Religion and Ethics 9781846634758, 9781846634741

Citation preview

jec cover (i).qxd

23/05/2007

10:38

Page 1

ISSN 1750-6204

Volume 1 Number 2 2007

Journal of

Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Religion and ethics Guest Editor: Craig S. Galbraith

www.emeraldinsight.com

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy

ISSN 1750-6204 Volume 1 Number 2 2007

Religion and ethics Guest Editor Craig S. Galbraith

Access this journal online _________________________

115

Editorial advisory board __________________________

116

Guest editorial ___________________________________

117

Market justice, religious orientation, and entrepreneurial attitudes: an empirical study Alex De Noble, Craig S. Galbraith, Gangaram Singh and Curt H. Stiles _________________________________________________

121

Ifa, the deity of wisdom, and importance of work among the Yoruba people Lai Olurode ___________________________________________________

135

A humility-based enterprising community: the Amish people in Lancaster County Leo Paul Dana ________________________________________________

142

The overlooked rugged communitarians of Ireland Emer Nı´ Bhra´daigh ____________________________________________

Access this journal electronically The current and past volumes of this journal are available at:

www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm You can also search more than 150 additional Emerald journals in Emerald Management Xtra (www.emeraldinsight.com) See page following contents for full details of what your access includes.

155

CONTENTS

CONTENTS

Religion and entrepreneurship in New Zealand Peter Carswell and Deborah Rolland _______________________________

162

continued

The modern Weberian thesis: a short review of the literature Joel A. Ryman and Craig A. Turner _______________________________

175

An empirical note on entrepreneurial activity, intrinsic religiosity and economic growth Craig S. Galbraith and Devon M. Galbraith _________________________

188

Book review______________________________________

202

www.emeraldinsight.com/jec.htm As a subscriber to this journal, you can benefit from instant, electronic access to this title via Emerald Management Xtra. Your access includes a variety of features that increase the value of your journal subscription.

Structured abstracts Emerald structured abstracts provide consistent, clear and informative summaries of the content of the articles, allowing faster evaluation of papers.

How to access this journal electronically

Additional complimentary services available

To benefit from electronic access to this journal, please contact [email protected] A set of login details will then be provided to you. Should you wish to access via IP, please provide these details in your e-mail. Once registration is completed, your institution will have instant access to all articles through the journal’s Table of Contents page at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm More information about the journal is also available at www.emeraldinsight.com/ jec.htm

Your access includes a variety of features that add to the functionality and value of your journal subscription:

Our liberal institution-wide licence allows everyone within your institution to access your journal electronically, making your subscription more cost-effective. Our web site has been designed to provide you with a comprehensive, simple system that needs only minimum administration. Access is available via IP authentication or username and password.

E-mail alert services These services allow you to be kept up to date with the latest additions to the journal via e-mail, as soon as new material enters the database. Further information about the services available can be found at www.emeraldinsight.com/alerts

Emerald online training services Visit www.emeraldinsight.com/training and take an Emerald online tour to help you get the most from your subscription.

Key features of Emerald electronic journals Automatic permission to make up to 25 copies of individual articles This facility can be used for training purposes, course notes, seminars etc. This only applies to articles of which Emerald owns copyright. For further details visit www.emeraldinsight.com/ copyright Online publishing and archiving As well as current volumes of the journal, you can also gain access to past volumes on the internet via Emerald Management Xtra. You can browse or search these databases for relevant articles. Key readings This feature provides abstracts of related articles chosen by the journal editor, selected to provide readers with current awareness of interesting articles from other publications in the field. Non-article content Material in our journals such as product information, industry trends, company news, conferences, etc. is available online and can be accessed by users. Reference linking Direct links from the journal article references to abstracts of the most influential articles cited. Where possible, this link is to the full text of the article. E-mail an article Allows users to e-mail links to relevant and interesting articles to another computer for later use, reference or printing purposes.

Xtra resources and collections When you register your journal subscription online, you will gain access to Xtra resources for Librarians, Faculty, Authors, Researchers, Deans and Managers. In addition you can access Emerald Collections, which include case studies, book reviews, guru interviews and literature reviews.

Emerald Research Connections An online meeting place for the research community where researchers present their own work and interests and seek other researchers for future projects. Register yourself or search our database of researchers at www.emeraldinsight.com/ connections

Choice of access Electronic access to this journal is available via a number of channels. Our web site www.emeraldinsight.com is the recommended means of electronic access, as it provides fully searchable and value added access to the complete content of the journal. However, you can also access and search the article content of this journal through the following journal delivery services: EBSCOHost Electronic Journals Service ejournals.ebsco.com Informatics J-Gate www.j-gate.informindia.co.in Ingenta www.ingenta.com Minerva Electronic Online Services www.minerva.at OCLC FirstSearch www.oclc.org/firstsearch SilverLinker www.ovid.com SwetsWise www.swetswise.com

Emerald Customer Support For customer support and technical help contact: E-mail [email protected] Web www.emeraldinsight.com/customercharter Tel +44 (0) 1274 785278 Fax +44 (0) 1274 785201

JEC 1,2

116

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 p. 116 # Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Gabrielle Brenner HEC Montreal, Canada Thomas A. Bryant Rohrer College of Business, Rowan University, USA Garth Cant Department of Geography, University of Canterbury, New Zealand Teresa E. Dana University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Louis Jacques Filion HEC Montreal, Canada Craig Galbraith GlaxoSmithKline Fellow: Technology and Economic Development, Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina, USA Brian Gibson Murdoch Business School, Murdoch University, Australia Bill Hefley IT Services Qualification Center & H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Annabelle Jaouen Montpellier Business School, France John Jenkins Professor Emeritus, Monterey Institute of International Studies, USA

Frank Lasch Montpellier Business School, France Frederic Le Roy University of Montpellier, France Colin Mason University of Strathclyde, UK Teresa V. Menzies Faculty of Business, Brock University, Canada Ludger Mu¨ller-Wille Department of Geography, McGill University, Canada Edwina Pio Faculty of Business, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand Caroline Saunders Professor, Commerce Division, Lincoln University, New Zealand Udo Staber University of Canterbury, New Zealand Claudio Vignali Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Colin Williams School of Management, University of Sheffield, UK Said Yami University of Montpellier, France

Guest editorial About the Guest Editor Craig S. Galbraith is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Technology Management, and the GlaxoSmithKline Faculty Fellow in Economic Development, at the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington. He has published extensively in the areas of technology strategy and developmental entrepreneurship. Professor Galbraith’s work in development entrepreneurship looks at entrepreneurial activity under extreme conditions, such as poverty traps and natural disasters. In particular, he is interested in the social capital and cohesion that emerges from religious beliefs and ethnic communities that leads to entrepreneurial success and economic growth. He has published six books, and over 100 manuscripts in journals such as the Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Business Venturing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Journal of Management, California Management Review, and others.

Greetings. After having two manuscripts accepted early for publication in the Journal of Enterprising Communities I was asked to be the guest editor for this issue on religion and entrepreneurship. I am honored to take this role. As a background, the issue of religious beliefs, and their role in economic activity, entrepreneurial behavior, attitudes toward work and capital, and the formation of markets has been generally ignored throughout the disciplines of management and economics. While there was indeed a flurry of empirical research after Max Weber’s original essays Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus was translated into English in 1930 as The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, by the 1960s with the rise of modern neo-classical economics, with its “black-box” approach to firm behavior, interest in the more cultural and institutional aspects of firms and markets waned substantially. Recently, however, there has been a resurgence of interest in more behavioral aspects of firms and economies. This is partly due to the emergence of the business disciplines of entrepreneurship and strategic management, which by design focuses on the nuances of firm behaviors, and partly this is due to the more mainstream acceptance of institutional and property right approaches to understanding economic development encouraged by notable luminaries such as Harold Demsetz, Douglas North and the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto. But even with this, for the past two decades, most studies taking a more behavioral, sociological, and cultural approach to understanding economic activities still awkwardly strain to artificially ignore the topic of religion. I, for one, have always found this artificial avoidance of religious topics by modern academics strikingly odd. This silence is particularly disturbing when even a casual observer understands that throughout both ancient and modern history religion, faith, and belief structures have been one of the most important, if not the most powerful, force behind how culture, institutions, enterprises and even economies are formed, viewed, and maintained. Fortunately, just in the last few years business and economic researchers are beginning to seriously investigate these issues more deeply. And it appears that some broad conclusions are emerging. First, religious tradition, faith, and belief structures do indeed make a difference in explaining entrepreneurial

Guest editorial

117

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 117-120 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204

JEC 1,2

118

behavior, firm activity, and economic development. Second, religion is closely tied to the development of social capital, the creation of interpersonal trust, and the sustainability of ethnic and indigenous communities. And third, these forces are global in nature, although there are significant differences between religious traditions, geographic regions, and level of economic development. However, recent research has only scratched the proverbial surface of these important topics. This issue of the Journal of Enterprising Communities illustrates our increasing effort to understand the complex calculus between the forces that frame economic and firm behavior and the cultural and moral foundations that emanate from our notions of religion, spirituality and belief. This issue offers seven stimulating papers, plus a book review. We lead off with a paper by Alex De Noble, Craig Galbraith, Gangaram Singh and Curt Stiles that looks at the impact of religious orientation on perceptions of market justice and entrepreneurial expectations. The paper raises an important, but often ignored issue. Does the religious belief structure of people impact their perceptions of market justice? And, in turn, do these perceptions impact various economic factors, such as self-employment and entrepreneurial activity? The paper offers a though-provoking finding – individuals that score high on intrinsic religious orientation are statistically correlated with negative perceptions of market-based justice. However, they are also more likely to desire an entrepreneurial path. The authors suggest that this may be an attempt to “internalize” the potential market-based externalities associated with their moral beliefs through strategies of self-employment. The results of this study are useful in understanding many of the “social economic” movements, around the world that seek to incorporate moral views of the marketplace in their economic activities. The second paper by Lai Olurode explores the importance of religion on work, self-employment, and economic support among the Yoruba People of Nigeria. The Yoruba constitute an important ethno-linguistic community within Western Africa, with deep historical roots. Yoruba populations are found not only in Nigeria, but also Ghana, Benin, and Togo. In addition, there are significant immigrant communities of Yoruba found in the USA, Brazil, Cuba, and the Trinidad. The author takes the reader on a fascinating case study of the Yoruba, and the fundamental importance religion, beliefs and taboos have upon almost every important economic decision, including work ethic, choice of career, allocation of wealth, diversification of work skills, self-employment and market behaviors. The author provides a number of local Yoruba proverbs to illustrate this tight connection between religion, culture, and economic activities. Sometimes a true understanding of the complexities of cultural issues can only be captured by an ethnographic approach. In the third paper, Leo Dana offers an ethnographic analysis of the Amish people in Pennsylvania, USA. The Amish are an offshoot of the Mennonites that first migrated to the USA in the late 17th century. Over time, they have developed a strong, close-knit local presence in several areas of the USA. The author immersed himself in the culture of the Amish, and in this paper, reports his observations. The paper details the power of networking, sharing a common culture, and the economic impact of employing cooperating strategies based upon high levels of social capital that accrues from a common faith and value set. In addition, the paper describes some of the modern pressures on the

Amish community. The lessons from this paper are important when considering the issues confronting any well-established ethnic community that has strong religious and moral standards that define its economic activities. The history of Ireland is a fascinating topic. Over the centuries the region has undergone dramatic economic and social cycles, with the Republic of Ireland in particular, leading a remarkable economic renaissance in the last decade. In the fourth paper, Emer Nı´ Bhra´daigh examines the historical development of social enterprises within the region. Examples are given from Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Quaker religious traditions in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. In linking entrepreneurship with religion, this paper highlights the valuable role many religious entrepreneurs have played in social innovation. The author concludes that many of the foundations of the so-called Celtic Tiger lie in the pioneering work of previous religious entrepreneurs. Peter Carswell and Deborah Rolland specifically examine the different religious practices in New Zealand, and their impact on entrepreneurial activity and business perceptions. They correctly note that as the world becomes more global and immigration increases, religious traditions subsequently become more intertwined and diverse within a country. Analyzing data from a sample of approximately two-thousand New Zealanders, the authors suggest that ethnic diversity and its associated religious value systems do not negatively impact business start-ups, and in fact, may enhance the level of entrepreneurial activity. With almost complete certainty, any paper that looks at religion and economics inevitably references Max Weber, the early 20th century German economic sociologist. And most people are familiar with his most famous work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. But it is surprising how often Weber’s work is cited, but not really understood. In addition, although less well known, Weber studied a number of other world religions including Judaism, and the religions of India and China. Joel Ryman and Craig Turner’s paper, titled “The modern weberian thesis: a short review of the literature” specially looks at Max Weber’s contribution to understanding the link between religious tradition and economic activity on a global basis. It provides a concise summary of Weber’s different hypotheses from his various works. The paper also examines some of the more important, post-1950 Weberian-based empirical research that has been published through-out the world. While the global connection between economic development and religious belief has been seemingly well established by a number of recently published papers in economics, including several articles by the well-known Harvard economist, Robert Barro, the role of entrepreneurial activity is often lacking in these studies. In the last paper of this issue, Craig Galbraith and Devon Galbraith specifically investigate the mitigating effect of entrepreneurship, and the impact religious belief has upon entrepreneurial activity. In their study, the authors also rely upon other often-overlooked streams of research, such as the psychology of religion literature, the moral markets literature, and the economic theology literature. Using data from both the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and the World Values Survey the authors conclude that, while “intrinsic” religiosity does appear positively related to economic growth, entrepreneurial activity measured by both total early-stage entrepreneurial activity and opportunity-based entrepreneurial activity is

Guest editorial

119

JEC 1,2

120

a critical intervening component. Thus, “intrinsic” religiosity is highly related to entrepreneurial activity, and this, in turn probably leads to economic success. Finally, Vanessa Ratten reviews an important book by J. Brown, titled Global South Asians: Introducing the Modern Diaspora. This book details the close tie between religious traditions and the business activities of immigrant South Asians throughout the world. Craig S. Galbraith Guest Editor

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

Market justice, religious orientation, and entrepreneurial attitudes An empirical study Alex De Noble School of Business, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA

Religious orientation, and attitudes 121 Received November 2004 Revised March 2005 Accepted March 2007

Craig S. Galbraith Cameron School of Business Administration, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA

Gangaram Singh School of Business, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA, and

Curt H. Stiles Cameron School of Business Administration, University of North Carolina, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to test the proposition that religious orientation has a measurable affect on individuals’ definitions of market justice and attitudes toward self-employment. Design/methodology/approach – The paper distinguishes between religious orientation and spirituality and defines religious orientation to be either intrinsic or extrinsic. It then examines the modern concept of market justice and hypothesizes that individuals with intrinsic religiosity will have negative opinions of the justice of market exchange while those with extrinsic religiosity will have positive opinions. It is expected that individuals that own their own business or have positive views of self-employment will have positive opinions of the justice of market exchange. Finally, the paper hypothesizes that intrinsic religiosity will lead to higher levels of entrepreneurial behavior once opinion about market justice has been controlled for. The survey instrument was administered to 141 undergraduate business students. Findings – Cluster analysis revealed two clusters; cluster membership was used as a binary dependent variable indicating positive or negative opinions of market justice. The intrinsic religiosity hypothesis is statistically supported. The self-employment hypothesis is only partly supported. The entrepreneurial behavior hypothesis is also statistically supported. Originality/value – This paper examines the concepts of religious orientation and attitudes toward market justice and entrepreneurship. It offers an empirical analysis of value-based attitudes and their impact on entrepreneurial activity, and the importance of religious attitudes on market behaviors. Keywords Religion, Market value, Entrepreneurship Paper type Research paper

The impact of religion on the development of humanity has long been of interest to social scientists. But while researchers have aggressively examined the correlations between

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 121-134 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752548

JEC 1,2

122

religious orientation and almost every aspect of mental health, human psychology, deviant behaviors, and sociological opinions, discerning the fundamental relationship among religious orientation, entrepreneurial behavior, and economic development has proven much more elusive. This is partly due to the lack of survey-based empirical research in the field and partly due to the complexity of the equation that ties religion orientation to entrepreneurial activity and economic achievement. One line of thought suggests that socio-economic and religion-related research should more closely examine the perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs about how markets and economic institutions function within an entrepreneurial context, and whether these perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs then influence various types of economic behavior. This study falls squarely within this perspective, and offers a preliminary investigation of both the theoretical and empirical relationships between perceptions of market justice, religious orientation and attitudes toward self-employment. Religion and economic achievement Influenced by the competing constructs of Max Weber and Karl Marx, the socio-economics literature has had a nearly obsessive interest in debating the relationships between religion and economic development. While the vast majority of the discussion during the past century has taken a broad philosophical perspective of arguing about the concepts of value, technology, capital, and labor, there has also been some progress in defining the broad relationships between religion and economic development. A critical theme in this work is Weber’s thesis that an ethical rationality derived from religious activities significantly contributes to the development of both modern capitalism and individual economic achievement – a theme commonly folded into the dual notions of worker productivity and social contracts as illustrated by Weber’s seminal 1905 work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber, of course, was not only interested in the USA, but also in the broad impact of religious institutions and belief systems on economic activity throughout the world as his less known essays on Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and ancient Judaism illustrate. Early attempts at testing the various derivations of the Weberian theses within the USA have proven somewhat problematic, often resulting in a much-criticized Protestant-Catholic dichotomy (Winter, 1974, Roof, 1979). A number of studies, however, have also examined similar Weberian themes in non-Western cultures such as Asia and India (Hirschmeier, 1964, Iyer, 1999; Candland, 2000). More recently this line of socio-economic research has been extended by entrepreneurship researchers, sociologists, and ethnographic anthropologists to the topics of religion, social capital, ethnic networks and enclaves, and economic development for immigrant populations (Kwon, 1997; Light and Karageorgis, 1994; Light and Gold, 2000; Martes, 2000; Martes and Rodriguez, 2004, Portes and Bach, 1985; Ryman, 2004). Although most of this empirical research uses either broad secondary data sources or anecdotal case interviews, the results generally indicate that immigrants’ religious orientation significantly contributes to both economic achievement and entrepreneurial activity. The few published survey-based empirical studies also support this conclusion. For example, in one large-scale study of religion and entrepreneurship among Japanese immigrants, Woodrum (1985) found that both an individual’s participation in religion and their familial religiosity were positively associated with self-employment.

Some researchers have even suggested that the entrepreneurial spirit of evangelical religious sects may also contribute to economic achievement among their immigrant members (Martes and Rodriguez, 2004; Champion, 2003). Within the Korean immigrant community, for example, Kwon (1997) found that Churches with highly developed structural linkages through cell group evangelical ministries facilitated business contacts among Korean parishioners. And, as Galbraith et al. (2004) note, even traditional, well-established Catholic congregations are instrumental in transferring both financial and intellectual capital to the newly arrived entrepreneurial Hispanic members of the Church. While appearing to support the Weberian position, a common criticism leveled against this line of empirical research is that it typically does not capture important attitudes toward work, money, markets, and the institutions of both capitalism and religion as they relate to economic activity. It is legitimately argued that the calculus that ties religious orientation to entrepreneurial activity must also include perceptions and beliefs about how markets and economic institutions function within this entrepreneurial context, and whether these perceptions and beliefs then influence economic behavior (Woodrum, 1985; Marshall, 1980; Kwon, 1997; Caterine, 2001; Deutschmann, 2001). Religious orientation and spirituality It is important to note that the Weberian derived discussions of religious orientation, ethical rationality, and economic achievement is somewhat different from parallel discussions regarding the notion of spirituality, and its role in the workplace. Whereas religious orientation typically involves discussions of belief systems, and the depth and range of personal, familial, and work related commitment to those systems, spirituality is typically seen as a somewhat broader concept of developing an individual as a “whole person” (Brandt, 1996). Religiosity therefore has an element of acting on one’s belief system or religious tradition, which, in turn, results in concepts such the “protestant work-ethic.” Spirituality, however, is often thought of as a personality dimension involving the beliefs and values that pervade one’s perceptions on life (Dollahite, 1998; Elkins et al., 1998; Piedmont and Leach, 2002; Maltby and Day, 2001, 2003). To many writers, religion also has a sense of community-based activity and ritual, while spirituality represents the individual experience (Hodge, 2003; Canda and Furman, 1999). The topic of “spirituality” in an economic or workplace setting has received increasing attention in the literature, particularly in the human resources and personnel area (Kahnweiler and Otte, 1997; Leigh, 1997; Mitroff and Denton, 1999; Briskin and Peppers, 2000). But while many authors attempt to distinguish between religiosity and spirituality, with religiosity often viewed more as a structured, ritualistic, or formal community-based process, there remains substantial debate as to whether or not this is a somewhat artificial distinction (Hill et al., 2000; Emmons and Paloutzian, 2003; Smith, 1991). Rose (2001, p. 197), for example, suggests that “the only difference between the terms ‘religion’ and ‘spirituality’ maybe one of breadth.” In fact, content analysis of articles employing the concepts of religiosity and spirituality appears to indicate a high degree of overlap between the two concepts (Scott, 1997; Harris, 2003). This overlap is particularly evident in the “intrinsic” dimension of religious orientation (Allport, 1966; Hodge, 2003). In general, however, during the past decade spirituality has come to be viewed as a broader concept than religious orientation or religiosity.

