Research Article
Microfinance and Business Education in Korea
Chung-Ang University
Published: January 2010 · Vol. 13, No. 3 · pp. 87-117
Full Text
Abstract
A recent surge of interest on microfinance in Korea can be attributable to the public’s attention to increased credit constraints on low-income households after the financial market turmoil sparked by explosive accumulation of credit card debts in 2003. Significantly damaged by the crisis, conventional financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies took very conservative approach in evaluating creditworthiness of borrowers and low income households confronted with severe difficulties in securing loans required for either inter-temporal consumption smoothing or continuous running of small family business. A group of activists and policy makers regarded microfinance as a possible solution to problem posed by the deteriorated credit market conditions and suggested to adopt microfinance as the main weapon to combat the problem. Other argued that microfinance is a very special business model that can only be applicable to less developed countries with mal-functioning financial market and Korea with relatively efficient financial market can not be a candidate for successful development of microfinance. The paper starts with a detailed discussion on general aspects of microfinance; history, current development and possible future directions. Then, considering recent expansion of microfinance in Korea and its potential as an instrumental tool in fighting against poverty and income disparity, we argued that it is the time to draft a blueprint to incorporate various issues on microfinance into business education. The paper explored several options available and recommended to take a gradual approach; One can build up awareness on microfinance by introducing several important issues in microfinance into existing courses such as business ethic, corporate social responsibility and then design an independent course to discuss microfinance in the context of social entrepreneurship or socially responsible investment. Finally, one can offer a course exclusively on microfinance as an elective course in finance or business ethic depending on the subjects discussed. We also emphasized the important role of the universities in providing people working in MF area with professional knowledge from every area in business education such as SME management, finance, and business strategy.
