Introduction

In recent decades, financial services have presented a dynamic character in permanent transformation, resulting from changes in the environment and the growing and changing needs of their target population. The case of microfinance services is not the exception, for they have proliferated in many countries since the 1970s, and they have also broadened their services through the incorporation of new methodologies, or else through the adoption of modern financial techniques (^{Ledgerwood, 2000}; ^{Robinson, 2004}). In México, in contrast to other countries of Latin America, like Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, they have limited coverage (^{Alpízar and González-Vega, 2006}), which is difficult to explain given the size of the population, of the economy as a whole, and of the large number of micro and small businesses.

The range of microfinance institutions (MFIs from this point forward) that operate in México is diverse. The type of institutions varies in terms of their legal figure, size and objectives. "To offer microfinance services a specific legal figure is not required, except in the cases when there is an attempt to capture savings, for which an institution regulated by the National Banking and Values Commission (Comisión Nacional Bancaria y de Valores, (CNBV) is required: a bank, Popular Finance Society (Sociedad Financiera Popular, Sofipo), Cooperative Savings and Loan Cooperative (Sociedad Cooperativa de Ahorro y Préstamo, Socap), or Community Finance Society (Sociedad Financiera Comunitaria, Sofinco). The institutions that do not capture savings from the public can be Multiple Object Finance Societies (Sociedades Financieras de Objeto Múltiple, Sofom), anonymous societies, or they can even be civil associations" (^{Cotler and López, 2013}). In addition to those already mentioned, in the rural environment, the participation of Credit Unions stands out, which are also part of the Auxiliary Credit Organizations from non-banking financial intermediaries. This analysis, when referring to microfinance institutions, refers to all the modalities mentioned.

According to what was stated by the Trust Director of the National Program of Financing for the Microentrepreneur (Programa Nacional de Financiamiento al Microempresario, FINAFIM), Dr. María del Carmen ^{Díaz (2009}), the municipal distribution of microfinance services has a proportion of 69 % in urban zones and only 31 % in rural zones, a situation derived from diverse elements, such as geographic dispersion of the clientele, seasonality, and risk of primary activities and absence of guarantees, in addition to a reduced infrastructure and deficient technical capacity and training of the staff involved. However, the data mentioned show that, despite the challenges, some institutions take the risk and operate in the rural environment.

Regretfully, the difficulties to operate in the rural environment can be reflected, among others, in the lack of ideal instruments for financial operation. It is the case of the evaluation of the risk of nonpayment; Banco de México (México's Central Bank) points out that it is "...product of the uncertainty there is regarding the value of financial assets, in face of adverse movements of the factors that determine their price; when there is greater uncertainty, there is greater risk" (^{Banco de México}, glossary of terms).

Currently, a large number of MFIs that operate with small-scale producers tend to focus on the productive activity or the enterprises in question; however, it is necessary to consider that the economic development has imposed on rural societies new forms of organization, so that associating the rural scope with agricultural and livestock activities as sole livelihood means is no longer a model in force (^{IICA, 2000}; ^{Giarracca, 2001}; ^{Garza, 2010}).

In contrast with the past, the rural scope transcends the agricultural and livestock aspects and maintains strong exchange connections with the urban scope. "It is a conclusive fact that the rural space in American countries have been evolving, making us face today a new rural scenario based on a territorial character that allows visualizing human settlements and their relationships in a rural-urban continuous, expressed, among other aspects, in the progressive development of non-traditional agricultural activities and non-agricultural activities in the rural environment. Profound innovations have occurred in this field, showing new productive orientations, such as cultivation of bioenergetics, medicinal plants, handcrafts, rural tourism, forestry, organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture, farms for small species, rural services companies, and a greater integration of the agro productive and commercial chain with organizational expressions in the field, city and abroad" (^{IICA, 2000}:7).

The current rural society presents a higher interrelation with the urban society, which makes the diversification of their income possible, and, therefore, allows observing risk in a different way, since those interested in credit have higher income as a result of the variety of their activities (^{Nagarajan and Meyer, 2005}).

On the other hand, when MFIs grant credits they usually visualize only the client, without taking into consideration that the payment of credits generally occurs within the framework of the so-called Domestic Group (DG), understood as a social organization structured around various social relationships between individuals, united or not, by kinship ties who share a residence, where strategies for work organization, production and consumption are generated according to age and sex. The DGs develop a series of activities for their survival, focused on obtaining financial resources that are combined and broadened with the aim of increasing the family income, improving the group's quality of life, and at the same time generating conditions to be subjects of credit (^{De Oliveira, Pepin and Salles, 1989}).