Religious orientation, and attitudes 123

JEC 1,2

124

Historical context of market justice The debate between religion and market justice has a long theological tradition within the Western world. Most early pricing theories took a subjective, or intrinsic worth view of value. This view of justice in market exchange has its roots in Aristotelian thought, which argued for an application of commutative justice. With respect to pricing this means that the “just price” of a good or service should be in proportion to its intrinsic worth to mankind, thus the classic “diamond versus water” paradox often discussed in medieval economic treatises – water has more “intrinsic” usefulness, but diamonds are more expensive. From a production point of view, the “just price” argument moved in the direction of reflecting the cost of labor and material inputs, which ultimately led to the medieval debates surrounding fair interest rates and usury as well as the merits of secular and religious institutions that enforced certain pricing behaviors. But while many pre- and post-Scholastic theologians argued for moral control over markets to encourage “just” pricing, other early scholars, such as Pierre de Jean Olivi (1248-1298) began to recognize the fundamental importance of utility and scarcity in the notion of value. With the expanding international trade routes, the accumulation of excess capital in the merchant classes, and the brewing reformation debates, the theological and economic issues of just prices and wages, entrepreneurship, and proper return for equity investment were brought to a focal point by the sixteenth century. By this time a “just price” was beginning to be viewed by many economic theologians purely as a function of common market forces, or as Domingo de Soto (1494-1560) noted, “the price of goods is not determined by their nature but by the measure in which they serve the needs of mankind.” Thus, value does not reside in some inherent quality or input cost of a commodity as many early theologians posited but rather in the perceptions and decisions of consumers, with the market mechanism determining value at any particular point in time – thus the marketplace becomes, by definition, a just process of allocation and pricing. Even Thomas More struggled with these market justice and moral pricing issues in his highly influential Utopia published in 1516. For many, the final split in perceptions of market justice occurred with the early seventeenth century Spanish Catholic School of Salamanca. This line of economic thought concluded that the estimation of usefulness varies from person to person, and that the market place is ultimately where the just price for a good or service will be determined, regardless of the foolishness of individual preferences. This concept of market justice and value continued through Adam Smith (1723-1790) to the nineteenth century Austrian economists, and set the foundation for much of modern pricing and preference theory, and as many argue, the basis for modern capitalistic thought (Rothbard, 1995; Sirico, 1998). However, not all agreed with the market-based justice arguments of the Salamancans, and the later Scottish and Austrian schools of economic theory. The path of economic theory that conceptually separates a “just” price (derived either from an intrinsic value of something or the sum of its inputs) from the “market” price (derived from supply and demand) continued after the sixteenth century with various Papal edicts, and remains strong in various theoretical forms in the twenty-first century, particularly among economic humanists, liberation theologians, Catholic sociologists, and Marxian oriented thinkers. The inevitable conclusion of this approach is that there is a moral aspect of markets, and thus markets need to be regulated in

a moral manner by moral institutions. Of course, the definition of “moral” in this context varies depending upon an individual’s philosophical grounding. However, regardless of the definitional problem surrounding “morality,” this basic theme has provided the foundation for much of the social justice and social economic thought developed during the last two centuries. Another line of thought that still leads to a social justice orientation of marketplace behavior is that while markets could possibly be just and fair in theory, they simply cannot be just and fair in practice. The study Measures To explore some of these issues we designed a structured questionnaire using previously validated measures to record religious orientation and orientation toward self-employment. Since, this study is intended to use a measurement of religiosity per se, not religious behavior or core religious belief set (such as Christianity v. Islam), a measure of an individual’s dedication, commitment, and involvement in his/her religion was used. In essence, while acknowledging the importance of the religiosity-spirituality definitional debate, due to the nature of this study we are taking a more classical Weberian orientation of religious “enactment.” However, it is our belief that many of the same arguments would also apply from the spirituality perspective. In particular, we used Allport and Ross’s (1967) “religious orientation scale.” Allport’s (1966) model of contrasting religious orientations identifies two major dimensions of religiosity, intrinsic and extrinsic, and remains one of the most commonly used instruments to measure religious orientation. While recognizing that the original Allport and Ross scales have been criticized on several levels, particularly in that they appear to combine belief, behavior, and motivation (Gorsuch and McPherson, 1989; Burris, 1999; Hill and Hood, 1999; Hodge, 2003), the vast majority of researchers (Bergin, 1991; Boadella, 1998; Donahue, 1985; Kahoe, 1974; McNeill, 1988; Hodge, 2003) continue to support the basic idea that there are these two fundamental types, or dimensions, of religiosity. In the Allport (1966, p. 455) model, the intrinsic orientation is directed, “toward a unification of being, takes seriously the commandment of brotherhood, and strives to transcend all self-centered needs.” According to this perspective most religious teachings emphasize unity and brotherhood, but those individuals that are religiously motivated for intrinsic reasons will typically incorporate these religious tenets within their daily life (Frankel and Hewitt, 1994). Allen and Spilka (1967) agree and describe intrinsic religiosity as “committed religiousness,” while Bergin (1991) views intrinsic religiosity as an internalized belief system that is followed “regardless of social pressure.” Boadella (1998) sees intrinsic religiosity as the “the basic, simple message at the heart of a religion.” It is this “intrinsic” dimension of religious orientation that is typically viewed as overlapping with the broader notion of spirituality (Scott, 1997; Harris, 2003). Or as McNeill (1988) points out, intrinsic religiosity is directly associated with “healthy religiousness.” The counterpart to intrinsic religiosity is extrinsic religiosity. The extrinsic orientation is, “useful for the self in granting safety, social standing, solace, and endorsement for one’s chosen way of life” (Allport, 1966, p. 455). It has been suggested that brotherhood and unity become less important to the extrinsic individual’s own personal beliefs and values, while conformance to community-based norms increases in importance. A number of researchers, such as McNeill (1988) and Bergin (1991) go

Religious orientation, and attitudes 125

JEC 1,2

126

even further and describe extrinsic religiosity as the use of religion to gain social acceptance or reward, finding it to be associated with various pathological behaviors. But while most writers tend to view extrinsic religiosity somewhat negatively, or at best dogmatic and anti-humanist, others (Boadella, 1998; Galbraith and Galbraith, 2004) suggest that this dichotomy may be somewhat simplistic. For example, some characteristics that are typically associated with “extrinsic religiosity” also probably contain many positive elements of ritual and community, providing the discipline required for increasing levels of spirituality as described by various monastic leaders and mystics such as Benedict of Nursia (480-547), Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) and Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). In addition, from an entrepreneurial point of view there may be another positive aspects of an extrinsic orientation. We argue that the adherence to certain dogmas, church attendance, and the specific community-based parameters of behavior often associated with the extrinsic dimension of religious orientation may also be an important source of economic and social capital for entrepreneurs (Candland, 2000). By standardizing behavior and social contracts, the transaction costs of intra-sect exchange are reduced, social capital is enhanced, and efficient economic “clubs” can form (Galbraith, 2004). Recent research suggests that some of the “standardizing” elements commonly associated with the extrinsic dimension of religious orientation, have in fact, benefited both traditional groups such as the Mennonites (Ryman, 2004), and early stage Catholic entrepreneurs in immigrant Hispanic populations (Galbraith et al., 2003). Given the interest in these two dimensions, we use the revised Allport and Ross (1967) scale with intrinsic religious orientation measured as an eight-item scale (a ¼ 0.93), and external religious orientation measured by a nine-item scale (a ¼ 0.73). For orientation toward self-employment we used a five-item scale (a ¼ 0.86; Singh and De Noble, 2003). This measure collects opinions and personal attitudes about self-employment and entrepreneurship. In addition, we collected information about actual self-employment as well as age and gender. We are also interested in attitudes about fairness and justice in market exchange. To measure this construct we developed a five-question instrument. Each of the five questions was designed to address a different aspect of market justice and exchange fairness discussed in the moral markets literature. These were: I believe that the proper price of goods and services is determined in the market place, I believe that proper compensation of an individual is determined in the market place, I believe that the market place is a fair place to trade, I feel confident that I would not be cheated in the market place, I do not trust the market place to set price and compensation.

Examination of the correlation matrix, plus a factor analysis indicated that each question addressed a fundamentally different dimension of market justice and exchange fairness. Hypotheses There is substantial prior empirical evidence to suggest that intrinsic religious orientation is associated with social justice issues and concerns as well as various psychological characteristics such as empathy and altruism, whereas extrinsic religious orientation is typically found to be opposite, or in many cases, not associated at all (Allen and Spilka, 1967; Bergin, 1991; Zita and Chamberlain, 1992; Boadella, 1998). Therefore, we hypothesize that individuals with strong intrinsic religious orientation

will have negative opinions about the justice and fairness of market exchange, while individuals with strong extrinsic religions orientations will have more positive opinions about market behaviors. In addition, we expect that individuals that either own their own business, or have positive views toward self-employment will have more positive opinions about market justice. Because we are primarily interested in the relationship between religious orientation, self-employment and opinions about market fairness and justice, gender and age are included primarily as control variables for this study. We are also interested in examining the various explanatory factors that lead to entrepreneurial behaviors. With respect to religiosity, we hypothesize that higher levels of intrinsic religiosity will lead to higher levels of entrepreneurial behavior once opinion regarding market justice has been controlled for. That is, while individuals with strong intrinsic religious orientation may have more negative opinions about the justice and fairness of market exchange, we hypothesize that they are still more likely to start a business, or have entrepreneurially inclined attitudes since these individuals tend to demonstrate a greater sense of positive self-determination and esteem (Zita and Chamberlain, 1992; Frankel and Hewitt, 1994), personality characteristics often associated with entrepreneurial behaviors. However, the conforming nature of extrinsic religious orientation may, by definition, suppress entrepreneurial intentions and behaviors. Sample We drew our sample from senior level business students at a large public university in a major metropolitan area. Business students were specifically chosen since we were primarily interested in entrepreneurial expectations and orientation while controlling for business education level and content. Several different types of business classes were surveyed, including traditional management and marketing courses. A total sample of 141 usable responses was obtained. Since, this particular university tends to be a commuter college, only 44.6 percent were of traditional college age (less than 23 year old), with ages ranging between 19 and 46. Approximately, 8 percent of the sample owned their own business. Analysis To determine a typology of opinions about market justice and fairness, a cluster analysis on the five items of market exchange attitudes was performed. Utilizing a k-means cluster analysis, with distances computed using simple Euclidean distance to maximize both intra-cluster similarity and inter-cluster differences, a two-cluster solution was estimated. Table I shows the results of the cluster analysis. Examination of the cluster characteristics revealed that cluster 1 (which accounted for about 71 percent of the sample) had a significantly more positive view of market justice and fairness than cluster 2 (29 percent of the sample), which tended to view market exchanges much more suspiciously. It is important to note that while this higher sample percentage holding a “positive view” of market justice may be typical of the overall attitudes of business students, it may not, in fact, be reflective of college students in general, or the overall population. It is, however, interesting to note that over one-quarter of the business students sampled for this study had rather negative attitudes toward market justice.

Religious orientation, and attitudes 127

JEC 1,2

128 Table I. Opinion of high v. low justice in market exchange: cluster analysis

Mean values Cluster 1 Cluster 2

Variable of market fairness Belief in price of goods determined in market place Belief in price of labor determined in market place Belief in fairness of market place to trade Confident won’t be cheated in market place Lack of trust in market place to set prices Descriptive title Percent of sample

4.09 3.46 3.84 2.68 2.53 High justice in market exchange 71

2.95 2.71 2.88 2.12 3.32 Low justice in market exchange 29

F-statistic (significance) 72.706 25.073 53.560 10.476 35.878

(0.000) (0.000) (0.000) (0.002) (0.000)

N ¼ 141

Note: Cluster analysis utilized a k-means cluster analysis (SPSS), with distances computed using simple Euclidean distance

To examine the hypothesis regarding perceptions of market justice, using the cluster membership (opinion of market exchange justice) as a dichotomous dependent variable (positive v. negative view of the market place), a binary logistic regression model was estimated using intrinsic religions orientation, extrinsic religious orientation, attitude toward self-employment, actual self-employment, gender, and age as explanatory variables. Three different models were estimated. The first represented a full model of all the explanatory variables. However, because there was a natural correlation between attitudes toward self-employment and actual self-employment, the second and third model was estimated with one or the other, but not both, of these variables. Table II shows the results of this analysis. In general, the estimated full model appeared quite robust. Although there was a significant positive correlation between opinion of self-employment and actual self-employment, dropping either of these variables from the model did not significantly alter the estimated model. In our estimated model, given the way the market justice variable was scored, a positive estimated coefficient is associated with low opinion of justice (low justice is scored a 2; high justice is scored a 1).

Coefficients Independent variable

Table II. Binary logistic regression model: opinion of market exchange justice

Constant Internal religious orientation External religious orientation Perception of self-employment Actual self employment Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) Age Nagelkerke R 2 N

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

0.001 0.423 * * 20.496 * 20.036 21.582 * 0.213 20.028 0.064 141

2 0.117 0.420 * * 2 0.495 * – 2 1.619 * 0.208 2 0.027 0.064 141

0.469 0.371 * * 2 0.453 * 2 0.137 – 0.167 2 0.033 0.038 141

Notes: *p , 0.10 one-tailed; * *p , 0.05; * * *p , 0.01

Overall, our hypothesis regarding religious orientation is statistically supported. In each of the three models, intrinsic religious orientation is negatively related to a positive opinion of justice and fairness in the market, whereas extrinsic religious orientation is positively related to a higher opinion of market justice. Our hypothesis regarding self-employment is only partially supported, however. As hypothesized, actual self-employment is statistically significant, and positively associated with a high opinion of market justice. However, self-employment orientation, (though estimated in the hypothesized direction), was not statistically significant in any model. In addition, neither gender nor age showed any statistical significance in the model. While the estimated models were statistically significant and supported our hypotheses, the estimated relationship was fairly weak in explanatory power. The Nagelkerke R 2 for the full model, for example, was only 0.064. While the Nagelkerke R 2 attempts to provide a logistic analogy to R 2 in OLS regression, it must be considered more of a pseudo R 2, and cannot be interpreted directly as the percentage of the variation explained as in ordinary regression. To examine attitudes toward self-employment, two additional regression models were estimated. The first model employed perceptions of self-employment as the dependent variable, with gender, perception of market exchange justice, age, and the two religious orientations as independent variables. The second model used actual self-employment as the dependent variable, with the same independent variables. For both of these models, the OLS estimations are presented in Table III. For perceptions of self-employment, although the estimated model again showed relatively weak explanatory power (R 2 ¼ 0.048); the model does support the hypothesis that higher scores on internal religiosity are positively related to perceptions of self-employment. Gender was also significant in this model, with males having more positive perception of self-employment. The second estimated model using actual self-employment produced a somewhat better model, with a substantially higher R 2 and an ANOVA significance of p , 0.025. Like the perception of self-employment model, intrinsic religiosity was also positively related to actual self-employment. In addition, as hypothesized extrinsic religiosity was negatively related to actual self-employment. The variable of market justice was also statistically significant in this second model; as hypothesized; individuals

Independent variable Constant Internal religious orientation External religious orientation Perception of market justice Gender (1 ¼ male, 0 ¼ female) Age R2 N

Religious orientation, and attitudes 129

Coefficients Perception of self employment Actual self employment 3.329 * * * 0.157 * * 20.077 20.057 0.260 * * 20.006 0.048 141

Notes: *p , 0.10 one-tailed; * *p , 0.05; * * *p , 0.01

0.011 0.059 * * * 2 0.050 * 2 0.073 * * 0.058 * 0.003 0.091 141

Table III. OLS regression models: self-employment

JEC 1,2

130

with more positive perceptions of market exchange justice are more likely to be self-employed. In the second model, gender is also statistically significant, with males more likely to be self-employed. Conclusion This study offers a preliminary examination of various relationships between opinions of market justice, religious orientation, and attitudes toward self-employment. Using a limited sample of undergraduate business students, the results of this Weberian grounded study suggest that perceptions of market justice, religious orientation and attitudes toward self-employment are, indeed, related. Several specific conclusions are suggested. First, there does seem to be a relationship between religiosity and perceptions of market justice, and this relationship varies depending on the locus of religious orientation. Individuals with high intrinsic religious orientations tend to be more suspicious of justice and fairness in the marketplace, whereas extrinsic religious orientation is positively related to a higher opinion of market justice. Second, both religiosity and attitudes toward market justice appear to be related to both the perception of self-employment and actual self-employment. Internal religious orientation, which is often associated with individual self-determination and esteem, appears to encourage both anticipated and actual entrepreneurial activity, while the more conforming nature of external religious orientation appears to discourage entrepreneurial activity. Taken together, the results point to an intriguing theoretical and empirical conclusion – individuals that score high on intrinsic religious orientation, which by our analysis is associated with negative perceptions of market-based justice, may be more likely to “internalize” the potential market-based externalities associated with their moral beliefs through strategies of self-employment – in juxtaposition, Demsetz (1967) makes a similar internalization of externalities argument with regard to property-rights. In other words, by self-employment there is more internalized control over income, work-standards, worker compensation, employee relations, charitable giving, and product quality than simply being an employed bystander. In essence, the economies of moral organization substitutes for the cost of individual moral externalities within the boarder marketplace or large corporate environment – a thesis that underlies the “economic ethics” of the Focolare and other movements (Gold, 2003). This may also help to explain why modern North Europe, which is often considered more of a “non-theist” recent culture, has a declining rate of entrepreneurial activity, with business birth-rates one-half to one-third of that in the USA. Under these conditions the moral component inherent in the theory of the firm becomes particularly relevant (Garvey, 2003). While the results of this study are interesting and thought provoking, clearly, this study can only be considered preliminary. Given the relatively weak explanatory power of the estimated models, and the limited sample of undergraduate business students, much more research in this area needs to be done. However, the study does suggest a complex, and perhaps, significant interaction between opinions of market justice, religious orientation, and self-employment that has not been previously investigated in the literature.

References Allen, R. and Spilka, B. (1967), “Committed and consensual religion: a specification of religion-prejudice relationships”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 6, pp. 191-206. Allport, G. (1966), “The religious context of prejudice”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 447-57. Allport, G. and Ross, J. (1967), “Personal religious orientation and prejudice”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 432-43. Bergin, A. (1991), “Values and religious issues in psychotherapy and mental health”, American Psychologist, Vol. 46, pp. 394-403. Boadella, D. (1998), “Essence and ground: towards the understanding of spirituality in psychotherapy”, International Journal of Psychotherapy, Vol. 3, pp. 29-51. Brandt, E. (1996), “Corporate pioneers explore spirituality”, HR Magazine, Vol. 41 No. 4, pp. 82-7. Briskin, C. and Peppers, A. (2000), Bringing your Soul to Work: An Everyday Practice, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, San Francisco, CA. Burris, C. (1999), “Religious orientation scale”, in Hill, P. and Hood, R. (Eds), Measures of Religiosity, Religious Education Press, Birmingham, AL, pp. 144-54. Canda, E. and Furman, L. (1999), Spiritual Diversity in Social Work Practice, The Free Press, New York, NY. Candland, C. (2000), “Faith as social capital: religion and community development in Southern Asia”, Policy Development, Vol. 33 Nos 3/4, pp. 355-74. Caterine, D. (2001), Conservative Catholicism and the Carmelites: Identity, Ethnicity, and Tradition in the Modern Church, University Press, Bloomington, IN. Champion, P. (2003), “One under god? Religious entrepreneurship and pioneer Latino immigrants in Southern Louisiana”, Sociological Spectrum, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 279-301. Demsetz, H. (1967), “Toward a theory of property rights”, The American Economic Review, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 347-59. Deutschmann, C. (2001), “Capitalism as a religion? An unorthodox analysis of entrepreneurship”, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 387-403. Dollahite, D. (1998), “Fathering, faith & spirituality”, Journal of Men’s Studies, Vol. 7, pp. 3-15. Donahue, M. (1985), “Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: review and meta-analysis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 400-19. Elkins, D., Hedstrom, L., Hughes, L., Leaf, J. and Saunders, C. (1988), “Toward phenomenological spirituality: definition, description, and measurement”, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 28, pp. 5-18. Emmons, R. and Paloutzian, R. (2003), “The psychology of religion”, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 54, pp. 377-402. Frankel, B. and Hewitt, W. (1994), “Religion and well-being among Canadian University students: the role of faith groups on campus”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 33, pp. 62-73. Galbraith, C. (2004), “Are ethnic enclaves really tiebout clubs? Ethnic entrepreneurship and the economic theory of clubs”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier Ltd, Amsterdam, pp. 45-58. Galbraith, C. and Galbraith, O. (2004), The Benedictine Rule of Leadership, Adams Media, Avon, MA.

Religious orientation, and attitudes 131

JEC 1,2

Galbraith, C., Stiles, C. and Rodriguez, C. (2003), “Patterns of trade in ethnic enclaves: a study of Arab and Hispanic small businesses”, Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, Vol. 16 Nos 3/4, pp. 1-12.

132

Galbraith, C., Stiles, C. and Benitez-Bertheau, J. (2004), “The embryonic development of an ethnic neighborhood: a longitudinal case study of entrepreneurial activity”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 95-113. Garvey, G. (2003), “The theory of the firm, managerial responsibility, and catholic social teaching”, Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 525-40. Gold, L. (2003), “The roots of the Focolare movement’s economic ethic”, Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 6 No. 10, pp. 143-59. Gorsuch, R. and McPherson, S. (1989), “Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E revised and single-item scales”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 28, pp. 348-54. Harris, K. (2003), “Spirituality and religiousness: defining concepts in psychotherapy”, poster session, 2003 Mid-Winter Research Conference on Religion and Spirituality, Timonium, MD, available at: www.kevinharris.s5.com/DefConceptEssay.html (accessed 12 January, 2004). Hill, P. and Hood, R. (Eds) (1999), Measures of Religiosity, Religious Education Press, Birmingham, AL. Hill, P., Pargament, K., Hood, R., McCullough, M., Swyers, J., Larson, D. and Zinnbauer, B. (2000), “Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: points of commonality, points of departure”, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Vol. 30, pp. 51-77. Hirschmeier, J. (1964), The Origins of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA. Hodge, D. (2003), “The intrinsic spirituality scale: a new six-item instrument for assessing the salience of spirituality as a motivational construct”, Journal of Social Service Research, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 41-61. Iyer, G. (1999), “The impact of religion and reputation in the organization of indian merchant communities”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 14, pp. 102-17. Kahnweiler, W. and Otte, F. (1997), “In search of the soul of HRD”, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 171-81. Kahoe, R. (1974), “Personality and achievement correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 29, pp. 812-8. Kwon, V. (1997), Entrepreneurship and Religion: Korean Immigrants in Houston, Texas, Taylor & Francis, Inc., London. Leigh, P. (1997), “The new spirit at work”, Training & Development, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 26-33. Light, I. and Gold, S. (2000), Ethnic Economies, Academic Press, San Diego, CA. Light, I. and Karageorgis, S. (1994), “The ethnic economy”, in Smelse, N. and Swedberg, R. (Eds), The Handbook of Economic Sociology, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. McNeill, J. (1988), Taking a Chance on God: Liberating Theology for Gays, Lesbians, and Their Lovers, Families and Friends, Beacon Press, Boston, MA. Maltby, J. and Day, L. (2001), “Spiritual involvement and belief: the relationship between spirituality and Eysenck’s personality dimensions”, Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 30, pp. 187-92.

Maltby, J. and Day, L. (2003), “Religious orientation, religious coping and appraisals of stress: assessing cognitive factors in the relationship between religiosity and psychological well-being”, Personality and Individual Differences, Vol. 34, pp. 1209-24. Marshall, G. (1980), Presbyteries and Profits: Calvinism and the Development of Capitalism in Scotland, 1560-1700, Clarendon Press, Oxford. Martes, A. (2000), Brasileiros nos Estados Unidos – Um Estudo sobre Imigrantes em Massachussets (Brazilians in the US – A Study about Immigrants in Massachussets), Editoˆra Paz e Terra, Sa˜o Paulo. Martes, A. and Rodriguez, C. (2004), “Church membership, social capital, and entrepreneurship in Brazilian communities in the US”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 171-202. Mitroff, I. and Denton, E. (1999), A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace, Jossey Bass, San Francisco, CA. Piedmont, R. and Leach, M. (2002), “Cross-cultural generalizability of the spiritual transcendence scale in India: spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience”, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 45, pp. 1888-901. Portes, A. and Bach, R. (1985), Latin Journey – Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. Roof, W. (1979), “Socioeconomic differentials among white socioreligious groups in the United States”, Social Forces, Vol. 58, pp. 280-9. Rose, S. (2001), “Is the term ‘spirituality’ a word that everyone uses, but nobody knows what anyone means by it?”, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 16, pp. 193-207. Rothbard, M. (1995), Economic Thought before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic thought,Vol. 1, Edward Elgar Publishing, Ltd, Hants. Ryman, J. (2004), “Are you at peace with god and your neighbor? Cultural resources and restraints on mennonite entrepreneurship”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 203-18. Scott, A. (1997), “Categorizing definitions of religion and spirituality in the psychological literature: a content analytic approach”, unpublished manuscript, cited and discussed in Harris (2003), “Spirituality and religiousness: defining concepts in psychotherapy”, poster session, 2003 Mid-Winter Research Conference on Religion and Spirituality, Timonium, MD, available at: www.kevinharris.s5.com/DefConceptEssay.html (accessed 12 January, 2004). Singh, G. and De Noble, A. (2003), “Early retirees as the next generation of entrepreneurs”, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 203-17. Sirico, R. (1998), “The late-scholastic and Austrian link to modern catholic economic thought”, Markets & Morality, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 15-28. Smith, H. (1991), The World’s Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions, HarperCollins, New York, NY. Winter, J. (1974), “Quantitative studies of the applicability of the Weber thesis to Post-World War II USA: a call for redirected efforts”, Review of Religions Research, Vol. 16, pp. 47-58. Woodrum, E. (1985), “Religion and economics among Japanese Americans: a Weberian study”, Social Forces, Vol. 64 No. 1, pp. 191-203. Zita, S. and Chamberlain, K. (1992), “On the relation between meaning in life and psychological well-being”, British Journal of Psychology, Vol. 83, pp. 133-45.

