Fiji over the 2000-2010 period and the dynamic GMM to estimate the relationships between market power and efficiency vis-à-vis profitability. Results show that the RMP and ES theories might hold but not the SCP. Profits appear to persist over time. Policy implications are considerable including that any suggestions to limit further mergers and acquisitions of banks in the region may have to be properly debated.

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This paper examines the changes in bank credit to private sector across six economies in the South Pacific. An extensive time-series and cross-country panel data allow us to draw new and broader lessons compared to existing research, which have tended to focus mostly on single countries with shorter time periods. Results show that rising average lending and inflation rates may be detrimental to credit growth, and that deposit and asset size contribute positively to credit growth. Results also indicate that stronger economic growth leads to higher credit growth. A number of policy implications emerge and are also discussed.

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We investigate the factors influencing the intention to use mobile value-added services in the Pacific island of Fiji. Technology adoption literature suggests that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence intention to adopt new technology. However, behavioral research suggests that intention to adopt is influenced by social norms. We investigate the impact of these 3 constructs on behavioral intention to use mobile value-added services in Fiji-a country that has some unique characteristics such as the culture of "sharing" and "reciprocity." We surveyed 74 women microentrepreneurs and found that the predominant driver of intention to adopt technology in collectivist societies such as Fiji is social influence. It was found that social influence also impacts perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use and through these the intention to adopt. Accordingly, in societies such as Fiji, policy makers and industry need to engage social organizations/networks for advancement of technology adoption.