The DGs resort increasingly more to diverse sources or activities beyond the agricultural and livestock scope to obtain income and cover their needs. The diversity of strategies varies from one to another, with influence from the number of production means, the size of the property, the social sector and the characteristics of the members (such as age and sex). Access to land no longer guarantees survival, so that both those who have it and those who don't resort increasingly more to paid activities, formal and informal; from this that commercial activities and the production of goods and/or services, handcrafts manufacture, and migration abroad or to other regions of the country, are part of the search for survival, which can function as an alternative to acquire the totality of the income, or else a complementary part.

The behavior of the DGs to obtain income should be an element to be considered by MFIs located in the rural environment, since all of their members (whether children, adolescents, adults, the elderly, men or women) participate with some activity, both domestic and economic, broadening their sources of income. On the other hand, the MFIs should consider the fact that the relationship between DGs is of equal importance (culturally and socially) than the one they have with institutions, be they social, governmental or private. This is fundamental to the financing operation, since this offers new elements of judgement to evaluate the risk with greater certainty and can influence the expansion of the offer of their services to rural producers and domestic groups.

This led to the research presented here whose objectives were the following. The general objective consists in identifying the influence of the diversity of economic activities and of the organization of the domestic group on the non-payment risk of credits granted by microfinance institutions. Whereas the specific ones are: i) identifying the priority economic activities to pay the credits requested; ii) establishing the payment criteria for the DG; and iii) determining whether there is a direct relationship between payment of the credits and the fact that there is an important feminine participation in decision making of the DG.

In accordance with this, the research proposal considered two hypotheses. The first affirms that the number of economic activities developed by the DGs influences positively and significantly the fulfillment of credit payments. The second states that there are components of the organization related to decision making and feminine participation, which impact the behavior of credit payment significantly.

Microfinances and their role in rural development

There are various definitions and concepts about microfinances where, regardless of the author or institution, the idea of providing financial services to people in conditions of poverty is underlying. For ^{Ledgerwood (2000}:1), "the expression refers to providing services to clients of low income, including the self-employed. In general, the services include savings and credit; however, some microfinance organizations also provide services of insurance and payment."

In turn, ^{Robinson (2004}:9) states that "microfinances refer to financial services in a small scale, primarily credit and savings, provided to those who are devoted to agriculture, fishing or livestock production, who manage small enterprises or microenterprises where goods are produced, recycled, repaired or sold; people who provide services, who work for a salary or on commission; who obtain their income by renting small plots of land, vehicles, farm animals, or machinery and tools to other individuals or groups at the local level, whether local or urban, in developing countries."

Stemming from this, microfinances will be understood in this study as the whole of financial services (microcredit, savings, insurance and remittances) at a small scale, directed essentially towards people of low income, incapable of gaining access to services granted by the conventional banking system. Therefore, MFIs are the institutions that provide these services.

An important part of microfinances is constituted by credit, financial instrument of great usefulness in rural communities, since it facilitates the availability of the money necessary to develop diverse activities. Capital is important for the workforce to be more productive, as well as to finance projects that improve the quality of life (^{Keckeisen, 2001}). In turn, ^{Robinson (2004}) affirms that credit services allow the anticipated use of income for spending or consumption.

Credit directed at farmers and all types of small producers has been a strategy used for rural development since the beginning of the 1950s (^{Johnson and Rogaly, 1997}). Currently, microcredit is considered a strategy for the development and eradication of poverty, since it fosters for there to be a higher number of people carrying out productive activities with impact on the Domestic Gross Product (^{Pomar, Rendón and Solís, 2011}).

Microcredit can be an important development instrument, since it contributes to reducing social exclusion when allowing for economic and self-employment activities to be undertaken in marginal regions, favoring the creation of jobs in small local enterprises, and promoting the integration and improvement of the productive complex. In addition, because credit allows differing consumption in time, it helps producers or users endure periods of crisis and protect their goods.

According with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (^{FAO, 2000}), microcredits have a series of effects on individuals, both economic and social, since they open up the possibility of increasing production and diversifying the sources of income with the corresponding increase in employment and level of consumption, and if lower discount rates are given, vulnerability can decrease.