Religious orientation, and attitudes 133

JEC 1,2

134

About the authors Alex De Noble is the Faculty at the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. His areas of interest include technology management and commercialization, international entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. Craig S. Galbraith is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His research interests include the impact of institutions, technology, and social capital on entrepreneurial activity in high risk situations. Craig S. Galbraith is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] Gangaram Singh is a Professor of Management at the College of Business Administration at San Diego State University. His areas of interest include international employment relations, innovations of human resource management and collective bargaining. Curt H. Stiles in a Professor of Strategic Management at the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina, Wilmington. His research focuses on entrepreneurial activity in developing regions, management history, and institutional economics.

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

Ifa, the deity of wisdom, and importance of work among the Yoruba people Lai Olurode

Ifa, the deity of wisdom

135

Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria Abstract Purpose – To provide a background examination of the role of work and self-employment, and their relationship with religious beliefs for the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth discussion regarding the Yoruba world view and the key components of the Yoruba peoples’ religion is provided. In particular, these elements are discussed within the context of the Yoruba’s historical attitudes regarding work, self-employment, markets, investment, and social support. Findings – For the Yoruba people, work always has a supernatural dimension to it, and the chosen profession is rarely left to chance. Hard work is valued and encouraged, from childhood to death. In order to obtain tangible rewards, an individual must match his ori with his chosen field of work. The Yoruba believe in a gentle rise to wealth, and that success is based upon consultation with deities, ancestors, and religious intermediaries. Under Yoruba tradition, successful individuals should sponsor, hard-working, but less fortunate people, but reciprocity is highly valued. For the Yoruba, the highest form of employment is self-employment. A combination of these factors has resulted in a well established and historically successful market-based system. Research limitations/implications – Yoruba traditions have been important in framing modern culture in Nigeria, and parts of many other African nations. Yoruba immigrants are also well established in other countries through out the world, including Brazil, Cuba, and the USA. Although many modern Yoruba are now Christian or Moslem, the Yoruba culture and historical attitudes about work, markets, and self-employment are still critically important in framing our understanding of the economic structure of these communities. Originality/value – This paper is one of the few efforts that specifically examines economic forces within the broader context of religion for the Yoruba people. Keywords Religion, Nigeria, Employment Paper type Case study

The Yoruba people The Yoruba represents one of the largest indigenous ethno-linguistic populations in Africa. About 30 million Yoruba reside in Western Africa. In Nigeria, one out of five individuals is a Yoruba. Large indigenous Yoruba populations are also found in Ghana, Benin, and Togo, with significant immigrant enclaves located in Sierra Leone, Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad and the USA. Many of the slaves brought to North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth century were from Yoruba regions, and were often known as Aku´ by Europeans. Today many African descendants in different countries can trace their roots to the Yoruba. Yorubaland was officially colonized by the British in 1901. Thanks to the editors who helped with two earlier drafts of this paper.

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 135-141 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752557

JEC 1,2

136

The British, however, allowed a system of indirect rule that essentially mimicked the structure of Yoruba (Giblin, 2006). In Nigeria, the Yoruba are concentrated primarily in the south-west zone, where most of the country’s densely populated settlements are found. Yoruba towns have been known for their pre-colonial and pre-industrial urban status. Today, these large population settlements are mainly supported by peasant farming, together with light manufacturing and craft activities. According to the 2006 Nigerian national housing and population census, the south-west zone is the second most populous zone in Nigeria with about 20 per cent of Nigeria’s population of 140 million. Of Nigeria’s 36 states, the Yoruba occupy seven states, with large populations also found in the Edo and Delta States. The Yoruba are a relatively homogenous group with regard to language and cultural profile, and date back more than 1,200 years as a separate political power in Western Africa. Yoruba language is believed to have separated linguistically approximately 2,000 years ago (Giblin, 2006). While there are minor differences between different Yoruba regions, these differences are generally considered not significant. Dress distinguishes the Yoruba from other social groups in Nigeria. Their mode of dressing is unique and is now often copied by other groups in Nigeria. The Yoruba women are often elegantly dressed in their iro, buba and ipele and Yoruba men wear their sokoto trousers, I, and agbada with cap to fit. Yoruba art and craftworks are particularly well known, and mark a centuries old artistic tradition. For reference, Adigun (1987), Fadipe (1970), Giblin (2006), Johnson (1921) and Olusanya (1994) provide more detailed descriptions of the Yoruba history and culture. Ifa, the deity of wisdom The Yoruba have a strong faith in Oduduwa and believe that the Yoruba originate from Ile-Ife. In the Yoruba religion, the place of Ifa, the deity of wisdom, is very important. Ifa is often consulted on important occasions; including business activities such as before a new venture is launched. Though there are local variations as to which deities are worshipped, some deities are universal to all the Yoruba regardless of their location in the world. On being consulted, the Ifa oracle may prescribe sacrifices as a means of averting disaster. This may be referred to as saara or ebo. Upon creation, the individual comes to this world with an ori (a spiritual head that is not visible to the ordinary eyes). Thus, there is a degree of predestination in that the path of an individual has been decided in the world beyond. This path may only be altered through consultations with the custodians of the Ifa oracle, who would then prescribe what is required to be done. Though the Yoruba believe in destiny, the Yoruba also believe in the sanctity of sacrifice to alter the bad to good fortune and to avoid the reversion by esu of good into bad luck (Fadipe, 1970). How these apparent contradictory views of belief in predestination and in propitiation to alter the course of events are described in more detail by Olusanya (2005). The Yoruba believe in the existence of one Supreme and supernatural Being. This Supreme Being is the author of the universe, the omnipotent and the omnipresent. This Supreme Being, however, is to be approached through several different intermediaries. It should be mentioned that the Yoruba idea of the Supreme

Being, in this respect, is similar to that of both Islam and Christianity, and probably explains the reception of these two religious traditions into Yorubaland. In spite of the outward expressions of these two received religions, the traditional Yoruba religious beliefs persist. The notion of religion consists of the sacred and the secular, those things that are forbidden and those that are permitted, and the Yoruba attitudes toward these.

Ifa, the deity of wisdom

137 Work and the Yoruba religion Much has been written about the relationship between work and religious belief in the major religious traditions. For example, Max Weber, particularly in his work on the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism, describes the how the choice of work, and a person’s ultimate commitment to this work, is closely associated with the basic Christian religious beliefs. Work is also vitally important to the Yoruba, and regard work as the essence of creation. Thus, right from early childhood, the youth are socialised into a world of work. Being a predominantly rural population, minor tasks are assigned to Yoruba children, and in several role-playing activities, Yoruba children are actively encouraged to mimic adult work behaviours. In fact, older adults and parents who fail to allocate work roles to children may be regarded as too permissive. The word “work” is referred to as ise by the Yoruba. It is believed by the Yoruba that the only solution to both social and personal poverty is work. Oftentimes while work tasks are carried out they are interspersed with light entertainment, jokes, singing and dancing. Under the Yoruba tradition, work is not regarded as an ordeal but an integral part of social existence. Individuals that do not earnestly work are referred to as ole (the lazy ones), and as a group are believed to be a companion of thieves. Those who are poor because of failure to work, or do not display positive attitude to work, are often considered undeserving of social support. This is borne out by Yoruba proverbs and mythologies. For example, the Yoruba have this popular admonition, which adults try to inculcate among young children: Ise ni oogun ise Mura si ise ore mi Ise ni a fi di eni giga,

which translates to: Work is the medicine to cure poverty. Endeavour to do your work well, my friend; It is through work one rises up amongst one’s peers.

The Yoruba, however, also believe in leisure – but this must be measured leisure. Work is regarded as a life long phenomenon that progresses through phases, from earliest childhood. It is also believed that no individual can escape work throughout life except by death. In later years, elderly that still work are not to be pitied. The choice of profession The choice of one’s profession is taken with all seriousness. Thus, an individual is expected to make necessary consultations before embarking on a particular

JEC 1,2

138

profession or trade. Once chosen, the individual, apart from making the necessary sacrifices and appeasement, must show diligence, commitment, good neighbourliness and good behaviour. He needs to make the required medicine to attract customers to himself. This process is called awure, which is what makes work “flourish”. A person’s work path must therefore be sanctioned by the gods, and if a chosen line is not rewarding enough, then it could be because the gods are angry or that the individual is not well-intentioned toward others. In Yoruba tradition, individuals who do well in their chosen career must continuously appease the gods so that they do not fall out of favour with regard to their fortunes and life of work. The world of work is surrounded by a number of uncertainties, and work can produce success or failure. It is believed that the intervention of the gods is a decisive factor, which may produce desirable/undesirable outcomes. So the work that an individual settles for must be acceptable to the gods, the ancestors and ones ori (literally the head). The ori is believed to have two components: (1) the ori inu (the internal dimension, the unseen); and (2) the ori ita (the external aspect, the physical head). One influences the other. In Yoruba tradition, those who make it in their chosen career must have made the right choice of ori, the dieties and the ancestors must also have been pleased. Those who have less success must have annoyed these elements and had chosen the wrong ori from the start. The oracle which they must consult to excel in life has to prescribe the sacrifices to be offered if they must have a start again in life and work. In Yoruba tradition the world of work and an individual’s total existence are bound by numerous supernatural forces which are under the perennial control of the gods and the spirit world. Appeasements, prayers, incantations and sacrifices must constantly be performed as well as the remembrance of the ancestors. The combination of ori, the gods and the ancestors explain why in a world of work some individuals fail, whereas other enjoy more success. The Yoruba believe that, ise kii pa enia, aise re ni pa eniyan, or “Work does not kill, it is failure to work that kills.” One important aspect of properly pursing a profession or trade is to be aware about what is forbidden by Yoruba religious tradition in the chosen field, that is, the taboos that are associated with the job. For example, under Yoruba traditions, individuals that pursue trading should not “sell to the first buyer on credit” – to do otherwise is to have a dull day of slow business. Those who are professional drivers must avoid killing a duck while driving. Almost all work activities have a understood set of taboos associated with that particular profession. Stratification, investment and work There is, of course, a distinction between subsistence work and investment work which is for the creation of wealth. Hence, the Yoruba elders often say: Ise ni omo aseje, owo ni omo asela. In English, this translates as “Work is to provide food for the worker; investment is what eventually makes him or her wealthy.” Yoruba society tends to be highly stratified. Though the indolent may be seen as not deserving support, individuals that work hard, but are less economically successful are seen as deserving assistance by their more successful kith and kin.

Under Yoruba traditions, successful family members, close associates, and other potential patrons become the ladders that the more unlucky, but still hard-working, individuals must exploit to get to the top. This relationship, however, is not one-sided but more reciprocal in nature. Those who seek the support of others must show submission, deference and respect for their patrons. In a variety of ways, one must be willing to pay back one’s benefactor. This re-payment may several forms – material and non-material forms. A loan, can be repaid at a future date or in return for favour done in starting up a business. Or, for example, the beneficiary may assist his benefactor in attending to visitors during wedding or naming ceremonies. The Yoruba expects reciprocation, and have a saying: O ko sa igi logbe, O ko ta oguro lofa O de idi ope; o gbenu soke; ofe nii roo?,

which translates as: You did not injure the tree; you did not shoot an arrow at the palm tree; you get to the foot of the palm tree and raises your month to drink wine; does it flow freely?

Thus, the one who is being assisted is expected to have done his homework well as heaven helps those who help themselves. He cannot afford to gamble with the opportunity. This relationship is generally irrespective of age. Although in Yoruba society age is important, and deference flows from the younger ones to the old ones, social standing based on wealth may reposition and redefine this age-related relationship. Hence, the Yoruba adage: Owo omode ko to pepe,; tagbalagba ko wo keregbe. In English, this means, “A child’s hands cannot reach the top of the elevated platform, those of an elder cannot enter a gourd.” But there must be limits to this process. The successful individuals who indulge too much are often criticized for spending lavishly on themselves, relatives or dependants. Under Yoruba tradition, benefactors must be circumspect at all times and remember that Igba ko to lo bi ore re, or, “fortune is open to fluctuation” – implying that it is not always straight as a stretch of road, as there are uncertainties. The Yoruba expect the successful individuals to behave gently, be prayerful and appease the gods so as to ward off any threat to their successful career. They must constantly make sacrifices to the deities, gods and the ancestors in order to retain their support and guidance. Hence, the Yoruba elders say: Ohun to dara n fe adura: ko ma ba baje; ohun ti ko dara na nfe adura; ko le ba dara, or “Good fortune needs prayers: so that it may not go awry; an adverse condition needs prayers as well; so that it may change to good.” Survival, work diversification, and self-employment The Yoruba have a saying, Ori lo mo owo asela. This translates to, “only the head (ori ) knows the line of trade that would lead to success”. Individuals must therefore be cautious about following an exact path. They are expected to diversify their skills and activities. As a survival tactic this can take several forms. An individual may be multi-skilled or simultaneously engage in his/her own work while working for others.

Ifa, the deity of wisdom

139

JEC 1,2

140

The Yoruba adage which corroborates this idea is: Ona kan ko woja O difa fun tisa ti n kope, meaning, “It is not only one road that leads to a market if a ordination was performed for a teacher who learnt how to cut palm fruits.” Even in the process of growing up, it is part of young adults’ culture to work on the father’s farm in the morning and on their own farms late in the afternoon. The Yoruba often believe that, “only a fool or the cursed would hope to work for others for life.” The best form of work in the Yoruba world view is self-employment. This explains why the Yoruba from an early age are highly enterprising. It is only through entrepreneurial effort and self-employment that one can gain independence and earn respect from others. As such, the Yoruba have developed a fair sophisticated market based economic system, particularly in the more urban areas. These markets form an inherent part of Yoruba life. The entrepreneurs and traders that are involved in these markets tend to be well organized, have various guilds, and elected political representatives. Conclusion For the Yoruba, the world of work and the world of religion are like two sides of a same coin – they are inseparable. In the shops, stores, markets and other trading points of most Yoruba one can find medicines and related religious objects, either hung on the wall or buried under the ground. Most Yoruba believe that without these support from the spirit world and the deities, their businesses would collapse. Religion affects work in several ways. First, work always has a supernatural dimension to it. Second, the profession or trade to embark upon is rarely left to chance. It is a function of prayer, consultations with the ancestors, elders and the deities. Third, in order to also reap tangible rewards from the world of work, the individual must continue to reconcile his ori with the chosen work so that they correspond. So once chosen, the individual must not only work hard, as “heaven helps those who help themselves”. Fourth, the individual must avoid the taboos that are associated with the chosen work. Fifth, in the Yoruba religious worldview, the road to riches is filled with thorns, and thus sweet are the uses of adversity. An individual must not only endure adversity in the course of work, but he must also open up to people and the deities and gods early, particularly if he is not doing well. Perhaps, he will find that his work is not in line with his ori. Sixth, the Yoruba subscribe to a gentle rise to wealth and success. Under Yoruba tradition individuals who acquire wealth quickly, or too early in life, must fear, “premature death”. Even those who inherit wealth from their parents attract little respect unless they are serious, prayerful, truthful, and disciplined in retaining the possessions. Seventh, the Yoruba do not believe that material goods, or even the non-material capital, such as counselling or advice, must flow in one direction. Reciprocity is highly valued. The Yoruba culture, allow people to set in motion activities that would ensure resource flow from surplus areas to deficit ends. The risks of life are many and in the, “ballot of life, many are simply unlucky”. There are, however limitations, to the extent to which one can depend on the benevolence of others. Finally, for the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria, the best form of employment is not wage labour (except on a temporary basis) but self-employment. It is also good to diversify ones work activities. This way, an individual should be able to escape

the arenije, or “exploiters”. This dictates the dynamism of working life, the practice of moonlighting and the simultaneous pursuit of formal and informal activities. Rather than being regarded as conflict-ridden, these are complementary. References Adigun, O. (1987), Equity, Trusts and Administration of Estates, Ayo Shodimu Publishers, Abeokuta. Fadipe, N. (1970), The Sociology of the Yoruba, Ibadan University Press, Ibadan. Giblin, J. (2006), “Diffusion and other problems in the history of African states”, available at: www.uiowa.edu/ , africart/toc/history/giblinstate.html#yoruba Johnson, S. (1921), The History of the Yoruba, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London. Olusanya, P. (1994), “Religious beliefs and practices”, in Olurode, L. and Olusanya, P. (Eds), Nigerian Heritage: The Yoruba Example, Rebonik Publications, Lagos. Olusanya, P. (2005), “Religion”, in Olurode, L. and Olusanya, P. (Eds), Nigerian Heritage: The Yoruba Example, Rebonik Publications, Lagos. About the author Lai Olurode holds the doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Sussex in Britain in 1984. He has been teaching Sociology at the University of Lagos in Nigeria since 1981. He was the Chair of Sociology from 2001 to 2003 and is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Lagos. He is well published and has presented papers at international conferences. He was appointed as a Visiting Professor of Sociology to the University of California in 2003. Lai Olurode can be contacted at: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

Ifa, the deity of wisdom

141

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

JEC 1,2

A humility-based enterprising community: the Amish people in Lancaster County

142

Leo Paul Dana University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this study is to add to the understanding of humility-based economic development and entrepreneurship among the Amish – a religious group – in the USA, whose culture values asceticism, frugality, thrift and work, as well as humility. Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents an ethnographic research study. Findings – Amish adults teach their young that work is pleasurable. In order to maintain their values, the Amish try to avoid close contact with people who do not hold the same traditions. Furthermore, due to religious discrimination in the past, the Amish often exhibit a mistrust of outsiders. The primary motive of self-employment among the Amish is neither profit nor prestige, but rather the maintenance of cultural values, separately from mainstream society such as to emphasise humility over pride. Self-employment is perceived as much a social activity as an economic activity, and very importantly, it is compatible with religious beliefs. Practical implications – Given the choice, the Amish prefer not to work for enterprises in mainstream society. These people prefer to be self-employed or to work amongst themselves, as it is their belief that a community of believers is the context for life. Originality/value – This research paper reports on an ethnographic research study that reveals the reasons why Amish people in Lancaster County choose self-employment as a means of livelihood, the changing nature of their enterprises, and the causal variables explaining why there is a shift from farm-based self-employment on family farms, to non-land-based entrepreneurship. Keywords Religion, Entrepreneurship, Self employed workers, United States of America Paper type Research paper

Therefore, the Lord God sent him forth . . . to till the ground (Genesis 3:23)

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 142-154 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752566

Introduction The Amish people[1] are an offshoot of the Mennonites, a religious group that was established in 1525, in Zurich, Switzerland. Named for Menno Simons, the Mennonites had beliefs which were considered radical at the time; for instance, they believed in the separation of church and state. These people felt that a religion should involve only voluntary believers and that no religion should be imposed upon children at birth. Keeping in line with this conviction, they refused to baptise their infants. Instead, individuals could be voluntarily baptised, if and when they felt mature enough to decide for themselves. This religious group was, therefore, referred to as the Anabaptists. Anabaptists were persecuted in Europe, because they did not believe in baptism and because they desired separation of church and state. Religious freedom attracted them to America and according to Stauffer (1941), the first of these arrived in the USA in 1683. Thus, they left Switzerland, Germany and Alsace Lorraine, for the USA,

where a Quaker, William Penn, promised them religious freedom and the federal government offered them land grants. In 1693, Swiss-born Jakob Ammann felt that the Mennonites were straying from a strictly religious background. He then proceeded to establish a more conservative and disciplined offshoot, which came to be known as the Amish. More so than the Mennonites, the Amish were – and continue to be – careful not to accept innovative technology without considering the effects thereof, on their lifestyle, which values asceticism, frugality, simplicity, thrift, work ethic and perhaps most importantly, humility and the family unit. Hostetler (1993) noted that some aspects of being Amish have remained comparatively unchanged for three centuries. Among the largest concentrations of Amish families is found in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster County, which is 946 square miles. It was home to 500 Amish persons in 1900 (Lowry, 1997), and to 25,000 today. Two-thirds of the land in this county is used for agriculture and this area is said to be the most productive non-irrigated farmland in the USA. Yet, farming here involves no highly sophisticated technology. Farms are small and do not benefit from economies of scale. Lee (1984) noted an average farm size of 60 acres. The objective of this paper is to give an account of Amish self-employment and entrepreneurship in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Focus is on Amish values and the successful small business sector that thrives without modernisation. As stated by Farmer and Richman (1965, pp. 156-7), “Prevailing religious beliefs and cultural values . . . have a direct and very significant bearing on the dominant view toward work and achievement.” Religion and enterprising communities The impact of religion on economic development has long been a subject of research interest. Classical Social Theorist, Weber (1904) compared taxation figures in Baden, and reported 4,000,000 marks per 1,000 Jews; 954,000 marks per 1,000 Protestants; and only 589,000 marks per 1,000 Catholics. His thesis argued that while Protestantism stressed the development of economic security, Catholics believed that it was easier for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than for a wealthy man to go to heaven. The Weberian thesis and the concept of the Protestant Work Ethic became highly influential, and this prompted much research. Farmer and Richman (1965, p. 157), for example, wrote: There is a close correlation of countries in terms of how deeply the Calvinist spirit has penetrated their economic and social behavior with real per capita income and level of economic development. Thus, in 1958, all fifteen countries of the world with per capita incomes of over $700 per year were those which had followed the Calvinist ethic extensively; and, with the possible exceptions of France and Belgium, all were quite extensively Protestant in religion. No country where the Calvinist ethic had deeply penetrated was not included in this list of most wealthy countries, while none of the extensively non-Calvinist nations had yet achieved such economic success.

More recently, Klandt (1987, p. 31) found that a Protestant upbringing “is more likely to lead to independent business activity than a Catholic upbringing”. Every coin has two sides and not all academics agreed with the Weberian school. In response to Weber (1904, 1905), Sombart (1911) examined economic development in Europe and this was translated as Sombart (1951). In this work, Sombart observed that

Humility-based enterprising community 143

JEC 1,2

144

as Jews moved from southern Europe to northern Europe, the economic centre of Europe shifted with them; he then linked economic development in Europe to Jewish entrepreneurs and argued that they influenced the outward form of modern capitalism. Ex-President of the USA, William Howard Taft (1919, p. 7) wrote about the Jews who “developed trade, poetry, philosophy, science and literature”. Taft (1919, p. 10) also gave examples of how Europeans prospered by means of Jews, who: . . . were forbidden to hold land. The nobility manufactured the liquor, and they were willing and anxious to have the Jews sell it, who thus, for lack of other occupation, became the innkeepers, the purveyors in the demoralizing liquor business.

Weber (1922) maintained that Protestantism, by encouraging self-restraint and accumulation of assets, contributed to capitalism. This work was translated by Alexander Morell Henderson and Talcott Parsons and published as Weber (1947). Lewis (1955, p. 105) explained: If a religion lays stress upon material values, upon thrift and productive investment, upon honesty in commercial relations, upon experimentation and risk-bearing . . . it will be helpful to growth, whereas in so far as it is hostile to these things, it tends to inhibit growth. Where Theravada Buddhism is the backbone of social and cultural values . . . it may have a restraining effect on the accumulation of wealth and the rise of an entrepreneurial class.

Yet, Guiso et al. (2003) found that Buddhists were in favour of increasing private ownership of business and industry, more so than any other of the groups in their study; the authors also noted that Buddhists were in favour of competition, more so than Christians, Muslims and Hindus, but less than Jews. Zingales (2006, p. 228) argued, “Buddhism and Christianity seem most conducive to capitalism, and Islam the least”. Zingales (2006, pp. 228-9) elaborated: Comparing the average response of different religious denominations we find that, other things being equal, Buddhism seems to promote the best attitudes towards the market system. Christian religions follow . . . Islam appears as the religion least conducive to capitalism. Muslims are very much against competition, against private property and less willing to trade off equality for incentives.

