Religion and Enterprise: An Introductory Exploration

Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd and Paul Seaman

Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 1998, vol. 23, issue 1, 71-86

Abstract: This study argues that religion and enterprise enjoy a complex and interdependent relationship. Analyzing the relationship between society, religion, and enterprise illustrates that religion operates as an environmental munificence factor. Investigating the relationship between the individual religion and enterprise shows that religion affects believers’ entrepreneurial activity, influencing the decision to become an entrepreneur, enterprise management, and the entrepreneur's contact network. Turning to theory, enterprise, and religion, we note that the spectre of Weber still haunts some analyses of the entrepreneurial middle class, and the literature does not clarify the extent of religiosity among entrepreneurs. Using quantitative techniques to study the level of religiosity among a sample of British entrepreneurs we found it to be similar to that of non-entrepreneurial samples. The low levels of religious belief and practice in Britain suggests that religion may not be a significant environmental munificence factor for British entrepreneurship.

Date: 1998
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:entthe:v:23:y:1998:i:1:p:71-86

DOI: 10.1177/104225879802300104

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