Microcredit on its own does not have the capacity to generate changes with regards to poverty, and should not be seen as a panacea for development problems, as it was considered in the 1990s; although it is true that it can make important contributions, it should be complemented with other actions. ^{Bercovich (2004}:13) mentions that "microcredit cannot create productive or commercial opportunities where there are none, transform into entrepreneurs people who have not acquired the competences nor have the incentives to do so, or contribute to innovation and the spreading of technology in absence of innovation systems that function". The availability of financial services helps to improve the administration of households and enterprises. However, the current credit offer does not satisfy the rural demand, which is due in large part to the risk criteria which, according to our research, could be adapted today to the new conditions in DGs.

The financial risk

Financial or credit risk is an element with which financial intermediaries must deal, as part of their daily operation. This concept refers to the uncertainty into which they fall from investing, which they do with the purpose of obtaining yield and for which there is a possibility that it may not be achieved (^{Mascareñas, 2008}). In this regard, Banco de México states that the risk is related to the possibility of an event happening that results in losses for those involved in financial markets, such as investors, debtors or financial entities. "Risk is a product of the uncertainty there is regarding the value of the financial assets, in face of adverse movements of the factors that determine their price; with greater uncertainty, greater risk" (^{Banco de México}, 2005:3).

Rural zones present a reduced number of MFIs due to the perception that the provision of financial services in these zones entails high risks and costs. It is estimated that less than 5 % of Latin American rural households have access to formal financing (^{Wenner et al., 2008}), since it is still associated to the rural scope of agricultural activities and the inherent risks of these activities, such as climate and price fluctuations, as well as commercial restrictions; this, even when the agricultural importance of agriculture is decreasing and non-agricultural activities acquire greater importance.

As any other, financial or credit risk cannot be avoided; however, it is important for MFIs to carry out evaluations to minimize it, insofar as it may generate serious difficulties in their operation. Operating in rural zones is a challenging proposal due to the geographic dispersion of the clients, the high transaction costs, the scarce infrastructure and the low levels of education and income. An improvement in risk management techniques would allow for financial institutions to approach a growing market and could achieve a higher penetration into rural markets (^{Wenner et al., 2008}).

In order to grant credits, there are two ways of evaluating the credit capacity. The first refers to the payment capacity and the second to the use of assets as principal backup of a loan. The first approach centers on the research of integrity, moral character, managing ability, and payment capacity of a potential borrower, whether through trained professionals or statistical models; and, the second is centered on the quality and quantity of the assets that may be presented as guarantee, as well as them being easy to attain in case of default (^{Wenner et al., 2008}). ^{Meza (2009}) classifies them as qualitative (willingness to pay) and quantitative (payment capacity) factors.

From our point of view, it would be important to consider two qualitative factors. First, the behavior of DGs, in the sense of the commitment that they assume (as a group) when applying for a credit. The reproduction of the DG implies aspects that go beyond the simple consideration of a single individual, since in the cultural, affective and ideological aspect, the existence of the group prevails (^{De Oliveira, Pepin and Salles, 1989}). Second, the intensity of the DG's commitment is more than proven with the existence of financial intermediaries (formal and informal), which are supported by the solidary collaterals that substitute the guarantees in assets; in addition to this, it should be mentioned that women tend to be better payers (^{Díaz, 2003}; ^{Zuñiga, 2004}).

Methodological proposal and results

To perform this study, we sought an organization that had coverage in rural regions and which had the characteristics of the new rural scope; that is, for the population to have a strong link with urban zones and for their activities to be connected to various activities (agricultural/livestock, services or commerce). In this sense, it was primordial to carry out the study where the diversity of activities was a common denominator in the duties of domestic groups of the region.

In virtue of this, the Zacapoaxtla Peasants' Cooperative Society, (Sociedad Cooperativa Campesinos de Zacapoaxtla, Sociedad Cooperativa de Responsabilidad Limitada) was selected, which is made up of 1103 members, grouped into 34 local societies (one for each locality where there are members), located in four municipalities of the state of Puebla, México: Zacapoaxtla, Cuyoaco, Zaragoza and Xochitlán de Vicente Suárez.

