Entrepreneurship and Islam: An Overview

M. Kabir Hassan and William J. Hippler, III

Econ Journal Watch, 2014, vol. 11, issue 2, 170-178

Abstract: Muslim entrepreneurs are compelled by religious laws to abstain from engaging in certain economic and financing activities, such as those involving gambling, usury, and speculation. Western entrepreneurs may choose to forgo certain business opportunities due to religious or moral laws as well; however, these limitations are voluntary and are often less restrictive than those of Shari’ah laws. Religious limitations help to explain differences in entrepreneurial outcomes between Western and Islamic economies. However, direct comparison of the two systems using purely financial benchmarks is inappropriate. Islamic laws argue that the limitations imposed on Muslim entrepreneurs eliminate inherently immoral and unjust economic practices, and their prohibition increases the social value of the economy. Understanding the differences between the motivations of Western and Islamic entrepreneurs is important in determining their relative success.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship; Islamic finance; Islamic entrepreneurship (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 A13 L26 Z12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://econjwatch.org/File+download/816/HassanHipplerMay2014.pdf?mimetype=pdf (application/pdf)
https://econjwatch.org/931 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ejw:journl:v:11:y:2014:i:2:p:170-178

Access Statistics for this article

Econ Journal Watch is currently edited by Daniel Klein

More articles in Econ Journal Watch from Econ Journal Watch Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jason Briggeman ().