Fakarudin Kamarudin

School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

fakarudin@upm.edu.my 

ORCID 0000-0001-8180-1173

Unveiling the impact of economic and political globalisation on the efficiency of microfinance institutions

Mohamad Khair Afham Muhamad Senan

School of Business and Economics, Universiti Putra Malaysia,

Malaysia

mhdkhair@upm.edu.my

ORCID 0000-0002-3446-2997

Hafezali Iqbal Hussain

Taylor’s Business School, Taylor’s University Malaysia, Malaysia.

Digital Economy and Business Transformation Impact Lab, Taylor's University, Malaysia

University of Economics and Human Sciences in Warsaw, Poland.

hafezali.iqbalhussain@taylors.edu.my

ORCID 0000-0002-9381-7743

Janusz Michałek

WSB University, Dabrowa Górnicza, Poland

jmichalek@wsb.edu.pl

ORCID 0000-0002-0773-9954

Nazratul Aina Mohamad Anwar

Faculty of Economics and Muamalat, 

Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia, Malaysia

nazratulaina@usim.edu.my 

ORCID 0000-0003-2327-1201

Abstract. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) strive to alleviate poverty by offering financial access and services to the poor in society. MFIs play a significant role in a country's social and economic advancement. This study aims to examine the relationship of the economic and political globalisation with the social and financial efficiency of MFIs in the Philippines and Malaysia from 2012 to 2020. There are two types of analysis adopted in this study: the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and the multiple panel regression model. In the first stage, the DEA approach is employed to determine the MFIs’ level of efficiency. Next, the determinants of financial efficiency and social efficiency are identified through panel regression. The results of the robustness test show that MFIs have better and more effective financial efficiency compared to social efficiency. Therefore, this result shows that the MFIs concentrate more on profitability and sustainability of the operations and they tend to neglect their primary goal in terms of the social function, i.e., reducing poverty, since the scores for financial efficiency are higher than those for social efficiency. Furthermore, the MFIs, government, policymakers, investors, and future researchers benefit from the outcomes of this study, as they can obtain a comprehensive insight on the efficiency of MFIs and the variables that could contribute to the efficiency in MFIs.

Received: June, 2022

1st Revision: March, 2023

Accepted: June, 2023

DOI: 10.14254/2071-8330.2023/16-2/2

JEL Classification: G21, F63, F65, F66, F68

Keywords: microfinance institutions, economic globalisation, political globalisation, social efficiency, financial efficiency