In contrast, Malaysian Prime Minister Badawi (2006, p. 208) suggested: Islam preaches a holistic and comprehensive notion of development in this world and for the hereafter. It does not negate the pursuit of material development in this world . . . The teachings of Islam are also eminently suited to development in the modern, knowledge-based economy . . . Besides, its emphasis on knowledge, Islam also enjoins a work ethic that equips the individual to excel in economic pursuits.

What impact does religion have on one’s decision to be an entrepreneur, and does this affect the nature of entrepreneurship? Fishberg (1911, p. 531) observed that Jews were concentrated in precarious occupations such as commerce; he elaborated, suggesting that Jews were “ambitious and persevering, possessing an enormous amount of ‘push’ which he cannot always bring into play while struggling against adverse circumstances”. Weber (1930) – in the English translation of his 1920 revision of Weber (1904, 1905) works – went into detail about social class as a function of religion, and he cited related works including Sombart (1913) and its translation, i.e. Sombart (1915). More recently, Rath and Kloosterman (2003, pp. 123-4) elaborated:

The arrival of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula in the sixteenth century and later from Eastern Europe, and of Roman Catholics from Westphalia throughout the nineteenth century, greatly influenced the Dutch economic landscape as their business acumen enhanced the nation’s economic and cultural wealth.

Humility-based enterprising community

Modernisation, entrepreneurship and the Amish religion The USA is a pluralistic society in which many minorities retain their respective partial-universes, while sharing a core universe with other Americans. Each coexists in a state of mutual accommodation, tolerance, or at times cooperation. The Amish People, of whom there are about 150,000 nation-wide, have self-imposed a status of social marginality upon themselves, espousing their own community at the exclusion of others, such as to resist modernisation; they focus their energy on religion, family and work values leading to successful self-employment in the absence of innovation or modernisation. Levy (1966) described modernisation as the ratio of inanimate to animate sources of power. Berger et al. (1973, p. 8) noted that social scientists often discussed the concept of modernisation interchangeably with that of economic growth and development; they suggested that modernisation “must be seen in close relation to economic growth – more specifically, to the particular growth processes released by recent technology”. Yet, the Amish have prospered using animate sources of power; they have shown that economic development is possible without modernisation. The Amish are an extreme example of a people who value economic development, through a highly disciplined work ethic and a propensity for small business, while excluding from their lives the necessity to modernise. In Amish society, entrepreneurial work is valued as a pleasure which allows individuals to perpetuate religious beliefs. Thus, the Amish view of entrepreneurship looks beyond the maximisation of monetary profit. As stated by Penrose (1959, p. 39):

145

The fact that businessmen, though interested in profits, have a variety of other ambitions as well, some of which seem to influence (or distort) their judgment about the “best” way of making money, has often been discussed primarily in connection with the controversial subject of “profit maximization”.

Foster (1984, p. 79) noted the Amish perception that “factory jobs were both personally unrewarding and economically undependable”. Hostetler (1993) and Kraybill (1989) elaborated on Amish culture. Lowry (1997) focused on tobacco farming among the Amish. Lowery and Noble (2000) examined the occupational structure of the largest Amish settlement in Ohio. Stoll (2002) explained why the Amish refuse to use motorised machinery for fieldwork, where it would alter agricultural production that currently uses no pesticides, no herbicides and no genetic modification; given that farm-work is the life of an Amish family, it must embrace rest and pleasure. Based on interviews with over 150 Amish entrepreneurs, Kraybill and Nolt (2004) traced the rise and impact of businesses in Lancaster County, home to the oldest Amish community. Hawley (2005) studied Amish business practices in Missouri, with particular attention given to Amish women in business. Much has been written about innovation-based entrepreneurship, as pioneered by Schumpeter (1934). There is also significant literature on opportunity-based entrepreneurship, as described by Kirzner (1979). Shapero (1975) was among those

JEC 1,2

146

who discussed necessity-based entrepreneurship. This paper will now look at religion-inspired humility-based self-employment among the Amish People. Methodology With the methodological mandate to be inductive, naturalistic and sensitive to context, it was necessary for the researcher to be submerged into Amish lifestyle, for an extended period of time, such as to develop closeness in the social sense. This was a challenge because separateness from the world is fundamental to Amish beliefs; a central concern among the Amish is spiritual purity, and isolationism is the means to this. Interaction with other cognitive systems is, therefore, kept to a minimum, and is generally limited to the economic realm. While the Amish have a mistrust of outsiders, the Mennonites cater to commercialism and are relatively open to outsiders. Therefore, relationships were established with Mennonite friends of Amish people, in order to be introduced to Amish families. After the author demonstrated genuine interest and respect for Amish values, one Amish family allowed the author to move in, and to participate in milking chores and other activities. Data could then be collecting through participation as well as observation. Thus, ethnographic methods included participant observation, as described by Burgess (1984) and Edgerton and Langess (1974). Triangulation was used for verification, as recommended by Patton (1982, 1987, 1990). The Amish have their own dialect; although they live in America, the Amish primarily speak Plaudeutsch, a dialect from northern Germany. This, however, was not a problem, the researcher being fluent in German. A difficulty arose, however, as the Amish believe that photography is sinful, and they do not approve of audio recording – otherwise very useful in ethnography. The author therefore relied on stenography to record interviews. An assistant took notes simultaneously, and both sets were compared for accuracy. Beliefs and symbolism Central to the belief system of Amish society is humility expressed as simplicity – in dress, in worship, and in work. The Amish believe in the development of simple, self-sustaining means to livelihood. They reject all modernisation which threatens to erode their traditional way of life. To avoid diluting their beliefs, the Amish have consciously refrained from joining mainstream society. An Amish interviewee explained to the author that he knew he was “missing out” on some aspects of life, but this was “worth it, because family life is most important”. The Amish religion is rooted in the strong belief in God and in the community; the people believe that belonging to each other is a prerequisite to understanding the work of God. An elderly Amish man told the author, “Because we reject infant baptism, each member joins voluntarily and shares responsibly”. All this binds the Amish a sub-culture, which they call their brotherhood. Interaction with outsiders kept to a minimum, and is generally limited to the economic realm, for example, at a roadside stand or farmers market. While the Amish people believe that a community of voluntary believers is the context for life, the fundamental unit of Amish society and of the economy is the family. An Amish woman explained, “Technology enables individuals to drift apart, while the lack of technology forces individuals to struggle together, thereby

encouraging closer ties, and strengthening the family unit.” This explains why, although Mennonites accept motor vehicles, Amish people own neither tractors nor automobiles. The horse-drawn cart is the basic form of transportation. The horse-drawn vehicles of different Amish families vary according to the specific traditions of local church districts. The box-like style of Amish buggies is symbolic of the lack of pretension in Amish life. The body is either made from wood or fibreglass. Tops are sometimes vinyl. A buggy may take ten days to build, and cost a couple of thousand dollars. Horse-drawn vehicles vary slightly according to specific traditions of local church districts. The typical travelling speed of a buggy is 20 kilometres per hour. Rubber tires are not permitted among the Amish. The horse in Amish society has several roles. Horses are essential in the provision of transportation. They pull heavy cargoes, and they enable people to travel to and from neighbouring towns. On Amish farms, horses are used to plough fields, to sow seeds and later for harvest. Given that mules have more stamina than do horses, “mules make better farmers and often both work together” the author was told. Both mules and horses are compatible with Amish lifestyle, avoiding any form of ecological damage. An interviewee explained to the author: A tractor, a truck and the like are viewed as polluting to the land with their exhaust, while their weight and their broad tires cause physical damage to the ground; in contrast, animals fertilise the ground.

Although outsiders may perceive these people as living in the past, the Amish do not consider themselves as static, but rather, they view themselves to be successful entrepreneurs in the business of making things and growing food. When asked by the author about the lack of scale economies on Amish farmers, an Amish farmer replied that “life must be seen in the context of a sense of belonging to a community, such that every member feels needed”. Central to Amish culture is a highly disciplined work ethic. Idleness is shunned. Discipline and self-determination are admired; therefore, the Amish frown on socialist measures such as unemployment insurance, welfare programs and social security payments. However, Amish capitalism includes altruism, family cohesion and a sense of responsibility to the extended family and to the community. This is exemplified by functions such as barn raisings, which are communal events. The Amish are generally eager to help one another. One Amish woman explained to the author, “There is a strong emphasis on service to others”. The Luneville Sewing Circle, for instance, involves 15 women who have been meeting regularly since the mid-1950s, for the purpose of sewing diapers, panties and gowns for the poor. As well, they make toys for children. The Amish wear distinctive clothing, the reason being that standardised dress symbolises humility and loyalty to the community. Keeping in line with the religious ideals of searching for simplicity and humility, both men and women seek a modest appearance. Men and boys alike wear broad-rimmed hats, made of black felt or straw. Among men, beards are required after marriage. Moustaches are shaven, an elderly interviewee explained, “as these were traditionally worn by soldiers in Germany”. Shirts are of solid colours. Suits are hand-made of dark fabrics. Coats are straight-cut with no lapels. Suit coats and vests have no buttons. Black footwear falls in line with plain broad-fall trousers which are held up by suspenders such as to avoid fitting

Humility-based enterprising community 147

JEC 1,2

148

tightly at the waist. Amish women wear long dresses with long sleeves. These are usually very plain, made of solid-coloured fabrics, with cape and apron. It is the norm for Amish women to have long hair and a prayer head-covering, which is white for married women and black for single girls. During cold weather, a bonnet and shawl are worn. Children do not have styles of their own, but rather both boys and girls are expected to dress, look and act like adults. The author noticed that girls have dolls, but with no faces. An Amish home must also look humble, unadorned, and painted white. In 1919, Amish leaders agreed that houses should not be connected to electricity, lest this could lead to temptations and hence deterioration of family values. There is no phone in the house, but there is access to one not far away, in case of emergency. Each house alternates as a church, since the Amish never build churches per se; they believe that each home can serve as a house of God. This is consistent with the cultural importance given to frugality and thrift. No money is spent on a separate church building. Propagating cultural values Amish society is very structured, with each individual having an assigned role. It is the duty of a wife to oversee all affairs of the home, including the appearance of the house and garden as well as raising the children and sending them to school, where cultural values are reinforced. Laundry is solely the responsibility of girls and women; daughters learn from their mothers. While field work is the occupation of men, women work alongside men during the harvest. Tobacco, for instance, is harvested in late August and in early September at which time entire families can be seen in the fields. Schools are never far from the home, as there are over 100 one-room school-houses scattered across Lancaster County. Every Amish family has access to an Amish school within a four-kilometre distance. Each school typically caters from 20 to 40 Amish children up to the age of 16. Eight grades are taught simultaneously in the one classroom. An Amish school is a place where social skills are developed and sports are practised, but most importantly, Amish schools focus on preparing students to become productive members of Amish society. The teacher is either Amish or Mennonite and stresses a sense of community, humility, simplicity, responsibility and the fear of God. There is minimal reference to science, technology, conspicuous consumption and the military. On some days, students bring pets to school. Homework is a rare phenomenon as it is understood that the children are kept busy helping their respective families with chores. In fact, preference is given to learning by doing rather than by simply sitting in class. School attendance after the age of 12 is limited to three or four hours per week. Most of one’s education is acquired through a process of watching elders in daily life. Children are, therefore, taught to respect their elders, to obey them, and to learn from them. From a very young age, Amish children develop a close relationship with their parents. Parents spend almost all of their time with their children, teaching them Amish cultural values. It is not from formal education in school, but rather from their parents that children learn to become self-sufficient in life. Amish boys normally learn a variety of skills on their father’s farm. This typically includes cabinetry, carpentry, furniture-making and masonry. Such skills are helpful

when seeking non-farm employment or contractual work to enhance or replace subsistence farming. The author observed a heavy reliance on apprenticeship. Most importantly for the Amish, each generation transmits cultural values to the next. This includes asceticism, frugality and thrift, virtues which Weber (1904, 1905) linked to entrepreneurial behaviour. Children thus become predisposed towards self-employment, as parents guide them along an almost pre-determined road in life. The young are not encouraged to explore such as to discover themselves, but rather to fit into Amish society, and to feel needed within it. Often, a son learns his trade from his father. Even when a son does not adopt the same profession as his father, it is practical to learn as many manual skills as possible. A son becomes the apprentice of his father at a very young age. Not only does a son learn how to work, but also more importantly according to Amish tradition, he is conditioned into accepting the Amish belief that work is healthy and enjoyable. During his spare time, a boy will memorise verses from the Bible, in German and English. This will encourage him to choose humility, simplicity and contentment as a way of life. The same way that sons are close with their fathers, mothers are close with their daughters, teaching them to knit, sew, cook, quilt, garden and perform housekeeping tasks. If an Amish woman wants to marry an outsider, she must leave the community, unless he joins Amish society. A deterrent to her leaving is that she is unprepared for secular society, while a stumbling block in the attempt to become Amish is the dialect. Amish enterprise Residents told the author that there are approximately 5,000 Amish farms in Lancaster County; these are small with no economies of scale. Long hours are invested in the careful planning of crops; this enables Amish farmers to be among the most productive in the world. The Amish have a deep love for their land, and consequently crop rotation is taken very seriously. Much energy is focused to transforming poor soil into productive farmland. Horses fertilise the fields as they plough and harrow. People grow what they eat, and they eat much of that which they grow. Common crops include corn, hay, wheat, tobacco, soya beans, barley, potatoes and other vegetables. Menus reflect the season. Food is shared with relatives, friends and the needy around the world. Sometimes, surplus is sold. Profit is given less importance than is religion and its values. The Amish are aware that larger farms would allow them to further benefit from economies of scale. On the other hand, smaller farms allow families to live closer to one another, and for these people, it is more important to have neighbours nearby than to have a larger farm. Farmers told the author that a typical Amish farmer of Lancaster County has six horses and 35 dairy cows. They elaborated that whether a farmer owns 50 or 100 acres of land, about ten acres are devoted to pasture for the almost three dozen cattle. A cow’s diet might consist of a blend consisting of 50 per cent corn and 50 per cent hay. At its peak, the average cow produces ten US gallons of milk per day. Cows are milked twice a day, in the early morning and in the late afternoon. This encourages people to perpetuate their custom of early to bed early to rise. Since, obtaining electricity from a public utility would be contrary to Amish cultural values, cows are milked either by hand, or by diesel-powered milking machines. Careful attention is paid to maintaining a hygienic environment. Milk and ice-cream

Humility-based enterprising community 149

JEC 1,2

150

made from it are deemed satisfactory for personal consumption. However, the law prohibits the sale of homemade ice-cream produced from unprocessed milk. By milking their own cows, making their own ice-cream, planting their own fruits and vegetables and slaughtering their own cattle, hogs and poultry, the Amish diet is fairly self-sufficient. Surplus calves, usually male, are sold for their meat. The cash is often spent on flour, sugar and sometimes coffee. While it is the norm for an Amish family to own cattle, sheep are much less common, but nonetheless valued for their wool, as well as their meat. Farm income is supplemented by a variety of activities, some of them seasonal. This includes making furniture and crafts, which are often sold from the house. Such home-based enterprises allow family members to work together, reinforcing the Amish family unit. It also avoids commuting. On Sundays, no sales are made. Amish farmers often sell surplus fruits, vegetables, and compost from stands near their homes. Some participate in farmers’ markets. Sales peak in the late summer and early autumn. Others offer specific services, and some tend to sell primarily to non-Amish customers. Carpet-making also peaks in the autumn. When the author asked the reason for this, an elderly Amish woman explained: When an Amish girl weds, her mother brings leftover balls of fabric, leftovers from making clothing, and she brings these to a carpet-maker who will weave it. This happens in the fall because couples generally get married in October and November, when farms demand relatively less work.

Farms tend to remain in the possession of a same family, from one generation to the next, and the Amish generally prefer agriculture over other occupations, as it allows them to work without any threat to the family unit. A problem, however, is that the dramatic population growth among the Amish has resulted in a shortage of agricultural land. There are no longer enough farms for all the young, and long-established farms have been sub-divided so many times that many have become crowded. It was explained to the author that young members of Amish communities have, therefore, been considering employment in the woodwork trade, cottage industries and farm-related activities. Hence, although Amish people prefer to work on their family farm, this is no longer an easy option for many. For some years, people moved from Lancaster County to other areas, but it appears that young people today prefer to stay in Lancaster County and work in non-farm activities, rather than move to faraway farmland. A typical Amish enterprise takes the legal form of a sole proprietorship or else that of a partnership, into which each partner contributes capital and from which no salaries are paid. These businesses are forms of self-employment. Interviewees told the author that very few Amish firms are incorporated. This minimises paperwork and reduces tax deductions. The Amish see this as an incentive to make their enterprises profitable by being productive. Although the USA Small Business Administration has programs to help such firms, the Amish do not condone government interaction in the economy, and they refuse to accept government support. Section 310 of the Medicare Section of the American Social Security Act permits the Amish to apply for exemption from self-employment tax. The author noted a very low-failure rate of Amish firms. In addition to their Weberian work ethic and frugality, explanatory variables may include the fact that the Amish are focused and cautious. Reflecting their preference for a family operation,

the Amish stay away from mass production. They give much attention to details, resulting in high-product quality. Seldom does an Amish enterprise have more than seven employees. Many artisans have more clients than they can provide for. Yet, none of the small Amish entrepreneurs interviewed by the author expressed interest in expansion. Some Amish buggies are exported, but this is done via non-Amish middlemen. Handmade Amish quilts[2] also find their way around the world. Although the Amish economy is capitalist in its orientation, and despite the fact that the Amish People resent socialist intervention on the part of the government, a voluntary form of socialism exists among the Amish. While they reject externally imposed measures, the Amish accept their own cultural belief that each is responsible for the welfare of others. Conclusion During WWII, Stauffer (1941, p. 65) observed, “Pennsylvania Dutch folk, especially the women, work hard”. A decade later, Williams (1952, p. 503) wrote, “The Pennsylvania ‘Dutch’ were honest, industrious, intelligent and neat, and so they have remained”. Gehman (1965, p. 227) added, “the Amish – and to a lesser degree their neighbors, the Mennonites and the Brethren, or Dunkers – have managed to resist the encroachments of modern civilization”. More recently, Hawley (1995, p. 315) wrote: For Amish entrepreneurs, the ultimate entrepreneurial goal is not one of profit viability measured in monetary reward and prestige. Instead, it is one of maintaining cultural separateness and conducting their lives and business in a manner that values humility over pride.

Hawley (1995, pp. 320-1) elaborated: . . . many Amish businesses are family owned and operated. For them, the concept of “human resources” hardly goes beyond concerns over family affairs . . . Amish businesses are almost exclusively sole proprietorships, and for those who are not, partnerships between fellow church members are formed. Although many would realize tax and legal benefits by incorporation, such legal manoeuvring continues to be viewed by the Amish as antagonistic to their definition of Amish-ness.

All of the above is still true today. An interviewee explained to the author, “We keep choosing humility and simplicity as a way of life”. Changes are occurring nevertheless. Hawley (1995, p. 320) observed: Amish entrepreneurs tend to cluster heavily in certain small business ventures. This phenomenon can best be described by order of the Ordnung, which requires that the Amish establish only those stores and small businesses that meet the product and service needs of the Amish community.

Today, some Amish enterprises cater primarily to customers outside Amish communities. This is due to the fact that there are more Amish people wishing to live in Lancaster County, than there is space for them to have farms. Thus, it is no longer possible for all the Amish to rely on farming as a means of livelihood. The population of Lancaster County has been rising, while total farming acreage has been falling. Hence, the Amish of Lancaster County have begun to feel the need for non-farm employment, and this has prompted them to create a variety of new ventures,

Humility-based enterprising community 151

JEC 1,2

152

from micro-enterprises producing preserves to larger firms that produce furniture for export. Religion is an element of social capital and Borjas (1992) stated that segregation from a host society helps a community retain this capital. Amish people are participating in the global economy and the outside world is penetrating Amish territory. Yet, increased economic integration does not appear to be bringing a significant departure from traditional values. The Amish continue to exhibit a propensity for entrepreneurial behaviour, their society is self-sustaining, with virtually no unemployment and their membership is growing. Notes 1. The Amish call themselves “the Plain People,” to distinguish themselves from their host society, which they refer to as “English,” “fancy people,” or “white folk.” 2. Although this was not a focus of the research leading to this paper, Amish quilts have been well-documented; see, for example, Hawley (2005). References Badawi, A.A. (2006), “Islam and development”, Global Agenda 2006, World Economic Forum, Davos, pp. 208-9. Berger, P.L., Berger, B. and Kellner, H. (1973), The Homeless Mind: Modernization and Consciousness, Random House, New York, NY. Borjas, G.J. (1992), “Ethnic capital and intergenerational mobility”, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 107, pp. 123-50. Burgess, R.G. (1984), In the Field: An Introduction to Field Research, George Allen & Unwin, London. Edgerton, R.B. and Langess, L.L. (1974), Methods and Rules in the Study of Culture, Chandler & Sharp, San Francisco, CA. Farmer, R.N. and Richman, B.M. (1965), Comparative Management and Economic Progress, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, IL. Fishberg, M. (1911), The Jews: A Study of Race and Environment, Walter Scott, London. Foster, T.W. (1984), “Occupational differentiation and change in an Ohio Amish settlement”, Ohio Journal of Science, Vol. 84 No. 3, pp. 74-81. Gehman, R. (1965), “Plainest of Pennsylvania’s plain people: Amish folk”, National Geographic, Vol. 128 No. 2, pp. 227-53. Guiso, L., Sapienza, P. and Zingales, L. (2003), “People’s opium? Religion and economic attitudes”, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 225-82. Hawley, J.M. (1995), “Maintaining business while maintaining boundaries: an Amish woman’s entrepreneurial experience”, Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Change, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 315-28. Hawley, J.M. (2005), “The commercialization of old order Amish quilts: enduring and changing cultural meanings”, Clothing & Textiles Research Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 102-14. Hostetler, J.A. (1993), Amish Society, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Kirzner, I. (1979), Perception, Opportunity and Profit Studies in the Theory of Entrepreneurship, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

Klandt, H. (1987), “Trends in small business start-up in West Germany”, in Goffee, R. and Scase, R. (Eds), Entrepreneurship in Europe: The Social Processes, Croom Helm, London, pp. 26-38. Kraybill, D.B. (1989), Riddles of Amish Culture, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Kraybill, D.B. and Stephen, M.N. (2004), Amish Enterprise: From Plows to Profits, John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD. Lee, D. (1984), “The plain people of Pennsylvania”, National Geographic, Vol. 165 No. 4, pp. 492-519. Levy, M.J. (1966), Modernization and the Structure of Societies: A Setting for International Affairs, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Lewis, W.A. (1955), The Theory of Economic Growth, Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, IL. Lowery, S. and Noble, A.G. (2000), “The changing occupational structure of the Amish of the Holmes County, Ohio, settlement”, The Great Lakes Geographer, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 26-37. Lowry, T. (1997), “The tobacco farmers of Lancaster County”, Cigar Aficionado, March/April, pp. 120-9. Patton, M.Q. (1982), “Qualitative methods and approaches: what are they?”, in Kuhns, E. and Martorana, S.V. (Eds), Qualitative Methods for Institutional Research, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, pp. 3-16. Patton, M.Q. (1987), How to Use Qualitative Methods in Evaluation, Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Patton, M.Q. (1990), Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods, Sage, Newbury Park, CA. Penrose, E.T. (1959), The Theory of the Growth of the Firm, Basil Blackwell, Oxford. Rath, J. and Kloosterman, R. (2003), “The Netherlands: a Dutch treat”, in Kloosterman, R. and Rath, J. (Eds), Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Venturing Abroad in the Age of Globalization, Berg, Oxford, pp. 123-46. Schumpeter, J.A. (1934), The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle, translated by R. Opie, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, . Shapero, A. (1975), “The displaced, uncomfortable entrepreneur”, Psychology Today, Vol. 7 No. 11, pp. 83-9. Sombart, W. (1911), Die Juden und das Wirtschaftsleben, Duncker und Humblot, Leipzig. Sombart, W. (1913), Der Bourgeois, Duncker und Humblot, Munich and Leipzig. Sombart, W. (1915), The Quintessence of Capitalism, translated by M. Epstein, T. Fischer Unwin, London. Sombart, W. (1951), The Jews and Modern Capitalism, translated by M. Epstein, Free Press, Glencoe, IL. Stauffer, E.C. (1941), “In the Pennsylvania Dutch Country”, National Geographic, Vol. 80 No. 1, pp. 37-74. Stoll, S. (2002), Larding the Lean Earth: Soil and Society in Nineteenth-Century America, Hill and Wang, New York, NY. Taft, W.H. (1919), “The progressive world struggle of the Jews for civil equality”, National Geographic, Vol. 36 No. 1, pp. 1-16. Weber, M. (1904), “Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus. I. Das Problem”, Archiv fu¨r Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 1-54.

