Vers une meilleure compréhension des parties prenantes du microcrédit entrepreneurial en France : Proposition d'une typologie des parcours des porteurs de projet

Entrepreneurial microcredit is now considered essential to support economic and social development. It is also one of the development objectives of banks in terms of social responsibility to the extent that its purpose is to allow a greater number of entrepreneurs - especially the impoverished - to achieve their professional ambitions. While many studies have focused on the microcredit offer and its key success factors in emerging countries, fewer have studied the context of the so called developed economies, particularly concerning the microcredit applicant profile in terms of motivations, needs and journey. Following Guichandut (2006), this paper intends to contribute to a better understanding of microcredit's actors by proposing a typology of micro entrepreneurs' journeys, based on a qualitative study conducted in France. The study reveals that despite a large heterogeneity of the profiles, the different paths can be identified based on the applicant's motivation for borrowing as well as their clear-sightedness about the economic and human implications of the project. The combination of these two dimensions resulted in seven types of path: ("passion path," "utopian passion path", "independence path", "of step independence path," "springboard path," "of step springboard path", and "rebound path"). The proposed typology represents a necessary preliminary step to better understand the demand for microcredit, risk factors and project support needs.