The Zacapoaxtla Peasants' Cooperative Society arose in 1999 under the umbrella of the Solidary Societies Program. The social capital of the organization was constituted by the recovery of credits provided from federal resources allotted by the National Supports Fund for Social Enterprises (Fondo Nacional de Apoyos para las Empresas Sociales, FONAES) during the 1999-2004 period. Originally, the cooperative society was made up solely of producers (peasants) of the municipality of Zacapoaxtla, integrated into 19 local societies, but with time other localities were added until reaching the coverage mentioned previously.

The organization was integrated under the name of "Campesinos de Zacapoaxtla, Sociedad Cooperativa de Responsabilidad Limitada", but, considering the initial support provided by the FONAES, their partners commonly identify it as Caja Solidaria de Zacapoaxtla. It was established formally on November 24th, 2002, but it was legally constituted through Public Deeds number 15 859, with date October 22nd, 2003.

Access to the services that the Zacapoaxtla Peasants' Cooperative Society offers is possible only for members of the organization. The public in general cannot use them, unless they are formally integrated through a contribution of 5000 pesos.

Members can gain access to automatic or solidary credit. Automatic credit is that which is granted immediately. The presentation of the corresponding application is enough, with the signature of at least two of the members of the Committee in its Local Credit Society. This phase of the procedure is the most important one because such an instance operates like a filter, since it becomes co-responsible in the recuperation of the credits it authorizes. The maximum amount of financing is equal or less than 90 % of their initial contribution, which functions as guarantee. Regarding the solidary credit, there are two modalities: solidary with collateral and solidary with guarantee, with the differences implicit in the name. In the first case, the loans do not surpass 20 thousand pesos, while in the second one they tend to be higher than this amount.

Given the breadth of the number of members of the Cooperative Society and the need to carry out a survey, the decision was made to establish a statistical sample that was representative. For this purpose, the equation used for the calculation of the sample was:

Once the size of the sample was defined (Table 1), the Excel Microsoft software was used to randomly obtain the names of the members; later, to apply the surveys, another random selection was made, taking into consideration those members with credit in the Society. The totality of the members of the cooperative is 1103; however, only 700¹ have credit, whether current or with payments overdue. Because the most relevant criterion of the research is diversification of the activities, the selection was made from the total of partners with some credit experience.

To analyze the association between variables, the convenience of studying their joint distribution or contingency table was suggested. The study variables were those relative to the economic activities and organization of the domestic group, contrasted with the variable payment incidence (pays/doesn't pay) of the member (see annex).

With the aim of identifying the relationship of dependence between the variables, the contrast was used, based on the statistic χ2 (Chi-square), whose calculation, with a statistical level of trust of 95 %, allowed affirming whether the levels of a qualitative variable influenced those of another nominal variable (^{Vicéns 2005}; ^{Martínez 2005}).

Results from the study

Conclusions

Stemming from the results obtained, it is proposed that the number of activities developed influences the payment behavior of the members. It was confirmed that, the greater the number of activities that generate income, the probability of payment increases and with it the risk decreases, validating our first hypothesis.

Likewise, it is feasible to affirm that, with regards to decision making, the internal organization of the DG defines the fulfillment of credits contracted, and that feminine participation is a synonym of compliance in a high percentage. It was found that the risk is lower when the woman is the head of the household, as opposed as to when the DG is led by a man. Although in our study the feminine contribution to the family income is lower, it should be remembered that most of them are devoted to the home; at the moment of deciding the destination of the expenditure, she is the one who makes the decisions, or else, her influence is decisive, with which the second hypothesis is confirmed.

Therefore, from our point of view, it is necessary to restate the way in which the credit risk is evaluated in the rural environment. The structural changes that have modified the dynamics in the rural context have defined different schemes. The family groups currently generate higher income, fruit of their closeness to the urban zones and of their need to generate income through other pathways, which in itself establishes lower risk conditions, in addition to their internal functioning, in which the feminine presence seems to assume an important guarantee, giving place to new elements being introduced when offering the microcredit service.

Taking into account the elements offered could define a growth path and of penetration into a large potential market. In the meantime, they would foster the access of family groups to financial resources to develop productive activities or goods that allow them to improve their quality of life.

There is no doubt that there are other aspects outside the reach of this study which should also be analyzed; however, our work is based, at least in part, on the possibility of creating sustainable rural finances, which is one of the greatest preoccupations of the MFIs, generating the opportunity for these institutions to carry out a dynamic role in rural development.