Humility-based enterprising community 153

JEC 1,2

154

Weber, M. (1905), “Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus. II. Die Berufsidee des asketischen Protestantismus”, Archiv fu¨r Sozialwissenschaft und Sozialpolitik, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 1-110. Weber, M. (1922), Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, J.C.B. Mohr, Tu¨bingen. Weber, M. (1930), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, translated by T. Parsons, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, NY. Weber, M. (1947), The Theory of Social and Economic Organization, Hodge, London, translated by A.M. Henderson and T. Parsons. Williams, M.O. (1952), “Pennsylvania Dutch folk festival”, National Geographic, Vol. 102 No. 4, pp. 505-16. Zingales, L. (2006), “Gods and mammon”, Global Agenda 2006, World Economic Forum, Davos, pp. 228-9. About the author Leo Paul Dana, Editor Emeritus of the Journal of International Entrepreneurship is tenured at the University of Canterbury. He was formerly Deputy Director of the International Business MBA Programme at Singapore’s Nanyang Business School. He also served on the faculties of McGill University and INSEAD. He has an extensive research background studying entrepreneurship in different cultures and is the author of a number of books and articles on the subject. Leo Paul Dana can be contacted at: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

The overlooked rugged communitarians of Ireland

The overlooked rugged communitarians

Emer Nı´ Bhra´daigh Fiontar, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

155

Abstract Purpose – To provide a general review of religious entrepreneurs in Ireland from the late nineteenth to early twenty-first century. Design/methodology/approach – The achievements of numerous male and female religious entrepreneurs’ activities and achievements are described and discussed. Examples are given from Catholic, Church of Ireland, Presbyterian and Quaker religions in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Findings – Up to the middle of the twentieth century religious life was often a path to higher education and the achievements of one’s full potential. Up to that stage most of the enterprises established by religious entrepreneurs were schools and hospitals, housing associations, and textile and leather manufacturing. The enterprises were primarily aimed addressing the needs of the poorer sections of society. From the second-half of the twentieth century to date, social services, tourism services and cross community organisations predominate. Many of the foundations of the so-called Celtic Tiger lie in the pioneering work of religious entrepreneurs. Originality/value – In linking entrepreneurship with religion, this paper highlights the valuable role many religious entrepreneurs have played in social innovation. Many references to web sites are provided, to allow readers to easily learn more about organisations of particular interest. Keywords Religion, History, Entrepreneurship, Ireland Paper type Research paper

Social entrepreneurship – a place for religious entrepreneurs While the entrepreneurship research community takes an inclusive approach to defining entrepreneurs, other researchers and the general public still equate entrepreneurs primarily with wealthy individualistic men, whose success to some extent may well have been built on the labours of others. Entrepreneurship researchers were initially pre-occupied with the psychological qualities and/or behaviour of these successful individuals, hoping to be able to translate these qualities to other potential entrepreneurs. In recent years we have seen more research on communities, ethnic groups and nations, and on social and public entrepreneurship. Irish organisations such as Social Entrepreneurs Ireland (www.socialentrepreneurs.ie) and Clann Credo (www.clanncredo.ie) are a reflection of the increasing acknowledgement that entrepreneurial behaviour is important in all facets of life. Without Schumpeter’s creative destruction of equilibrium, or Knight’s risk-taking, little progress can be imagined. One of the best-known examples in the entrepreneurship literature is the successful Basque Mondragon Co-operative Corporation, established by the young Jesuit Jose´-Maria Arizmendiarrieta. However, some of Weber’s Protestant work ethic can equally be applied to many Irish clergy and religious orders. Perhaps the Irishman Richard Cantillon’s “Entrepreneur” or in the English translation “Undertaker” had a lot in common with the religious men and women of Ireland without whom many organisations and long-standing institutions might not now exist. This paper

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 155-161 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752575

JEC 1,2

156

describes some of the successful religious entrepreneurs of Ireland since the late nineteenth century. Religious orders – an avenue for aspirant entrepreneurs Having a priest or a nun in the family was a source of pride for many Irish parents. The religious enjoyed a high status in society, and even in national politics. However, it can be debated whether all who took vows or entered an order had a calling from God. Free second level education was not introduced in the Republic of Ireland until 1967. Many brighter children without the family means, who attended diocesan or religious order schools, did so with the support of scholarships from those very institutions. Many, especially young women, saw the religious life as a career choice which would allow them to develop their full potential. For many, a career as a teacher, a nurse or a missionary held more attraction than the life of a mother and housewife. The middle of the twentieth century was the heyday of Catholic religious orders. In 1950’s, the author’s aunt was one of seven (23 per cent) out of a class of 30 girls who entered the convent and became nuns. Recent years have witnessed severely declining vocations, partly through increased secularisation, the availability of other educational and career opportunities, and more recently the abuse scandals which have been uncovered, coupled with the church’s handling of the scandals. The Ferns Inquiry into sexual abuse in the Diocese of Ferns provides an insight into the esteem in which the religious were held. They were often the heroes and leaders of the community (Department of Health and Children, 2005). Against this background of high esteem and high levels of education, it is unsurprising that many examples of entrepreneurial behaviour can be found among those in religious orders, especially in the nineteenth century, and the mid to late twentieth century. To this day, many of the hospitals and schools in the Republic of Ireland are owned and run by religious orders, albeit now staffed primarily by lay people and funded by the state, but managed and run in most cases, by Catholic values and policies. Religious entrepreneurship in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Many of the well-known orders in Ireland were founded in the nineteenth century, among them: the Sisters of Charity by Mary Aikenhead in 1815; Loreto Sisters by Frances Ball in 1820; The Sisters of Mercy in 1831 by Catherine McAuley; and the Sisters of St John of God in 1871 by the Bishop of Ferns. The wealthy businessman Edmund Ignatius Rice, founder of the Irish Christian Brothers, established his first school in 1802. Priests were often the leaders of communities and were involved in establishing the Raffeissen Banks for small loans in the late nineteenth century. In the west of Ireland, Reverend Thomas Flannery, Parish Priest, played a central role in establishing the Connemara Industries Company in 1887. The other two key leaders in this project, mentioned in an official report of 1891 were also priests (Morrissey, 2001). Luddy (1995) makes the point that in the nineteenth century, women of non-Catholic denominations, and Catholic convent women were to the forefront in philanthropy, and in providing many of the services more likely to be provided by, or at least funded by, the state nowadays, namely schools, hospitals, homes for the elderly, and other

services no longer in existence, such as orphanages, reformatories and industrial schools. In the late nineteenth century Catholic convents were to the forefront in developing lace-making schools such as that established by the Sisters of the Order of St Louis in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, in 1897; and a knitting school established by the Presentation Sisters in Dingle Co Kerry. The lace-making school run by the Presentation Sisters in Youghal employed 120 girls in 1900 (Luddy, 1995). They also ran a soup kitchen for the poor, not dissimilar to the kind of services widely provided nowadays by the Sikh religion in their ashrams (temples). In the impoverished west, the Sisters of Charity opened a factory manufacturing knitted hosiery, shirts and undergarments in Ballaghdereen, Co Roscommon. These schools and factories were run on a relatively large-scale. In the first year of operation they employed a total of 95 “girls”. Their market included large firms in Dublin, Belfast and England (Morrissey, 2001). In Foxford, County Mayo, Sister Agnes Morogh-Bernard of the same Order established in 1891 a small knitwear factory, which was not transferred to private hands until 1988 when the accountant responsible for its liquidation, acquired it and re-opened it two months after its liquidation (www.foxfordwoolenmills.ie). This woolen factory was a beacon of achievement in the bleakness of late nineteenth century west of Ireland. Such was the disadvantage along the western seaboard and the west in general that the British Government of the day established the Congested Districts Board for Ireland in 1891 (Morrissey, 2001). It recognised the achievements of the Sisters of Charity, who provided employment to young girls and women, in knitting, spinning and weaving. Co-operation with a Protestant mill-owner in County Tyrone, John Charles Smith, showed that religious difference was no obstacle to entrepreneurship. Various religious denominations Social enterprise was not limited to those of the Catholic faith. Protestants of all denominations were also very active in charitable work. While they do not have any clergy per se, it is worth mentioning the entrepreneurship of the Quakers in Ireland, particularly their work with during the Great Famine of 1845-1850, and their development of towns and villages such as Letterfrack, Ballitore, Cahir, Portlaw and Lismore. Many Quakers set up shipbuilding, milling, banking and engineering firms. The well-known Jacob’s biscuits and Bewley’s cafe´s were Quaker businesses (www. quakers-in-ireland.org). In the late nineteenth century, Ireland was still recovering from the after-effects of the Great Famine, when potato blight decimated the staple diet of most poor Irish people. Some of the better-off endeavoured to provide some relief from this dire poverty. It was to this end that the Quaker family of James and Mary Ellis moved to Letterfrack in County Galway, to build what was to become a prosperous Quaker village, including a school, a farm and some cottage industries. In the early twentieth century Reverend Canon Ernest Hayes of the Church of Ireland, worked in the Belfast shipyards and founded a non-alcoholic public house to provide a social outlet to the workers (Hayes, 1951). In 1920, Reverend David Hall, also a Church of Ireland rector, established the St Barnabas Public Utility Society in the East Wall docks area of Dublin city, to alleviate the appalling, cramped living conditions of the working classes, and to build affordable houses for those of all denominations. The society went on to build 200 houses. Reverend Hall believed it was

The overlooked rugged communitarians 157

JEC 1,2

158

natural for people to have little respect for that which was handed out by charitable donation, and thus insisted that every person pay for his/her own house. He also devised means to ensure that all could pay gradually over many years (McManus, 1999). Hall was the pioneer of public utility societies (PUS) in Ireland, and his initial efforts spawned 125 further PUS within little over a decade. In the four years between 1929 and 1933 over 950 houses were built in Dublin alone. The Monaghan PUS operated from 1930 to 1962, building 714 houses in its first eight years of operation (McManus, 1999). .

Magdalen laundries – part of an industrial complex The abuse of single mothers and other “errant” women in the Magdalen laundries up to the late twentieth century is well documented, for example through the documentary film Sex in a Cold Climate, (Humphries, 1998), the film Magdalene Sisters (Mullan, 2002) the songs Magdalene Laundry (composed by J. Mulhern, performed by Coughlan, 1992) and The Magdalene Laundries (composed by Joni Mitchell, performed by Mitchell and The Chieftains, 1999), and most comprehensively and depressingly through Raftery and O’Sullivan (1999) book, Suffer the Little Children. It is ironic that Lady Arbella Denny, founded the first Magdalen Asylum in 1766 to actually counteract the abuses of the Dublin Foundling Hospital (Luddy, 1995). Throughout the twentieth century the Magdalene laundries were established by various female religious orders such as the Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Mercy. These institutions flourished and operated in all big cities such as Dublin (which had several), Cork, Limerick and Galway. The author’s father remembers being a teenager in the 1950s, delivering bedclothes to a laundry in Galway city centre, yards from the main square, with no understanding of the conditions endured by the residents, who often spent the rest of their lives in these large heartless institutions. These laundries were often run as large complexes in which orphanages, industrial schools and reformatories also operated. In some cases the children of the aforementioned “errant” women were next door in the orphanage, neither party knowing of the other’s proximity. The last Magadalene laundry, in Dublin, closed down as recently as 1996, and its former residents/inmates now live in sheltered housing in the area. Girls (for they were always called girls and never called women) were delivered to the laundries by their families when pregnant or in danger of becoming pregnant. The children of most of these “girls” were offered for adoption both in Ireland and in the USA. The “Spirit of Industry to be Cherished” was the motto under which the rules and regulations of the industrial schools operated (Raftery and O’Sullivan, 1999, p. 149). This was hardly the spirit of entrepreneurship we would now like to promote. Children charged in the courts for stealing, burglary and other “crimes” such as being orphans, were committed to these schools. The word “industrial” sometimes held more importance than the schooling, with the boys (and the few girls) working seven days a week in profit-making enterprises, under the supervision of the religious brothers. The famous Artane Boys’ Band, which traditionally played at the All-Ireland Gaelic Football Final, came from the Artane Industrial School, in the suburbs of Dublin. This industrial school was run by the Christian Brothers, and housed a 300-acre farm and various factories producing items such as shoes and other leather goods (Touher, 1991). The St Francis Xavier Industrial School in Ballaghdereen, run by the Irish Sisters of Charity (who had the knitwear factory mentioned earlier) had an export trade to

the United States of St Patrick’s Day paraphernalia (Raftery and O’Sullivan, 1999). Given that there were over 50 industrial schools in the Republic of Ireland since the 1920s, half of which still operated after 1970, it is safe to assume that there was also a large number of Magdalene laundries and that they and the industrial schools were a substantial contributor to the Irish economy. It must be remembered that these schools and laundries were operated with full state support and funding and inspected regularly. They essentially ran with the compliance of society in general, and had sufficient dealing with the outside world. There were many who voiced their concerns at the way in which the children and “girls” were treated, including Father Edward Flanagan, a native Irishman and founder of Boys’ Town in the USA (www.girlsandboystown.org), who visited a number of the industrial schools in the 1940s and made efforts to promote a kinder, more empowering culture in the Irish industrial school system. While many former residents of the industrial schools have happy rather than unhappy memories, the overwhelming picture is not one which would instil pride (Molino, 2001). Modern day community entrepreneurs In the latter part of the twentieth century, many of the religious entrepreneurs concentrated on rural development projects rather than traditional manufacturing industries. In 1980s, Monsignor James Horan (1911-1985) was branded “a madman” when he suggested the building of the now-successful airport “in the middle of a bog” in Knock, County Mayo (www.knockairport.com). With the inaugural flight taking off in 1985, the airport has been rebranded Ireland West Airport Knock and had over 600,000 passengers in 2006. Monsignor Horan rightfully saw the importance of a basic transport infrastructure in stemming rural economic disadvantage and its associated problems of high rates of unemployment and emigration, problems which beset the Irish state up to the mid-1990s. He may well have been inspired by Father James McDyer (1910-1987) who gives an account in his autobiography (McDyer, 1982) of writing to the wife of the then President of Ireland in his (successful) efforts to bring rural electrification to Glencolumkille in West Donegal. McDyer marshaled various resources in initiating various projects including market gardening, knitting and fish processing in his determination to improve the circumstances of his parishioners (www.glenfolkvillage.com). Father Harry Bohan was instrumental in establishing the Ce´ifin Centre, a centre for values-led change, which includes in its activities a business network for businesses interested in developing more responsible business practices (www.ceifin.ie). Father Peter McVerry has established a number of hostels in the Dublin area for homeless teenage boys, specifically catering for those deemed by the other agencies to be too difficult to deal with. Reverend Bill Thompson (Church of Ireland) opened the first branch of the Samaritans in Northern Ireland followed by Canon R.W.M. Wynne (also Church of Ireland) who founded the first branch in the Republic of Ireland in 1970. Providing a listening service to the suicidal, the Samaritans now have 19 branches in the whole of Ireland. Reverend Ray Davey, a Presbyterian Minister established the Corrymeela Community in Northern Ireland (www.corrymeela.org). The organisation’s aim is to bridge the differences between the Christian religious communities in Northern Ireland. It has developed a wide range of social services included a child bereavement counselling service. At the other end of the country, in County Kerry,

The overlooked rugged communitarians 159

JEC 1,2

160

´ Fiannachta, former Dean of Celtic Studies in the An tAthair (Father) Pa´draig O National University of Ireland, Maynooth, established An Dı´seart: Institute of Education and Celtic Culture, providing training courses and research facilities in various aspects of Celtic culture and the Irish language (www.diseart.ie). The nuns have not been idle either. Initially solely run as a private fee-paying boarding school for girls, the Benedictine Order has diversified its operations at Kylemore Abbey, Connemara, County Galway into a successful tourist destination, replete with cafe´ pottery and Victorian walled garden (www.kylemoreabbey.com). Sister Stanislaus Kennedy founded Focus Ireland in 1985 (initially as Focus Point). With a budget in 2003 of over e14 million, this organisation currently provides shelters, meals, advice and support to homeless people – with demand for their services sadly still very high, in these Celtic Tiger days (www.focusireland.ie). Following in the tradition of her Presentation Sister forebears, in 1996 Sister Magdalen Fogarty set up Clann Credo, an interesting social investment fund providing loans for the establishment of community-focussed enterprises, seeing entrepreneurship as an empowering force for social change (www.clanncredo.ie). Conclusion We owe a lot to these unsung hereos, without whom many would not have received employment, education or healthcare. Despite the cruelty of the various institutions discussed above, the legacy of these entrepreneurs is overwhelmingly positive. They fulfilled a role that the state and the lay population could not or chose not to fulfil. Most of the services they provided are now managed by secular staff. The oft-discussed Celtic Tiger has its roots not in the recent American multinational and ICT sector boom, but rather in much earlier activities, including the investment made in our education system by the large number of men and women who committed their lives to providing a wide range of social services for, and educating many generations of Irish people. Committed to the improvement of the community, rather than their own individual advancement, the religious entrepreneurs of Ireland are truly the overlooked rugged communitarians. References Coughlan, M. (1992), Sentimental Killer, Warner Music, London. Department of Health and Children (2005), Report of the Ferns Inquiry, Dublin. Hayes, E.C. (1951), By Products of a Parson’s Work, pamphlet. Humphries, J. (1998), Sex in a Cold Climate, Channel 4, London. Luddy, M. (1995), Women and Philanthropy in Nineteenth Century Ireland, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY. McDyer, J. (1982), Father McDyer of Glencolumkille: An Autobiography, Brandon Press, Dingle. McManus, R. (1999), “‘The ‘Building Parson’ – the role of Reverend David Hall in the solution of Ireland’s early twentieth-century housing problems”, Irish Geography, Vol. 32 No. 2, pp. 87-98. Molino, M.R. (2001), “The ‘House of a Hundred Windows’: industrial schools in Irish writing”, New Hibernia Review/Iris E´ireannach Nua, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 33-52. Morrissey, J. (Ed.) (2001), On the Verge of Want: A Unique Insight into the Living Conditions Along Ireland’s Western Seaboard in the Late 19th Century, Cranno´g Books, Dublin.

Mullan, P. (2002), The Magdalene Sisters, Miramax, New York, NY. Raftery, M. and O’Sullivan, E. (1999), Suffer the Little Children: The Inside Story of Ireland’s Industrial Schools, New Island Books, Dublin. The Chieftains (1999), The Chieftains – Tears of Stone, BMG RCA, New York, NY. Touher, P. (1991), Fear of the Collar, O’Brien Press, Dublin. About the author Emer Nı´ Bhra´daigh is a Lecturer in Entrepreneurship in Fiontar, Dublin City University. Fiontar (the Irish language word for venture or enterprise) is a school within the university providing undergraduate and postgraduate degree programmes in business, management and contemporary Irish language issues, delivered entirely through the medium of Irish. Her research interest is in the development of entrepreneurship in the Gaeltacht (Irish speaking areas) of County Galway on the west coast of Ireland. She holds a BA (Hons) in Irish and German and an MBS in International Marketing from University College Dublin and is currently completing a PhD at Trinity College Dublin. Emer Nı´ Bhra´daigh can be contacted at: emer. [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

The overlooked rugged communitarians 161

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

JEC 1,2

Religion and entrepreneurship in New Zealand

162

School of Population Health, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, and

Peter Carswell Deborah Rolland School of Communication, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship and whether religious practice impacts on how individuals view the individual and societal contribution of business enterprise. As ethnic diversity is increasing within the Western world, so too is the religious mix of value systems and religious belief systems that come with such diversity/religions. Paralleling increasing diversity is the decreasing participation rates in the traditional Christian churches. The paper questions the impact of this changing religious mix on entrepreneurial participation and perception. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 2,000 randomly-selected New Zealanders were telephone-surveyed to measure their perceptions of individual and societal impacts of entrepreneurial participation and religious practice. Findings – The findings indicate that increasing ethnic diversity and associated religious value systems are certainly not going to negatively reduce the business start-up rate. If anything, the start-up rate may be enhanced. Originality/value – The paper shows that the value that New Zealand society places upon entrepreneurship is not diminished by the increasing religious diversity in the country. Keywords Religion, Entrepreneurship, New Zealand Paper type Research paper

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 162-174 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752584

Introduction This paper examines the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship. In particular, it explores whether there is a difference in religious practice and entrepreneurial endeavour and whether religious practice impacts on how individuals view the individual and societal contribution of business enterprise. Religion and enterprise have a complex interdependent relation (Dodd and Seaman, 1998; Anderson et al., 2000), with the Western Protestant Work Ethic raising entrepreneurship to a privileged status. This is primarily as a result of what Weber (1930) argued was a change in the socio-cultural framework of theology of the dominant Christian religion(s). Weber focused on the work ethic of a sixteenth century Calvinist sect, the Puritans, and the role it played in the development of modern capitalism. This ethic emphasised hard work, thrift and self-discipline that together then seemed to serve its adherents well in business and the accumulation of wealth. Tradition and inefficient business methods were not allowed to stand in the way of success. Religious beliefs, in effect,

promoted business success, in that success in work through effort was regarded as a calling from God (Cockerham, 1995). Weber described this work ethic as: . . . to waste time is . . . the first and, in principle, the worst of all sins. The span of life is infinitely short and precious if one is to “make sure” of one’s election (heaven). To lose time through sociability, “idle talk” extravagance, even through taking more sleep than is necessary for health (six to at most eight hours) is considered worthy of total moral condemnation. (Benjamin) Franklin’s remark that “Time is Money” is not yet found, but the proposition is true, so to speak, in a spiritual sense: it is infinitely valuable, since every hour lost is taken away from work in the service of God’s glory (Cockerham, 1995, p. 490).

While Weber did not claim that Protestantism was the sole motivation behind the early development of capitalism, he made a strong case for finding synergies between certain Protestant doctrines and the lifestyle necessary for business success. When Weber compared the world’s great religions (Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) to find out why Protestantism in particular promoted business enterprise, he found that no other religion stressed the importance of work as an end in itself and worldly success as evidence of God’s favour, as much as Protestantism did (Cockerham, 1995). However, there is debate today that suggests that Weber exaggerated the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism, as well as the extent to which Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism de-emphasise economic competition. The Protestant Work Ethic is no longer regarded as a characteristic of only Protestant business enterprise, although its impact is still felt today because the capitalist economic ideology now dominates the global market. However, as ethnic diversity is increasing within the western world, so too is the religious mix of value systems and belief systems that reflect such diversity. Paralleling increasing diversity is the decreasing participation rates in the traditional Christian churches. Within such an environment it is timely to explore what this changing religious mix might be contributing to entrepreneurial participation and perception in New Zealand. We need to consider the impact of immigration to New Zealand in order to assess the impact of the current religious mix. The history of immigration to New Zealand has three key phases. The first phase began approximately over 1,000 years ago with the arrival of the Maori from islands in Eastern Polynesia. The second phase began in the early years of the nineteenth century and brought substantial numbers of immigrants from the United Kingdom and Europe. This phase continued throughout most of the twentieth century until the third phase began during the 1960s and brought with it, immigrants in particular from the Pacific Islands and Asia. However, it is the latter part of this phase with which this paper is particularly concerned. In 1973 a major review of immigration policy lead to the ending in 1974 of the unrestricted access of British migrants. Another policy review in 1986 represented a significant departure from previous policies in that source country preference that had been dominant in migrant selection, was removed and the sole criteria for assessment became personal qualities, skills, qualifications, the potential to contribute to New Zealand economically and socially, and the capacity to settle well (StatsNZ, 1998). New Zealand had now become accessible to people from a wider range of countries and consequently the ethnic and religious diversity of the population mix began to change. Immigration flows over the last 20 years show major and unprecedented changes when compared with any other immigration phase in New Zealand’s history.

