Bibliometric analysis of global research trends on microfinance institutions and microfinance: Suggesting new research agendas

Poverty alleviation is a global problem. To alleviate poverty, microfinancing is used through microfinance institutions. There are many publications comprising empirical and literature review articles beside others focusing on this issue. Subjectivity bias is one of the issues that is seen in the literature reviews in an area of interest. This study answers the problem based on the bibliometric analysis of microfinance, micro-finance institutions, micro-insurance, micro-savings, and financial inclusion with other synonyms using the Scopus Database. This article focuses on overall historical trends, publication output, prolific authors and journals, google mapping of the world-renowned academic institutions, and highlights the shortcoming of the Scopus database by utilizing software for the first time. We use VOSviewer, for co-authorship analysis and our results underline the leading role of United States contribution to a greater extent, while co-citation analysis shows emerging hotspots such as financial technology including fintech, crowdfunding, and financial literacy. We concluded limited attention from scholars towards natural-resource revenues, financial development using fintech, and crowdfunding regarding poverty alleviation. Furthermore, for the interest of the development researchers and practitioners, we have highlighted the conceptual framework for financial development, natural resource abundance, economic growth nexus through fintech, crowdfunding, financial literacy to curb poverty as new avenues for future research agenda.

Automated summary

This study uses bibliometric analysis to examine the field of microfinance and microfinance institutions. The results show that scholars have limited attention towards natural-resource revenues, financial development, and financial technology in relation to poverty alleviation. The study suggests new avenues for future research in these areas.