Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to examine how Social Entrepreneurial role of profitoriented
Microfinance Institutes (MFIs) facilitates to nurture entrepreneurs in the
socio-cultural milieu in Sri Lanka. The researcher used interviews, focused group
discussions and documentary review to collect data. Participants in the study were
Microfinance credit officers and Microfinance clients. The results of this study show
that MFIs have been successful in areas such as: giving loans to low-income earners;
requiring that clients become entrepreneurs; building long term mentoring
relationship with entrepreneurs; providing hands-on-work training, visits meetings
and workshops. Therefore, the MFIs social values enhance the development of
entrepreneurship in Sri Lanka. However, a range of socio-cultural factors has limited the nurturing entrepreneur. Such as the inability to reach the poorest; failure to
address the problem of equity when distributing loans; capitalistic culture of focusing
more on profit and efficiency rather than people welfare; the cultural tendency for
clients to misuse loans; the culture of competition among MFIs; and cultural norms
such as visiting people’s homes and dealing with women. This study shows that
socio-cultural factors are a mutual experience between MFIs and the entrepreneurs in
the sense that while the capitalist culture of MFIs affects entrepreneurs, the culture of
the entrepreneurs affects MFIs in ways that shape policies and practices of the MFIs.