Religion and entrepreneurship

163

JEC 1,2

164

Table I. Religious affiliation of the NZ resident population from 1976 to 1996 with percentage changes/decreases

From 1970s to the mid-1980s immigration flows were relatively steady and predictable in ethnic diversity. From 1985 to 1993 there was modest increase in both flow and diversity and from 1993 onwards a significant increase in flow and diversity (StatsNZ, 1998). However, while immigrants born in England and Ireland still remain New Zealand’s largest immigrant group, ethnic diversity in the other groups has increased significantly, so that New Zealanders of Asian descent currently are the third dominant ethnic group, closely following percentage of population statistics for Maori. The 1996 Census showed that people born overseas comprised 17.5 per cent of the total resident population, up from 15.8 per cent in 1991 (StatsNZ, 1998). Changes in New Zealand’s immigration policy combined with changes in the economic and political conditions of immigrant source countries, along with other factors continue to create a religious and ethnic diversity never before seen in this country. Figures from the 1996 Census reflect changes to immigration policy and show that the religious affiliations for the overseas and New Zealand born population, were becoming more diverse. The ten most common religious affiliations for those born overseas consisted of Buddhism, Islam and Hinduism with Christianity (or varying forms of it) making up the remaining seven affiliations. In comparison, for those who were New Zealand born, eight Christian denominations, plus other Christian and Christian (not-fully-defined) made up the ten most common religious affiliations (StatsNZ, 1998). Table I further shows the changes in religious affiliation of the New Zealand population with figures gathered from the 1976, 1986 and 1996 Census. There is a clear change in the traditional religious affiliations (decrease in numbers) while correspondingly, there is an increase in non-traditional religious affiliation that reflects changes in immigration policies over these Census timeframes. In particular, this table illustrating changes in religious affiliation over 20 significant years for New Zealand immigration, helps shape our hypothesis as we explore the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship in New Zealand. Our hypothesis is that religious values do affect participation and perception of entrepreneurial activities. Is the “typical” entrepreneur who subscribes to values such as work hard (as espoused by Weber) likely to display strong commitment to, and influence, by religious beliefs? Religious affiliation

1976

1986

1996

Percentage of increase/decrease

Anglican Catholic (not liberal) Baptist Methodist Presbyterian Buddhist Hindu Islam No religion Not specified Object to statement Total

908,415 475,452 49,059 171,816 564,735 2,370 5,073 1,341 100,398 35,460 434,898 2,749,017

791,847 496,158 67,935 153,243 587,517 6,412 8,148 2,544 533,766 58,686 244,731 2,950,987

631,764 473,115 53,613 121,650 458,289 28,131 25,293 13,545 87,264 187,878 256,593 3,117,135

230.45 20.49 9.28 229.20 218.85 1,086.96 498.58 1,010.07 863.83 529.83 241.00

Source: Statistics New Zealand Census of Population and Statistics New Zealand (1996)

Our research question asks; RQ1. How is the changing religious mix within New Zealand contributing to entrepreneurial participation and perception? Literature review Religion While the varieties of religious expression in the world make it difficult to find a single definition that applies to all religions, we believe that a sociologically-based definition contextualised within an economic framework has the most useful relevance for this paper. It allows us to also take Weber’s analysis of the conditions under which religion can be a source of innovation and change (Robertson, 1980). Stark (1985, p. 310) defines religion as “socially organised patterns of beliefs and practices concerning ultimate meaning and that assume the existence of the supernatural”. Relationship between entrepreneurship and religion Dodd and Seaman (1998) argue that religion and enterprise have a complex and interdependent relationship in which religion affects a believer’s entrepreneurial activities, influences the believer’s decision to become an entrepreneur, enterprise management and the entrepreneur’s contact network. They suggest three kinds of relationships or interactions between religion and entrepreneurship. The first relationship is between society, religion and entrepreneurship. Here, religion acts as a synthesiser of societal or national meaning systems. A national religion that provides some kind of support for entrepreneurship can be understood to make a positive contribution to the level of environmental benefit for entrepreneurship. A religious paradigm from a business leader who might state that s/he believes in Judeo-Christian values can provide a legitimisation for his/her beliefs and pro-enterprise policies. The second relationship exists between individual faith, religion and entrepreneurship. Here, believers will be strongly influenced by the religion in which they have faith and also, use personal and professional networks within their religion. Such networks maybe less useful in situations where believers live in a very dominant religious group or a society that is relatively homogeneous in terms of religious observance. However, for minority religious groups, access to a religious network may be extremely useful. The network reinforces the behavioural norms of the faith as well as providing a primary source of contact for the individual. The third relationship exists between theory, religion and entrepreneurship. Here, dominant Protestant cultures are still often analysed through a Weberian framework. The usefulness of such a framework may or not apply now in religiously diverse cultures. Religiosity amongst entrepreneurs is also discussed by Dodd and Seaman (1998). They indicate that there are three different directions by which religiosity or participation within organised religion may be examined. The first direction has a macro-level view of the Protestant work ethic that would lead us to believe that entrepreneurs would have high levels of religious beliefs and practices. The second direction states that entrepreneurs have too little time for organised religion, and maybe of an independent spirit that does not want to be subject to coercion, so consequently might be less likely to join in organised religious activities.

Religion and entrepreneurship

165

JEC 1,2

166

The third direction is focused on a personality approach, based on research about the heterogeneous nature of the small business sector. It says that it is not possible to differentiate between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs based on the possession of values because neither group displayed consistent shared value systems necessarily. Dodd and Seaman (1998) concluded from their short empirical British study, that British entrepreneurs were no different in religiosity or guided by religious values than non-entrepreneurs. However, they did conclude that although their dataset and their sample size was too small for conclusive findings, directions for future research in cross-denominational studies were indicated, and also that in spite of increasing secularisation in Britain, a substantial minority of entrepreneurs did indicate a reasonably high level of religiosity. Religion and enterprise cultures Anderson et al. (2000) explore the role of religion in the formation and development of an enterprise culture. They echo the concept of Dodd and Seaman (1998) that societal support for and value of enterprise will lead to an increase in environmental munificence. Values are defined as the frame of reference that helps set priorities or determine right or wrong (Johnson, 2001). Environmental munificence is defined as the abundance of demand and other necessary resources available to new business (Castogiovanni, 1991). Religion can be used to create munificence in the environment that then reflects societal value. Enterprise in this context maybe perceived by society something to value, a desirable state to be in. The case study discussed by Anderson et al. (2000) to illustrate this argument is that of the United Kingdom under Margaret Thatcher’s leadership, in which entrepreneurial activity was encouraged by Thatcher’s use of an entrepreneurial theology. Theological underpinning of enterprise developed into a rhetoric that elevated entrepreneurship to a new moral high ground. Anderson et al. (2000) do conclude that while 1980s Britain saw the elevation in status of entrepreneurial activities, further research into the effects of religion on new business ventures is required. However, it is not clear yet if entrepreneurship studies currently possess a vocabulary or methodology appropriate to the task. Entrepreneurship and its triggers Morrison (2000) proposes that we should move from universal generalisations relative to entrepreneurship to a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship that exists between entrepreneurship and culture. She suggests that, although there is apparently no such thing as one identifiable and universal entrepreneurial culture, a cultural and societal approach has usefulness in establishing what triggers the release of entrepreneurial endeavours. She identifies religion as one of the inputs associated with culture that may then impact on the degree to which entrepreneurship develops. Her findings show that the profile of an entrepreneur that emerges through her study, amongst other characteristics, includes a strong set of moral, social and business ethics. Impact of non-Christian values on entrepreneurship It appears that while entrepreneurship literature suggests that value systems may significantly affect entrepreneurial activity, little research has been done on non-Christian values.

In summary therefore, while there is evidence to link Christian (Western) values with an enterprise culture there is no such evidence for Eastern-based religions. With New Zealand’s demographic profile going through dramatic changes, especially after the market reforms of the early 1990s, the question that explores the impact of such change on our popularised enterprising culture is one worthy of addressing.

Religion and entrepreneurship

Methodology Participants To examine the role that religious practice plays on entrepreneurship participation and perception, 2,000 New Zealanders aged 18-65 were randomly selected to participate in the telephone survey. This survey was the Bartercard New Zealand Global Entrepreneurship Monitor and as such included questions in addition to those used to address the research focus of this paper.

167

Instrument The survey included questions developed in order to measure entrepreneurial participation, religious practice, and perception on the individual and societal impact of entrepreneurship. To measure entrepreneurial participation participants had to answer yeas to one of more of three questions – were they presently trying to start a business alone or with others, were they presently attempting to start a new business with their employer, or are they and owner of a business that has paid wages for less than four years. Such a series of questions is consistent with Gartner’s (1988) view of entrepreneurs as those who start new organisations. The work of Dodd and Seaman (1999) was used to guide questions regarding religious participation. The affiliation categories were taken straight from the New Zealand Census. Respondents were also questioned on how often they practiced their religion and the impact they believed it made upon their lives. Only those deemed to adhere to their religious practice were coded as religious. To be coded as such respondents had to practice at least once a month and believe that their religion made some difference or a great difference in their lives. To measure the perceived impact of business enterprise upon the society the scales developed by Davidsson and Wiklund (1997) were adapted. Two aspects were measured; the perception of the contribution entrepreneurship makes to society; and the perceived role of the entrepreneur. Respondents were asked to respond on a five-point Likert agree/disagree scale for items that loaded on each of these scales. Results Entrepreneurship participation by religion The possible impact that religion may have upon entrepreneurship participation is illustrated in Table II. While the religious respondents have a slightly lower entrepreneurship rate, the difference is not statistically significant. Entrepreneur rate (percentage) Religious Non-religious

9.1 10.2

Table II. Religious leanings of entrepreneurs

JEC 1,2

168

Table III indicates the religious belief systems of the entrepreneurs identified in the randomly sampled 2,000 New Zealanders. The low numbers of some of the religious groupings makes comparison problematic. If these are removed from the comparison then those who have a religion coded as other (Ratana or Spiritualist) have a higher rate of entrepreneurship participation than those who identify themselves as Christian. Entrepreneurship perception by religion When examining perceptions held of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship by the respondents the analysis indicates that religion does not moderate the perception greatly (Table IV). The only area where there was significant difference was the Eastern religions perceiving that entrepreneurs engaged in questionable practices. These five items load onto two separate factors. One we label societal focus (a ¼ 0.834) and the other individual focus (a ¼ 0.752). When analysing these factors by religion is appears that there is little difference between all except Buddhism. Figure 1 shows that, relative to those who practice other religions, Buddhists are lees likely to see positive societal contributions from entrepreneurship. Similarly, there was little apparent difference in respondents’ perceptions of the individual focus of the entrepreneur. The only slight differences were those of the Jewish religion perceiving that entrepreneurs were more individually focused that those from other religions refer to Figure 2. What does appear to make a difference in perception regarding entrepreneurship was whether the respondent is an entrepreneur or not. In all of the religions that had sample sizes large enough to allow for tests of difference, Buddhism was the only one Entrepreneur

Table III. Entrepreneurship participation by religion

Table IV. Perceptions of entrepreneurship by religion

Christian Muslim Hindu Jewish Buddhist Other

Entrepreneurs create wealth that the whole nation shares Entrepreneurs are important for the nation’s economy Most entrepreneurs are only interested in making money Small firms contribute little to society Many entrepreneurs engage in questionable practices Note: *p , 0.05

Freq.

Percentage

87 2 5 1 5 11

8.2 15.4 15.2 33.3 22.7 20.8

Christian

Muslim

Hindu

Buddhist

F-statistic

3.3

3.27

3.72

2.6

0.713

4.01

4.18

4.29

3.5

0.855

3.43 2.08

4.45 2

3.24 2.67

3.11 2.2

1.488 1.176

2.27

2.56

2.81

3.2

2.820 *

Religion and entrepreneurship

4

Agree

3.75

169 3.5

3.25

Neutral 3 Christian

Agree

Muslim

Hindu

Jewish

Buddhist No religion

Other

Figure 1. Perceived contribution of entrepreneurship to society

4 3.75 3.5 3.25

Neutral

3 2.75 2.5

Figure 2. Perceived contribution of entrepreneurship to the individual

2.25 Disagree

2 Christian

Muslim

Hindu

Jewish

Buddhist No religion

Other

in which the views of Buddhist entrepreneurs was not significantly different than that of Buddhist non-entrepreneurs. For all the other religions entrepreneurs perceived that entrepreneurship played a more positive contribution to society and that entrepreneurs were less individually focused than that perceived by non-entrepreneurs (Table V) Discussion Religion and entrepreneurship participation This study lends support to contemporary scholars who argue that Weber exaggerated the relationship between Protestantism and an enterprising culture (Cockerham, 1995). In fact, those who indicated they were Christian were involved in entrepreneurial endeavours at a lesser rate than non Christians. This may be reflective of a number of phenomena, including sampling error. However, as a random-sampling strategy was used this should reduce the impact sampling error may have.

JEC 1,2

170

Having limited the likelihood of sampling error having an impact, other factors need to be explored. As both Morrison (2000) and Dodd and Seaman (1999) point out, entrepreneurship is driven by a complex set of dependent and moderating variables. Such factors include personality, ethnicity, religion, network structures, education levels, etc. In this particular case of New Zealand data, one should keep in mind opening of the borders to immigration that began with the market reforms of 1990s. This may help explain why there is greater entrepreneurial participation amongst non-Christian religions. When immigrants come into New Zealand, particularly non English speaking ones, finding meaningful employment is problematic (Winkelmann and Winkelmann, 1998). As such these immigrants may turn to self employment as a means of earning an income. The ability for such immigrants to start a business is facilitated by two factors. Firstly, New Zealand has one of the lowest levels of barrier or entry to start a business (Frederick et al., 2002). The fact that New Zealand makes starting up a business easier than in many other countries may in turn reflect the Christian roots of the population and hence the importance of enterprise and being enabled to be enterprising. Such a position reflects Dodd and Seaman’s (1999) argument that the religious foundations of a country (in New Zealand’s case that being Christian) can act as a synthesiser that provides support for entrepreneurship to make a positive contribution to society. Dodd and Seaman (1999) also suggest that the religion can influence at the level of the individual to encourage entrepreneurial endeavour. This may particularly be the case in the relatively high level of entrepreneurial endeavour amongst the Muslim and Hindu religions in the sample drawn from the population for this study. The second factor concerns the importance or value that a religion places on networking and community support. A high value for such support is evident in the Eastern-based religions and this importance or value tends to inform the behaviour of immigrants who have difficulty finding employment, with regard to their relationship with members of their own religious community. Religion and entrepreneurship perception As discussed in the literature review section there is scant attention given to the impact that religion (aside from Christianity) has on the perception of the role entrepreneurship plays in society. This is clearly problematic as much of the western world is experiencing an influx of peoples from the East. Many of these immigrants bring with them value systems born out of deeply engrained religious beliefs and practices. Over time these immigrant groups increase in size (as illustrated in Table I) and

Non religious Buddhist Table V. Perception of entrepreneurship by religiona and participation

Hindu Christian

Entrepreneur Non-entrepreneur Entrepreneur Non-entrepreneur Entrepreneur Non-entrepreneur Entrepreneur Non-entrepreneur

Notes: aIslam removed because of small cell size; *p , 0.01

4.17 3.65 * 3.46 3.41 4.46 3.74 * 3.99 3.65 *

2.79 3.03 * 3.37 3.1 2 3.28 * 2.94 3.1 *

become voting citizens. As such, if Western countries wish to advance the entrepreneurship policy agenda then the views of the voting population need to be understood, if support for such policy is to be realised. Results from this study suggest that such increasing diversity does not appear to have an impact on differentiating perceptions on the perceived importance of entrepreneurship for societal growth and well being. There is some descriptive data that may indicate that those who practice Buddhism perceive that entrepreneurship is less important for society, relative to those from other religions. This is not surprising considering the value base of Buddhism is focused more upon things beyond the world than within it. As such, any behaviour is only thought of as helpful if it helps the individual find a way to nirvana (Eckel, 1998). A number of other factors may help explain why there is a lack of difference between religions on how they perceive the societal and individual contribution of entrepreneurial endeavour. These factors may lie in exploring the value systems that are inherent in each (Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism). The value systems of Christianity are firmly rooted within the Ten Commandments. The first five commandments deal with one’s relationship with God and parents. The other five commandments focus on ethical behaviour within society (Hale, 1998). These guiding principles are then reinforced in Matthew’s Gospel in the “Sermon on the Mount” where Jesus stresses the importance of love in dealing with fellow man. The value system of Islam follows a similar tenant to that of the Ten Commandments in so far as there are two categories of Islamic law: those concerning the relationship between humankind and God; and those that relate to the integrity of the human community. This latter category is by far the largest and it directs Muslims to abide by the divine will and to act as a community to see that a just and moral social order is created and maintained (Gordon, 1998). Hinduism, like Christianity and Islam breaks up the value systems into two categories. Both categories are guides on how to achieve liberation from the continuous cycle of life and death. One category stresses the importance of human effort and striving to achieve the necessary transforming wisdom. The other category advocates devotion to the supreme being and reliance on God’s grace for liberation (Narayanan, 1998). The common theme in the above three religions is the focus on achieving a desired place in the afterlife. This can be achieved by doing good works with and for mankind while on earth. There is a collective spirit within these religions, whereas Buddhism is focused more upon the individual and action is driven for individual self enlightenment. As such, it is possibly not surprising that there is little difference among the major religions (aside from Buddhism) concerning the societal contribution of entrepreneurial endeavour. From the perspectives of these religions, if an action helps the community in some way then it must be good. What does appear to differentiate perceptions of the societal and individual contributions of entrepreneurial endeavour is whether or not the individual is an entrepreneur. This may be reflective of an individual who is personally involved in entrepreneurial activities seeing it as more important than someone who is not. Alternatively, this may reflect New Zealand’s well-documented Tall Poppy Syndrome where those who do not have profile or status attempt to belittle those who do.

Religion and entrepreneurship

171

JEC 1,2

172

Limitations The results above need to be looked at tentatively as this paper is one of only a few studies that have attempted to examine the role religion plays in entrepreneurship participation and perception. As such, there is very limited available empirical data with which to compare this study, in order to test the validity of claims made. Further, while a random sampling strategy was used, the cell sizes with the various religious groups are quite small and therefore limit robust statistical tests of comparison. Future research As this area of research is relatively untouched there are many possible avenues that need to be explored further. To address the methodological weakness of small cell sizes further research could aim specifically at one religious group to gain a better understanding of their entrepreneurial motivations and intentions. Such a study could explore why some religious groups appear to be more entrepreneurial than others and whether or not the government support systems driven out of Western/Christian philosophical perspectives best meet the needs of such groups. Another area of related research would be to examine more specifically the value systems held of the various religious entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. While this study has taken religious affiliation as a proxy for value systems, an approach that measures value systems specifically would well complement this present study. Implications and conclusions The most prominent group for which this research has implications would be those who set immigration and business policy. If, as our data suggests, the diverse religious base resulting from immigration is not negatively affecting entrepreneurship participation and perception then from a GDP perspective the policy is working well. Further, the tentative findings from this study indicate that non-Christian religions may be more entrepreneurial than Christian. If further research supports such a finding then, if the government wishes to advance its business development policy, immigration policy should recognise religious affiliation as a potentially important economic growth driver. This study began by illustrating that New Zealand’s religious mix over the last 25 years has seen increases of 400 per cent plus in Eastern religious affiliation, and a levelling out or decline in Western religion affiliation. This has been driven, in part, by New Zealand’s market philosophy that began in the late 1980s. A major tenant of this philosophy was one of being “open”. As such, limitations on immigration were lessened, resulting in people with religious value systems other than Christian ones, moving to live in and contribute to New Zealand’s economic development. Within such an environment this study set out to address what impact religious diversity has on entrepreneurship participation and perception. Analysis suggests that religious diversity has very little effect on the perceived contribution of entrepreneurship to both society and the individual. People of Eastern-based religions are just as likely to believe in the importance of entrepreneurship as people of a Christian perspective. Further, there is some evidence to suggest that people of a non-Christian religious background may be more likely to engage in entrepreneurial endeavours.

As discussed above, Morrison (2000) suggests that advances in understanding of entrepreneurship should move to a deeper understanding of the symbiotic relationship that exists between entrepreneurship and culture. This study of the role religion may play in entrepreneurship is an attempt to move in such a direction.

Religion and entrepreneurship

173 References Anderson, A.R., Drakopoulou-Dodd, S. and Scott, M.G. (2000), “Religion as an environmental influence on enterprise culture”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Research, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 5-20. Castogiovanni, G.J. (1991), “Environmental munificence: a theoretical assessment”, Academy of Management Review, No. 16, pp. 542-65. Cockerham, W.C. (1995), The Global Society: An Introduction to Sociology, McGraw-Hill, New York, NY. Davidsson, P. and Wiklund, J. (1997), “Values, beliefs and regional variations in new firm formation rates”, Journal of Economic Psychology, Vol. 18, pp. 179-99. Dodd, S.D. and Seaman, P.T. (1998), “Religion and enterprise: an introductory exploration”, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, Vol. 23 No. 1. Dodd, S.D. and Seaman, P.T. (1999), “Religion and enterprise: an introductory exploration”, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Fall, pp. 71-86. Eckel, D. (1998), “Buddhism”, in Michael, D.C. (Ed.), World Religions, Duncan Baird, London. Frederick, H., Carswell, P., Henry, E., Chaston, I., Thompson, J., Campbell, J. and Pivac, A. (2002), Bartercard New Zealand Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2002, New Zealand Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Auckland. Gartner, W.B. (1988), “‘Who is an entrepreneur’ is the wrong question”, American Small Business Journal, Spring, pp. 11-31. Gordon, M.S. (1998), “Islam”, in Michael, D.C. (Ed.), World Religions, Duncan Baird, London. Hale, R.D. (1998), “Christianity”, in Michael, D.C. (Ed.), World Religions, Duncan Baird, London. Johnson, C. (2001), Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA. Morrison, A. (2000), “Entrepreneurship: what triggers it?”, International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research, Vol. 6, pp. 59-71. Narayanan, V. (1998), “Hinduism”, in Michael, D.C. (Ed.), World Religions, Duncan Baird, London. Robertson, R. (1980), The Sociological Interpretation of Religion, Blackwell, Oxford. Stark, R. (1985), Sociology, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA. Statistics New Zealand (1996), Census of Population and Dwellings, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington. StatsNZ (1998), New Zealand Now: People Born Overseas, Statistics New Zealand, Wellington. Weber, M. (1930), The Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism, Unwin Hyman, London. Winkelmann, L. and Winkelmann, R. (1998), Immigrants in New Zealand: A Study in Their Labour Market Outcomes, Department of Labour, Wellington.

