Lenders, borrowers and fellows

摘要

Online microfinance promotes and encourages entrepreneurship as well as creating informal relationships between lenders and clients using social networking technologies. While much of the existing literature describes the quantitative success of online microfinance, little attention has been given to the social processes through which this has been achieved. This short discussion will take an interdisciplinary approach, focusing on the role of narrative production in facilitating relationships between online lenders in more affluent countries and client entrepreneurs in developing countries, using experience drawn from initial fieldwork conducted in Cambodia. Better understanding the relationships between online lenders, clients and the intermediaries who document the activities of client entrepreneurs may be useful in the design, modification or implementation of effective technologies to better enable all actors in the delivery of online microfinance services.