Barnes, Christopher MKhan, Ussama Ahmad2023-08-142023-08-142023Khan_washington_0250E_25479.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/1773/50254Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2023Millions of people around the world live under conditions of poverty and financial vulnerability. Organizations have played a key role in the fight against poverty. One of the most promising interventions for poverty alleviation was microfinance. Despite economic theory which indicates that microfinance should be a powerful intervention for improving lives of poor individuals, the most rigorous evidence to date indicates that microfinance has not been the silver bullet that everyone hoped it would be. In this paper, I sought to explore why that was the case. For this research, I focused on Akhuwat, Pakistan’s largest microfinance organization. Akhuwat charges zero interest on its loans and its mission is, “A poverty-free society built on the principles of compassion and equity”. In Study 1, I conducted 44 interviews with Akhuwat borrowers and key stakeholders. I also observed Akhuwat’s employees’ interactions with the borrowers in their branch offices and during the loan disbursement ceremonies. Moreover, I visited borrowers’ places of work to better situate myself in the sociocultural realities in which they were embedded. Finally, I was able to draw on archival data from Akhuwat including internal company documents and video documentaries. Drawing on this rich data, I built a theoretical model describing the role of selfless dignity and sanctity in forming relationships between Akhuwat and its borrowers, which enable these borrowers to experience positive outcomes. In Study 2, I conducted a multi-wave survey study on a sample of 380 Akhuwat borrowers, broadly replicating the results from Study 1. In Study 3, I conducted a field experiment with a sample of 300 Akhuwat borrowers to test the model that I developed in Study 1. In this experiment, I randomly assigned borrowers to either a baseline control condition or the treatment condition based on selfless dignity and sanctity. Taken together, this study highlights the importance of humanizing the process of poverty alleviation and giving meaning to money that the poor receive.application/pdfen-USnoneOrganizational behaviorBusiness administrationThesis