JEC 1,2

174

About the authors Peter Carswell is currently researching in the area of innovation and knowledge management. He is particularly interested in how knowledge transfer can occur between disparate groups of professionals in innovation focused organisations. Prior to this he worked on the New Zealand Global Entrepreneurship Monitor for 2001-2003. Deborah Rolland is currently researching the contribution of communication networks to entrepreneurial success and the use of corporate social responsibility messages within web-based organisational communication. She has been a member of the New Zealand Global Entrepreneurship Monitor research team since 2003. Deborah Rolland is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

The modern Weberian thesis: a short review of the literature

Modern Weberian thesis

Joel A. Ryman and Craig A. Turner Department of Management and Marketing, College of Business and Technology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, USA

175

Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of conceptions and misconceptions relating to Weberian thought after 100 years of synthesis. Design/methodology/approach – Extensions of the theories espoused are discussed and a brief review of several relevant empirical research projects is highlighted. Weberian theory is taken as the basis for the discussion of the paper. Its fundamental assertions are discussed and current discussions elucidated. Modern (post-1980) research directions and findings are summarized for helping the scholar understand the current state of Weberian research and the potential for future paths. Findings – There are numerous areas for future theoretical and empirical exploration discussed. Such areas as the effects of the Protestant work ethic on social networks across multi-cultural (of which religion and religiousity play a role) boundaries and the dynamics of cultural change within, and between cultural dimensions will provide ever-changing opportunities for at least another century. Inter and intra-national diversity and its dynamics will also provide munificence in this field of study. Originality/value – This paper provides scholars a brief review of the status of Weberian research and should evoke new thought related to this theoretical base as well. With the renewal of interest in entrepreneurship and its effects on communities, this area should be a fertile field for researchers, practitioners, and the public in general. Keywords Economic theory, Religion, Work ethic Paper type Literature review

Review of theoretical base Max Weber’s work, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has been an influential part of the sociology literature for just over 100 years where it remains both a powerful and controversial thesis (Swatos and Kaelber, 2005; Howard, 2005). While Weber is considered by most to be a sociologist, his prolific works in economics, specifically addressing questions related to the impact of religious values and culture on the advent and evolution of economic systems, places him at the confluence of the economics and sociology; a field that Weber described as “social economics” (Swedberg, 1999). The central purpose of this paper is to provide a summary of Weber’s works that relate to his social economics of religion. Weber’s work in this area began with his most famous essay of all, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Die protestantische Ethik und der ’Geist’ des Kapitalismus) which was published in two articles (1904-1905), and translated into English in 1930. This seminal piece was focused on the question of understanding the origins of modern society and the emergence of capitalism in Western society. Approximately, five years after the Protestant ethic, Weber began an ambitious study of other non-Christian religions with the intent of explaining why Western-style capitalism did not emerge in

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 175-187 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752593

JEC 1,2

176

other parts of the world. This massive endeavor, which was entitled The Economic Ethics of the World Religions (Die Wirtschaftsethik der Weltreligionen), was never finished. However, in 1920 and 1921 three volumes of these essays were published in the Collected Essays in the Sociology of Religion (Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie, Vols. I-III) and were entitled Ancient Judaism (Das antike Judentum, translated in 1952), The Religion of India (Hinduismus und Buddhismus, translated in 1958) and The Religion of China (Konfuzianismus und Taoismus, translated in 1951). This massive work, which builds upon both the methodology and thesis of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, examines the major non-Christian religions to explain why other civilizations were unable to internally generate this “spirit” of capitalism. His basic answer, to be explored more fully in the following sections of this paper, was that one of the consequences of the Protestant reformation in Europe was the emergence of capitalism through the rise of a culture or “spirit” of capitalism. While his work has been controversial (Swatos and Kaelber, 2005) and often misunderstood (Howard, 2005), over the past 100 years it has been foundational to the generalized fields of sociology and economics. More recently, Weber’s work has become foundational to the emerging field of ethnic entrepreneurship (Waldinger et al., 1990; Light and Gold, 2000). While Weber did not seem to have an explicit theory of entrepreneurship, his conceptualization of capitalism relied upon the “spirit” of the entrepreneur (Swedberg, 2005). Weber’s conceptualization of the entrepreneur does not emphasize Schumpeter’s creative element, however, his conceptualization of capitalism clearly depends on the entrepreneur to bring a “dynamism” to capitalism to counter the negative effects of bureaucracy by being the “moving spirit” and “directing mind” of the enterprise. Weber also distinguished between “new entrepreneurs” who pursued money-making as a calling and the old style entrepreneurs who were satisfied with status quo (Swedberg, 2005). In addition, Weber’s work also recognized the existence of religious and ethnic subgroups within society whose variant cultures and religious beliefs were reflected in their distinctive economic behaviors. As such, Weber’s work has become instrumental to understanding the influence of culture and religion on the entrepreneurial activities of various ethnic and religious groups. The purpose of this paper is to summarize Weber’s thesis as it relates to religion, culture and capitalism and to provide a review of the modern empirical literature (post-1950s) related to Weber’s core thesis. Protestantism and the spirit of capitalism The inner-worldly asceticism of Protestantism first produced a capitalistic state, although unintentionally, for it opened the way to a career in business, especially for the most devout and the ethically rigorous people. Above all, Protestantism interpreted success in business as the fruit of a rational mode of life (Weber, 1922, p. 220)

In the opening section of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber (2002) observes that in denominationally mixed regions, “. . . business leaders and owners of capital, as well as the skilled higher strata of the labor force . . . tend to be predominantly Protestant” (Weber, 2002, p. 1). While Weber spent little time documenting the seemingly high correlation between religious denomination and

economic success, this observation led Weber to seek out the underlying reasons for the apparent causal role of Protestantism in the creation of modern capitalism. Weber identified the catalyst of modern capitalism to be a kind of culture or “spirit” of capitalism, which emerged in Western society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries as a kind of entrepreneurial approach to work and the making of profit. Weber (1904a, b, pp. 47-8) vaguely defines “the spirit of capitalism” as those ideals and habits that are supportive of entrepreneurial economic activity and individual financial gain. In order to become the driving force of change in Western society, this “spirit of capitalism” had to overcome significant barriers: The spirit of capitalism, in the sense in which we are using the term, had to fight its way to supremacy against a whole world of hostile forces. The most important opponent with which the spirit of capitalism has had to struggle, was that type of attitude and reaction to new situations which we may designate as traditionalism (1904, p. 60).

Weber notes that the inertia of traditionalism, reflected in attitudes towards work, savings and profit which were antithetical to capitalism, could not have been overcome by a few “heroic” entrepreneurs, but instead had to become a way of life common to society as a whole. The impetus for this societal-wide, paradigm-shifting attitude was the Protestant Reformation. In particular, Weber focused on the more ascetic sects of Protestant Christianity (Calvinists, Baptists and Methodists) as the origin of the “spirit” of capitalism. Asceticism was the social/religious means through which this “spirit” of capitalism developed. Asceticism can be defined as personal abstention and restraint, carried out in a systematic manner (Swedberg, 2005). The religious values of personal restraint and abstention played the key role in forming and spreading capitalism because it encouraged people work harder, save what they earned and reinvest the profit. Weber believed that the root of this “spirit” of capitalism lay in the Calvinist angst over the inherent uncertainty of whether or not he/she was part of the “elect,” predestined to receive salvation from God. This uncertainty prompted them to embrace a “calling” and to pursue this calling to the “glory of God”: The world exists to serve the glorification of God and for that purpose alone. The elected Christian is in the world only to increase this glory of god by fulfilling His commandments to the best of his ability. But God requires social achievement of the Christian because He wills that social life shall be organized according to His commandments, in accordance with that purpose (1904, p. 108).

Personal economic success then, was an indication of God’s favor and so individuals within Protestant congregations were exhorted to be diligent in every aspect of their economic endeavors; they were to work hard, to never waste time, to save their hard-earned money, to always seek better and more efficient ways of doing things, and above all, to be honest in the business dealings with your brethren (Jones, 1997). The result of adherence to these ascetic values was the economic success that Weber had observed in the opening passage of The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. According to Weber’s analysis, this economic success coupled with the advent of democracy and the conjoint rise of science and industrialization, caused these values to spread and become engrained in secular society. Through this religious driven “spirit” of capitalism, instrumentally-rational action (social action directed by science) guided by value-rational action (social action directed by socio-cultural values)

Modern Weberian thesis

177

JEC 1,2

178

supplanted traditional actions (engrained habituation characteristic of fatalistic, pre-industrial society) to create modern rational capitalism (Swedberg, 2005). This new “spirit” of capitalism was a radical departure from more traditionalist perspectives on work and money because it seemed to espouse “making money for the sake of making money” instead of simply “work to sustain life”: The religious valuation of restless, continuous, systematic work in a worldly calling, as the highest means of asceticism, and at the same time the surest and most evident proof of rebirth and genuine faith, must have been the most powerful conceivable lever for the expansion of . . . the spirit of capitalism (1958, p. 172).

In summary, Weber’s The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism was concerned with understanding the cause behind the germinal development of modern capitalism, which he identified as ascetic Protestantism. Once modern capitalism reached critical mass, he believed that it would no longer be reliant on its religious origins but would instead be self-sustaining with the ability to create its own mechanisms to expand and reproduce. Today the spirit of religious asceticism – whether finally, who knows? – has escaped from the cage. But victorious capitalism, since it rests on mechanical foundations, needs its support no longer . . . and the idea of duty in one’s calling prowls about in our lives like the ghost of dead religious beliefs (1904, p. 181).

Weber did not believe that Protestant asceticism was a necessary condition for the founding of capitalism. He did, however, believe that some other radical cultural force would be necessary to break through the barrier of traditionalism to enable modern capitalism to rise (Howard, 2005). To further explore this final assertion, Weber sought to extend his ideas into the analysis of other non-Christian religions in an attempt to understand why the Western style of capitalism had not emerged in other countries. Non-Christian religions and capitalism Weber’s answer to the above question as to why modern capitalism had not emerged in other societies was undertaken in three volumes: Ancient Judaism (1952), The Religion of India: Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism (1958) and The Religion of China: Confucianism and Taoism (1951). His essential conclusion was that in the other major religions of the world, there were no radical cultural forces strong enough to break the constraints of traditional religious and cultural beliefs on commercial activities (Swedberg, 1999). Weber has been criticized on the point that in most religions, the mass of “adherents” really know very little about “salvation” and therefore will be largely unaffected by the religious tenets of the faith. However, while Weber acknowledged the gap between the religious elite and mass religiosity in the major religions of the world (apart from Protestant Christianity), he notes that in all other cases, the religious elite have effectively enforced traditionalism by dominating the social, political and educational institutions and activities. Weber viewed religious values as important motivators for individual economic action or in some cases, inaction. He identified three processes through which religious values affect economic activity; religious proscriptions of conduct, the legitimization of social and political institutions and finally, the role of religious ideals as “switchmen” which determine the track or direction along which society develops or evolves (Warner, 1973). Through these mechanisms then, the entrenched religions and their elite are able to maintain

the hold of traditionalism thereby denying the emergence of western-style capitalism. In the following sections, we will briefly summarize Weber’s observations with respect to the major non-Christian religions. The Religion of China The Religion of China (1951) was Weber’s first work on non-Christian religion. In this analysis, Weber focused on those elements of Chinese society and religious belief that contrasted with Western Europe and Protestantism. Weber found some compatibility of ascetic Protestantism and Confucianism in that both encouraged a sober lifestyle, self-control and the accumulation of wealth. However, the primary difference Weber found was that Confucianism and Taoism accommodate the world in ways that ascetic Protestantism does not. Confucianism is the religious ethic of the privileged or vested interests where the educated and the patrimonial state maintain the dominance of tradition. Within Confucianism, tradition is sacred and there is no acknowledgement of a transcendental God only a belief in the ancestral spirits, to which you have an obligation. In addition to, the strong hold of traditionalism, education is a form of personal cultivation and not a source of expertise and functional technology (Weber, 1951; Warner, 1973).These differences resulted in significant religious-based barriers to the emergence of capitalism. Firstly, technical innovation was discouraged because it would potentially disturb the spirits of the ancestors. Secondly, the sale of land was prohibited. Thirdly, the social structure of extended kinship groups protected its members against economic competition from adversaries thereby discouraging payment of debts, work discipline and the adoption of innovative and more efficient work processes. Thus, Confucianism is firmly rooted in the past and in tradition and as such does not provide the cultural force to break free from the traditionalism that inhibits the emergence of capitalism: The relentlessly and religiously systematized utilitarianism peculiar to rational asceticism (Puritanism), to live “in” the world and yet not be part of it, has helped to produce superior rational aptitudes and therewith the spirit of the vocational man which, in the last analysis was denied to Confucianism. That is to say, the Confucian way of life was rational but was determined unlike Puritanism, from without rather than from within. The contrast can teach us that mere sobriety and thriftiness combined with acquisitiveness and regard for wealth were far from releasing the “capitalist spirit” (Weber, 1951, p. 248).

The Religion of India The Religion of India (1958) was Weber’s second work related to the sociology of non-Christian religion. In this work, Weber focuses on the social structure of India and how it inhibited the advent of capitalism. In the case of Hinduism, the role of karma and the accompanying caste system maintains the lock of tradition. Karma dictates that the individual’s lot in this life is due to their behavior in previous lives. Tradition is enforced through the belief that the only way to “better” one’s state in the next life is by accepting one’s position in the current life and strictly adhering to the duties one’s caste obligations, including occupational ones (Weber, 1958; Warner, 1973). In this way, karma along with the caste system reinforces social status and the traditional economy thereby blocking the advent of a rational type of capitalism:

Modern Weberian thesis

179

JEC 1,2

180

. . . it must be considered extremely unlikely that the modern organization of industrial capitalism would ever have originated on the basis of the caste system. A ritual law in which every change of occupation, every change in work technique, may result in ritual degradation is certainly not capable of giving birth to economic and technical revolutions from within itself, or even facilitating the germination of capitalism in its midst (1958, p. 112).

In sharp contrast to ascetic Protestantism, ancient Buddhism advocates a form of asceticism that entails the rejection of the world. The goal is to escape from life to arrive at rest and to extinguish “the thirst for life” and enter the eternal dreamless sleep of Nirvana (Weber, 1958; Swedberg, 2005). Buddhism’s belief in the source of salvation as mystic meditation made it distinctly “other worldly” and almost completely disconnected from the here and now with no incentive for rational economic activity: Assurance of one’s state of grace, that is, certain knowledge of one’s own salvation is not sought through proving oneself by any inner-worldly or extra-worldly action, by “work” of any kind, but, in contrast to this, it is sought in a psychic state remote from activity? (1951, p. 213).

Weber again concludes in his analysis in the Religion of India that Hinduism is firmly rooted in the past and in tradition and as such does not provide the cultural force to break free from the traditionalism that inhibits the emergence of capitalism while ancient Buddhism is so cosmically disconnected with the world that any rational type of economic activity is impossible. Ancient Judaism Weber’s third and final work related to the sociology of non-Christian religions was his exploration of ancient Judaism (Weber, 1952). In this work, Weber sought to explain why Christianity evolved to be so different from the religions of the Orient. Weber’s thesis here is that the prophetic and traditions of religious law of ancient Judaism laid the groundwork for Christianity and Western civilization. In contrast to, Buddhism which seeks to withdraw from the world through meditation, Western Christianity seeks to be “in the world, but not of the world”; in a kind of inter-worldly asceticism. Weber asserts that this willingness to engage the world has its foundations in ancient Jewish prophecy. The current structure and reality of the world is the result of man’s actions and God’s response to those actions. Therefore, a man’s moral conduct, reflected in his/her adherence to the law, determine whether or not he and his family could enjoy God’s blessing now and for subsequent generations. This form of covenant relationship with the Creator was very different from the religions of the Orient. In contrast to, religions of the east, ancient Judaism was essentially free of “magic” where man’s standing with respect to God and his subsequent salvation was determined by the individual’s study and adherence to the law: The paradigm of the one super-worldly god constructs him in part as a father . . . (who) loves his people, yet when it disobeys he punishes it sternly, but can be won again through prayer, humility and moral conduct (Weber, 1951, p. 398).

This rational, legal paradigm laid the groundwork for Western civilization and modern capitalism. Bendix (1960, p. 264) in his book Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait provides a succinct summary of Weber’s thesis:

Free of magic and esoteric speculations, devoted to the study of law, vigilant in the effort to do “what is right in the eyes of the Lord” in the hope of a better future, the prophets established a religion of faith that subjected man’s daily life to the imperatives of a divinely ordained moral law. In this was ancient Judaism helped create the moral rationalism of Western civilization.

Weber concluded that the hold of religious traditionalism prevented the emergence of Western-style capitalism in China and India. In addition to, the above religious and cultural constraints to modern rational capitalism, Weber noted that the development of modern capitalism in the West was the result of a path-dependant evolutionary track that was centuries long and which was accompanied by the development of complementary rationalized organizations and systems such as accounting, law and technology (Swedberg, 1999). These same complementary systems did not develop within China and India. In the following section, we review the modern (post-1950) research that has addressed the Weberian thesis. Review of the empirical literature Research on the Protestant work ethic The research on the component constructs of the Protestant work ethic (PWE) has been quite fruitful. Studies relating to the constructs of Asceticism, Work Ethic, Use of Time, Innovation, Honesty, Attitudes Toward Money, and Divine Justice have provided significant evidence to support (as well as a few that showed non-significance) the proposals of Weber (Jones, 1997). We will highlight a few of the exemplary studies noted by Jones (1997) and supplement them with several of the more recent pieces of importance. Studies of an internal versus an external locus of control have been the predominant mechanism by which Asceticism has been addressed (Furnham and Rose, 1987; Kleiber and Crandall, 1981; Mirels and Garrett, 1971), with relatively robust results. In addition, Greenberg (1977) found that students that scored high on a Protestant ethic scale tended to perform better after negative feedback, while those that scored low on the scale had a reduction in performance. Finally, individuals with a high Protestant ethic were more likely than those without to maintain their effort despite experimental manipulations in a study by Tang (1990). With regard to work ethic, Greenberg’s (1977) study found that there was not a significant drop-off in performance in later periods versus earlier in persons with high Protestant ethic. This is of even greater significance when tied to Merrens and Garrett’s (1975) findings that showed those with high PWE were more productive overall, although Ganster (1981) found no difference in performance. Saal (1978) found that the job involvement of high PWE individuals was significantly higher, and further evidence of this involvement was provided by Greenberg’s (1978a, b) which showed they also would rather be working than the ride to work. Even when they are not productive, the behavior of high PWE’s differs. They tend to blame themselves when they are unemployed (Furnham, 1982). While unemployed, the high PWE person would likely be in a quandary, because they would have supported a hard line on non-workers and those who collect welfare (Heaven, 1990; Furnham, 1984a, b). Usage of time has been studied primarily along the lines of what do I do when not “at work” and how much time does that entail. In Greenberg’s (1978a, b) study, he not

Modern Weberian thesis

181

JEC 1,2

182

only found that high PWE workers not only preferred to be at work rather than on the way to work, they actually did work while traveling to work. Furnham (1984a, b) found that high PWE individuals scored lower on Leisure Ethic Scales; however, Kleiber and Crandall (1981) found no relationship between PWE and Leisure Ethics in their sample of college students. In their study of 422 American college students, Wentworth and Chell (1997) found that younger, undergraduate students scored higher on the PWE scale than older, non-American, graduate students. These findings were contrary to their hypothesized direction, but they still point out the importance of demographic segmentation when considering PWE levels, and potentially their effects. Extension to other faith/belief systems and entrepreneurial behavior Weber’s (1958) interest in the differential effects of other belief systems (outside of Protestantism) on their capitalistic behavior was evidenced by his work relating to religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. As might be expected, some of the studies have emanated from the assertion that the behaviors proposed are idiosyncratic to the Protestant Christian religion. Baumann (1998) noted that there are many similarities in the religious philosophies of Buddhism and the ideal type addressed by Weber. He also notes some interesting differences. Indeed, he seems to imply that there are some elements of Buddhism that may have a tendency to create greater social consciousness and behavior within the Buddhist community. The most important difference stated is related to the motivation of their behavior. Buddhist philosophies are said to be motivated by a sense of desire to develop spiritual growth, both as an individual and as a Buddhist community. It is also posited that an additional motivation of extending Buddhist perspectives into the resident culture was a desirable outcome as well. The Calvinist or Puritan (Baumann, 1998) motivation is to please God, who they were predestined as his elect to be blessed by Him. Studies have also been conducted on the effects of the Islamic work ethic as compared to the elements of the PWE. While this research does not specifically look at the effects on entrepreneurship, it does look at the relationship to intrapreneurial behavior (Yousef, 2001). This may well provide a springboard from which comparative evaluation of likelihood and type of entrepreneurial activities is related to the base and degree of religiosity. One particularly intriguing piece of research showed evidence that Muslims in Turkey actually scored higher on PWE than did Great Britain Protestants and Irish Catholics (Arslan, 2001). Some research has provided evidence that religiosity (as measured by attendance, impact of belief, and adherence) has little effect on entrepreneurial behavior (Dodd and Seaman, 1998). They did not attempt to obtain findings relative to affiliation due to small sample sizes for many of the religious groups. They do note that this study is focused on the individual entrepreneur, while Weber’s work is on a societal level. This is important in that for Weber’s theory to hold true, it would have to be independent of the need for the actors (the entrepreneurs) to be aware of the effects. Furthermore, the sample was drawn from a highly secularized (though significantly Protestant) society, which should, according to some sociologists (Bruce, 1992, 1995), reduce the effects of religiosity on the society as a whole. This would tend to homogenize society and open it to higher degrees of entrepreneurship.

