On The Two-Way Relationship between Corporate Reputation and Financial Performance in Microfinance: A Stakeholder Approach

Abstract

This conceptual paper is grounded on three main observations. First, the lack of a theoretical framework on which a consistent model of the two-way relationship between corporate reputation and financial performance can be developed. Second, the lack of microfinance literature on the role played by corporate reputation as a social construct, and an intangible asset, in the strategic management of MFIs. Third, the impact of ethical issues and competitive challenges amplified by the commercialization of microfinance, and their threats to safeguarding the double-bottom (or triple-bottom) line of microfinance. Theoretical findings suggest that the Wu-Stuart Framework can be used as a benchmark to justify an embedded theory of firm underlying the circular link hypothesis into an institutional environment. Thus, the EP-SP-FP model highlights that MFI's corporate reputation could act both as a moderating effect on the dynamic of MFI's financial performance, and a mediating or balancing effect on the trade-off between social, environmental, and financial performance of MFI.