Culture/ethnicity/religion/social capital and entrepreneurial behavior While it has long been accepted that the relationship between cultural values, social institutions, and industry characteristics will affect areas such as entrepreneurship, the empirical evidence has been lacking (Hayton et al., 2002). Indeed, many studies have actually used such proxies as nationality for culture (Shane et al., 1991; Scheinberg and McMillan, 1988; Mueller and Thomas, 2000; Thomas and Mueller, 2000). This is problematic in that cultural values may differ widely within regions of the country (Dodd et al., 2002). While their findings have provided evidence of direct relationships, they leave the deeper question of the makeup of the social construct largely unanswered. The importance of each and their differential impacts do not negate the need to look at their interrelationships within the societal construct. Indeed, the makeup of the individual components may well be of interest in further understanding their entrepreneurial behavior. Cultural differences have been studied across a plethora of countries ranging from the USA and Great Britain, to the Arabic countries, Sri Lanka (Niles, 1994), and Uganda (Baguma and Furnam, 1993). These studies have found that significant differences exist between these nationalities’ overall PWE scores. However, there are some intriguing similarities across nations as well. McGrath et al. (1992) surveyed 770 entrepreneurs from 14 countries and found that even with diverse cultural background (measured in the survey rather than inferred from nationality), entrepreneurs tended to share their perceptions of non-entrepreneurs. For example, in countries characterized as highly individualistic were found to hold an internal locus of control by Mueller and Thomas (2000) and, when coupled with a low uncertainty avoidance culture, rated the highest on entrepreneurial orientation. Religious institutional membership’s connection to culture and social capital is another area of potential study that has shown significant promise for researchers. In a study of Brazilian communities within the USA, Martes and Rodriguez (2004) found that Protestant church membership provided a higher degree of social capital to entrepreneurs than did Catholic Church membership operating within the same socio-cultural environment. Finally, social capital and networks have been tested empirically and have found solid support for its positive effects on entrepreneurial behavior (Hills et al., 1997). Entrepreneurs with advantageous access to people and their established networks for financial capital and knowledge have advantageous position to those without the same degree of social capital, in recognizing and evaluating their opportunities (Ozgen and Baron, 2007; Baron and Markman, 2003; Shane and Cable, 2000). Social capital can also reduce transaction costs by allowing the entrepreneur access to the trust built up within their network and the needed resource markets (Fukuyama, 1995; Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998; Williamson, 1975). These cost advantages can create a resource that is sustainable to the degree they are difficult, or costly to replicate (Barney, 1991). There is some evidence that these advantages may only apply to the likelihood of successful startup in that Lechner et al. (2006) found social networks to be unrelated to time to breakeven and negatively related to overall sales in venture-capital funded enterprises. It is important that we develop a better understanding of how this socio-cultural and socio-economic model is connected. This has implications for many of the problems faced by society as a whole, including poverty, distribution of wealth, injustice, and ecological stewardship to name a few. Several avenues and potential paths for research

Modern Weberian thesis

183

JEC 1,2

184

are noted by Hayton et al. (2002). Some of these are methodologically oriented, such as looking at differences between groups rather than similarities, level of analysis (individual versus cultural) and overdependence on past metrics such as Hofstede’s (1980) indices rather than constructing new methods and measures that will allow researchers to address the complexity of these relationships. Indeed, the dependent variable “entrepreneurship” may well need to be looked at in a multi-faceted manner. For example, Hayton et al. note that the definition of entrepreneurship has included such diverse areas as innovative, high growth firms and small, family owned and managed businesses. The specification of the measure can have profound effects on the findings of the phenomena and its effects. The economic effect With all of these socio-cultural factors affecting the work ethic and economic behavior of individuals, what exactly does this translate to in an overall economic sense? Recent studies have looked at the effects of religion on economic growth of countries. Barro and McCleary (2003) found that the degree of belief in religion, particularly in such areas as the existence of heaven and hell, is positively related to the economic growth of the country. Interestingly, they also found that church attendance rates were negatively related to growth. Additional research has indicated that faith has profound influence on attitudes conducive to growth and the path by which that faith evolves also plays a role in the degree of these attitudes (Guiso et al., 2003). Their findings regarding religion also indicates that religious people tend to have increased trust in each other, while some religious traditions (particularly Muslims and Hindus) are less tolerant on some gender and ethnicity differences. Concluding comments After 100 years Weber’s works clearly remain seminal to the field of ethnic entrepreneurship. The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism has provided a conceptual foundation upon which to explore the effect of religion and culture on economic activity. It is important to note that we spent a great deal of time, effort, and discussion on properly positioning these pieces to provide a broad brush perspective on the directions of the previous research in this field. Without question, the complexity of this field of study will only become more pronounced as we continue to deal with the interactions between religion, ethnicity, culture, politics, and economies in a dynamic world. This provides an exciting and challenging environment for scholars for years to come. References Arslan, M. (2001), “The work ethic values of protestant British, Catholic Irish and Muslim Turkish managers”, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 31 No. 4, pp. 321-39. Baguma, P. and Furnam, A. (1993), “The Protestant work ethic in Great Britain and Uganda”, Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 495-507. Barney, J. (1991), “Firm resources and sustained competitive advantage”, Journal of Management, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 99-120. Baron, R.A. and Markman, G.D. (2003), “Beyond social capital: the role of entrepreneurs’ social competence in their financial success”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 18 No. 1, pp. 41-60.

Barro, R. and McCleary, R. (2003), “Religion and economic growth”, National Bureau of Research Working Paper Series Number 9682, available at: www.nber.org/papers/w9682. Baumann, M. (1998), “Working in the right spirit: the application of Buddhist right livelihood in the friends of the western Buddhist order”, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, Vol. 5, pp. 120-3. Bendix, R. (1960), Max Weber: An Intellectual Portrait, Doubleday, Garden City, NY. Bruce, S. (Ed.) (1992), Religion and Modernization, Clarendon Press, Oxford. Bruce, S. (Ed.) (1995), Religion in Modern Britain, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Dodd, S.D. and Seaman, P.T. (1998), “Religion and enterprise: an introductory exploration”, Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 71-86. Dodd, S., Jack, S. and Anderson, A. (2002), “Scottish entrepreneurial networks in the international context”, International Small Business Journal, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 213-9. Fukuyama, F. (1995), Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York, NY. Furnham, A. (1982), “The Protestant work ethic and attitudes toward unemployment”, Journal of Occupational Psychology, Vol. 55, pp. 277-85. Furnham, A. (1984a), “The Protestant work ethic: a review of the psychological literature”, European Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 14, pp. 87-104. Furnham, A. (1984b), “Determinants of attitudes toward taxation in Britain”, Human Relations, Vol. 37, pp. 535-46. Furnham, A. and Rose, M. (1987), “Alternative ethics: the relationship between the wealth, welfare, work, and leisure ethic”, Human Relations, Vol. 40, pp. 561-73. Ganster, D. (1981), “Protestant ethic and performance: a re-examination”, Psychological Reports, Vol. 48, pp. 335-8. Greenberg, J. (1977), “The Protestant work ethic and reactions to negative performance evaluations on a laboratory task”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 62, pp. 682-90. Greenberg, J. (1978a), “Equity, equality, and the Protestant ethic: allocating rewards following fair and unfair competition”, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 14, pp. 217-26. Greenberg, J. (1978b), “Protestant ethic endorsement and attitudes toward riding to work among mass transit riders”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, pp. 755-8. Guiso, L., Sapienza, P. and Zingales, L. (2003), “People’s opium? Religion and economic attitudes”, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 50, pp. 225-82. Hayton, J., George, G. and Zahra, S. (2002), “National culture and entrepreneurship: a review of behavioral research”, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Vol. 26, pp. 33-52. Heaven, P.C. (1990), “Suggestions for reducing unemployment: a study of Protestant work ethic and economic locus of control beliefs”, British Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 29, pp. 55-65. Hills, G., Lumpkin, G. and Singh, R. (1997), “Opportunity recognition: perceptions and behaviors of entrepreneurs”, Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, pp. 203-18. Hofstede, G. (1980), Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related, Values, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA. Howard, M.C. (2005), “One hundred years from today: Max Weber’s the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism”, History of Economics Review, No. 42, pp. 100-3. Jones, H.B. Jr (1997), “The Protestant ethic: Weber’s model and the empirical literature”, Human Relations, Vol. 50 No. 7, pp. 757-77.

Modern Weberian thesis

185

JEC 1,2

186

Kleiber, D. and Crandall, R. (1981), “Leisure and work ethics and locus of control”, Leisure Sciences, Vol. 4, pp. 477-85. Lechner, C., Dowling, M. and Welpe, I. (2006), “Firm networks and firm development: the role of the relational mix”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 21 No. 4, pp. 514-40. Light, I.H. and Gold, S.J. (2000), Ethnic Economies, Academic Press, San Diego, CA. McGrath, G.R., Macmillan, I., Yang, E.A-Y. and Tsai, W. (1992), “Does culture endure or is it malleable? Issues for entrepreneurial economic development”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 7 No. 6, pp. 441-58. Martes, A. and Rodriguez, C. (2004), “Church membership, social capital, and entrepreneurship in Brazilian communities”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure & Process, International Research in Business Disciplines,Vol. 4, pp. 171-201. Merrens, M. and Garrett, J. (1975), “The Protestant ethic scale as a predictor of repetitive work performance”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 60, pp. 125-7. Mirels, H. and Garrett, J. (1971), “Protestant ethic as a personality variable”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 36, pp. 40-4. Mueller, S. and Thomas, A. (2000), “Culture and entrepreneurial potential: a nine country study of locus of control and innovativeness”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 16, pp. 51-75. Nahapiet, J. and Ghoshal, S. (1998), “Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage”, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 242-66. Niles, S. (1994), “The work ethic in Australia and Sri Lanka”, The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 134 No. 1, pp. 55-60. Ozgen, E. and Baron, R. (2007), “Social sources of information in opportunity recognition: effects of mentors, industry networks, and professional forums”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 174-92. Saal, F. (1978), “Job involvement: a multivariate approach”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 63, pp. 53-61. Scheinberg, S. and McMillan, I.C. (1988), “A 11 country study of motivation to start a business”, in Kirchhoff, B.A., Long, W.A., McMullan, W.ED., Vesper, K.H. and Wetzel, W.E. (Eds), Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research, Babson College, Wellesley, MA, pp. 669-87. Shane, S. and Cable, D. (2000), “Network ties, reputation, and the financing of new ventures”, Management Science, Vol. 48 No. 3, pp. 364-81. Shane, S., Kolvereid, L. and Westhead, P. (1991), “An exploratory examination of the reasons leading to new firm formation across country and gender”, Journal of Business Venturing, pp. 431-46. Swatos, W.H. and Kaelber, L. (2005), The Protestant Ethic Turns 100, Paradigm Publishers, Boulder, CO. Swedberg, R. (1999), “Max Weber as an economist and as a sociologist: towards a fuller understanding of Weber’s view of economics”, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Vol. 58 No. 4, pp. 561-73. Swedberg, R. (2005), The Max Weber Dictionary, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. Tang, T. (1990), “Factors affecting intrinsic motivation among university students in Taiwan”, Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 130, pp. 219-30. Thomas, A. and Mueller, S. (2000), “A case for comparative entrepreneurship: assessing the relevance of culture”, Journal of International Business Studies, Vol. 31, pp. 287-301. Waldinger, R., Aldrich, H.E. and Ward, R. (1990), Ethnic Entrepreneurs: Immigrant Business in Industrial Societies, Sage, Newbury Park, CA.

Warner, R.S. (1973), “Weber’s sociology of nonwestern religions”, in Green, R.W. (Ed.), Protestantism, Capitalism, and Social Science: The Weber Thesis Controversy, D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, MA. Weber, M. (1904a), Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus, Neue Wissenschaftliche Bibliotek Athenaum, Bodenheim. Weber, M. (1904b), The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism, Trans. Talcott Parsons, G. Allen & Unwin, London. Weber, M. (1922), Economy and Society: An Outline of Interpretive Sociology, University of California Press, Berkley, CA. Weber, M. (1951), The Religion of China, The Free Press, New York, NY. Weber, M. (1952), Ancient Judaism, Free Press, Glencoe, IL. Weber, M. (1958), The Religion of India, The Free Press, New York, NY. Weber, M. (2002), The Protestant Ethic and the “Spirit” of Capitalism, Penguin Classics, New York, NY. Wentworth, D. and Chell, R. (1997), “American college students and the Protestant work ethic”, The Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 137 No. 3, pp. 284-96. Williamson, O. (1975), Markets and Hierarchies, Free Press, New York, NY. Yousef, D. (2001), “Islamic work ethic; a moderator between organizational commitment and job satisfaction in a cross-cultural context”, Personnel Review, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 152-69. Further reading Furnham, A. (1985a), “Why do people save? Attitudes to, and habits of, saving money in Britain”, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 15, pp. 354-73. Furnham, A. (1985b), “The determinants of attitudes toward social security recipients”, British Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 24, pp. 19-27. Furnham, A. (1986), “Economic locus of control”, Human Relations, Vol. 39, pp. 29-43. Weber, M. (1921), Gesammelte Aufsatze zur Religionssoziologie, J.C.B. Mohr, Tubingen, 3 vols. Weber, M. (1993), The Sociology of Religion, Beacon Press, Boston, MA. About the authors Joel A. Ryman was awarded his PhD in Business Administration from the University of Tennessee in 1999. Prior to receiving his PhD, he worked in pharmaceutical industry for seven years. While strategic management remains his primary research focus. He is also exploring the areas of spirituality and entrepreneurship. Joel A. Ryman is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] Craig A. Turner earned his PhD in Strategic Management at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1999, following 12 years of experience in the field of finance and risk management. His primary areas of research revolve around entrepreneurship and risk. E-mail: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

Modern Weberian thesis

187

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/1750-6204.htm

JEC 1,2

An empirical note on entrepreneurial activity, intrinsic religiosity and economic growth

188

Craig S. Galbraith and Devon M. Galbraith Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington, Wilmington, North Carolina, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and test the relationship and interaction between “intrinsic” religiosity, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth. Design/methodology/approach – The paper selects 23 countries that are predominately Christian and examine the connection between country-wide religious orientation, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth. It specifically examines “intrinsic” religiosity, and defines entrepreneurial activity as either total start-up entrepreneurial activity or opportunity-based entrepreneurial activity. It is hypothesized that there is a direct relationship between religious attitudes and both economic growth and entrepreneurial activity, with entrepreneurial activity also acting as an intervening variable. The empirical relationship between “intrinsic” religiosity, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth is then examined. Findings – The findings suggest that while “intrinsic” religiosity is positively related to economic growth, the key relationship may be between “intrinsic” religiosity and entrepreneurial activity, with entrepreneurial activity then resulting in economic growth. Originality/value – By examining the diverse literatures of economic development, entrepreneurship, theology, and the psychology of religion, this paper offers a unique analysis of religious attitudes and their impact on entrepreneurial activity and economic growth. Both the conceptual discussion and the empirical results extend previous studies examining cultural approaches to understanding economic growth. Keywords Religious, Entrepreneurship, Economic growth Paper type Research paper

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 188-201 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204 DOI 10.1108/17506200710752601

Background Examination of the relationship between religious belief, entrepreneurial activity, and economic development has gained in popularity in the last five years. This interest is evident in several different streams of literature. Recently a number of papers have appeared in the economics literature that examine whether or not religious beliefs appear to contribute to sustainable economic development. A prevalent theme in this evolving literature is that there are other factors beyond the traditional economic variables, such as interest rates, trade balances, and money supply, that can be used to predict country-specific economic success (Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 2004; McCleary and Barro, 2006a). These non-traditional economic factors include a variety of social, cultural, and political forces (Landes, 1999; Inglehard and Baker, 2000; Guiso et al., 2003; Barro, 2003). Many of the empirical studies that are emerging within this literature capture these cultural and attitudinal factors utilizing the World Values Survey (WVS) or the International Social Survey Programme. These surveys, and others such as 1999 Gallup culture

survey, provide broad periodic, in-depth sampling of individuals in various countries regarding a variety of dimensions related to culture, attitudes and beliefs. A number of items related to religious belief, religious service attendance, and importance of religion in one’s life are also included in these surveys. When analyzing these religious and belief factors against various measures of economic success, such as GDP growth, some common conclusions have emerged across the literature. First, it appears that religious belief is, in fact, empirically related to country-specific economic success (Barro, 2003; Guiso et al., 2003; McCleary and Barro, 2006b). The research indicates that countries with a higher percentage of religious individuals generally outperform those countries with a smaller religious percentage, or as Barro (2003, p. 1) notes, “we find that economic growth responds positively to the extent of religious beliefs.” Similarly, Guiso et al. (2003) found that, “religious beliefs are associated with ‘good’ economic attitudes, where ‘good’ is defined as conducive to higher per capita income and growth” (2002, p. 1). Second, it appears that, on the average, religious beliefs are positively related to other socio-economic measures that may also contribute to economic growth, such as education, self-esteem, family unit, and life-expectancy (McCleary and Barro, 2006a). Third, when compared to other major religious traditions, Christianity is the most highly correlated with both actual economic success and attitudes that lead to economic success, while most other traditions have less, albeit still a significantly positive impact on economic success (Barro, 2003; Guiso et al., 2003). Finally, unlike religious beliefs (which is positively related to economic success), it appears that frequent formal church attendance may actually have a small, but negative effect on economic growth. The commonly cited reasoning behind this finding regarding church attendance tends to focus on the diversion of resources from investment vehicles that fuel economic growth to supporting the church institutions (Barro and McCleary, 2003). It should be noted, however, that this conclusion is somewhat misleading, since there is clear evidence that a large percentage of donations to church institutions are used for broader charitable and capital transfer purposes (Brooks, 2006). These donations, in turn, result in: . large inter-country aid efforts such as orphanages and schools; . targeted economic development efforts such as micro-loans in chronically poor countries (Van de Ruit, 2001; Dana and Galbraith, 2006); and . the increased development of social capital and networks among both established ethnic enclaves (Candland, 2000) and more recently arrived immigrants (Martes and Rodriguez, 2004; Galbraith et al., 2004). Thus, the complex calculus between frequent church attendance and economic growth likely remains unascertained. In fact, it is possible that frequent church attendance, particularly within developed countries, while negatively related to within-country economic growth, may also be positively related to within-country poor population support and economic growth in other poor countries through increased NGO activities and charitable aid programs. Another line of research falls within the developmental entrepreneurship literature, particularly the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) program. The GEM program measures various components of entrepreneurial activity in over 40 countries. Research studies using the GEM data base consistently find a relationship between

Entrepreneurial activity

189

JEC 1,2

190

entrepreneurial activity and a country’s economic base. In general, the GEM studies have found a “U-shaped” relationship between early-stage entrepreneurial activity and economic development (GEM, 2004, 2006). Low per capita GDP countries tend to have significant early-stage entrepreneurial activity, while developed countries such as the European Union and Japan have less early-stage entrepreneurial activity. However, countries with the highest level of per capita GDP such as the USA and Norway, show, “increasing early-stage entrepreneurial activity suggesting a new increase in opportunity related entrepreneurship” (GEM, 2006, p. 12). While not specifically looking at religious belief, the GEM program and other developmental entrepreneurship studies (Galbraith and Stiles, 2006) suggest an important connection to the economic development studies discussed above – perhaps religious beliefs are in part positively related to entrepreneurial activity, and entrepreneurial activity, in turn, is related to economic growth? Thus, entrepreneurial activity is a potential intervening variable between religious belief and economic growth. The empirical literature examining religious beliefs and entrepreneurial activity is somewhat mixed, however. While most studies suggest a positive relationship between religious belief (and church attendance) and entrepreneurial activities (Hirschmeier, 1964; Woodrum, 1985; Kwon, 1997; Iyer, 1999; Martes and Rodriguez, 2004), other studies find no significant relationship between religious belief, church attendance, and entrepreneurial activity (Dodd and Seaman, 1998). It should be noted, however, that the studies that tend to find a positive relationship appear to be from relatively high growth economies (both developed and emerging), and/or focus on ethnic and immigrant enclaves that utilize the social capital derived from a church relationship, while the empirical studies that tend not to find a relationship are from more stagnant European economies and/or do not clearly distinguish between early stage entrepreneurs and long-term small business owners. Certainly, much more work needs to be undertaken that examines the true relationship between religious belief, church attendance, and the type of entrepreneurial activity at a micro-level. The final important literature to touch on is the theology and sociology of religion literature. With the exception of an almost obligatory reference to Max Weber’s early German essays titled “Die protestantische Ethik und der ‘Geist’ des Kapitalismus,” which were translated in 1930 as “The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism” most of the economic and entrepreneurship literature discussed above has largely ignored the theology and psychology literature (Winter, 1974). This literature, however, has provided important theoretical distinctions that need to underpin the more economic discussions. Throughout history, all religious traditions have addressed the connection between work (including entrepreneurship) and religion (Deutschmann, 2001; Klay and Lunn, 2003; Garvey, 2003). For example, within the Christian tradition the moral importance of work was established from its earliest beginnings (see Paul’s Letter, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15). Even the Church manual, Didache written approximately 80 CE, clearly defines hard work as a standard for judging the spiritual intentions of Christians entering a community. By the end of the second century, the formal Christian attitudes toward work appeared broadly understood, with the status of work significantly upgraded from the contemporaneous Roman and earlier Greek perceptions of work – hard work is both moral and spiritual, but for those who are more successful, charity must

support the “non-idle” who are truly in need (or the sick and elderly who are incapable of working). Later, Augustine of Hippo (354-430) became the first major Church Father of Late Antiquity to synthesize and publish a complete theological argument for a strong and positive work-ethic. In his Enarrationes in Psalmos, 70, sermo 1 Augustine also finds virtue in the entrepreneurial activities of traders, including accruing profits for their efforts – although in Augustinian tradition there are clear moral standards in the proper acquisition and charitable disposition of personal wealth. Similarly, Benedict of Nursia (480-547) viewed work as a critical component of the community-based monastic organization (e.g. Rule of Benedict, Ch. 48). Benedict also significantly expanded the spiritual foundation of the leadership function, and the managerial organization of work (Galbraith and Galbraith, 2004). In fact, the monastic orders established in the Benedictine tradition from the sixth century to the present are not only spiritual institutions, but also remarkably entrepreneurial with clearly functioning, and self-supporting business activities such as education, agriculture, hospitality, medical care, wine making, crafts, cheese production, and printing. By the seventh century, the new theology of work and leadership was clearly and broadly established within the Christian Western World. Later, medieval theologians fine-tuned these issues, particularly as they related to the nature and proper role of entrepreneurial behavior. For example, Franciscan Friar Pierre Jean d’Olieu (Olivi) (1248-1298) was probably the father of entrepreneurial economic theory in the Western tradition. Although d’Olieu was a strong (and somewhat controversial) advocate for poverty among ecclesiastics, he forcibly argued for the moral and economic contributions of the secular entrepreneurial class. He combined in a very modern way the notion that time was a valuable commodity with the idea that entrepreneurs should be justly compensated for both taking risks and possessing scarce skills. Baeck (1999, p. 1) notes that d’Olieu established that “entrepreneurial activity in a situation of uncertainty resulting from the dynamic time horizon, requires a rare quality of mind (solicitudo mentalis). This merits also a just remuneration.” Building on d’Olieu’s ideas, the influential Saint Bernardino of Sienna (1380-1444) (see Opera Omnia and the discourses on Contracts and Usury), and other scholastic theologians, finally articulated the base economic theory of subjective utility, property rights, foreign trade, and entrepreneurial effort that takes us to the modern, twenty-first century. Bernardino, for example, identified four entrepreneurial gifts (efficiency, responsibility, hard work, and risk-taking) and argued that very few people in society are capable of combining these four virtues in an effective way. Thus, according to Bernardino, the entrepreneur “properly” earns the profits commensurate with keeping the entrepreneur in business, and therefore it represents a legitimate return for one’s labor, expenses, and risks (Rathbard, 1995). Thus, within the Christian tradition well before even the sixteenth century reformation period the conclusion from the theological literature was clear: first, there is a clear moral component of work; and, second, there is a clear moral component of entrepreneurial effort. From this background, we would expect a direct relationship between religious attitudes and both economic growth and entrepreneurial activity. Weber’s “protestant” ethic added only one additional component, albeit an important one, to an already established and strongly positive moral attitude toward work, trade, value creation, innovation, and entrepreneurial activity.

Entrepreneurial activity

191

JEC 1,2

192

In addition, from a moral market perspective there are additional reasons why religious orientation may be associated with entrepreneurial activity in a way not related to traditional Weberian arguments (Gold, 2003). For example, building on Demsetz (1967) work on property rights, there is some empirical evidence to indicate that individuals with a strong spiritual orientation may desire to internalize markets, that is, become an entrepreneur, in order to mitigate a perception that external capital and labor markets are unfair (De Noble et al., 2007). The psychology of religion literature can also add important insights to the relationship. For example, the vast majority of research in this literature supports the basic idea that there are two fundamental dimensions of religiosity – intrinsic and extrinsic (Allport, 1966; Allport and Ross, 1967; Kahoe, 1974; Donahue, 1985; Gorsuch and McPherson, 1989; Bergin, 1991; Hill and Hood, 1999; Hodge, 2003). The intrinsic orientation is directed, “toward a unification of being, takes seriously the commandment of brotherhood, and strives to transcend all self-centered needs” (Allport, 1966, p. 455). According to this perspective most religious teachings emphasize unity and brotherhood, but those individuals that are religiously motivated for intrinsic reasons will typically incorporate these religious tenets within their daily life. Not surprisingly, content analyses of articles employing the concepts of religiosity and spirituality appear to indicate a high degree of overlap between the meaning of “spirituality” and this “intrinsic” dimension of religious orientation (Harris, 2003; Hill et al., 2000; Rose, 2001). The counterpart to intrinsic religiosity, however, is extrinsic religiosity. According to Allport, the extrinsic orientation is, “useful for the self in granting safety, social standing, solace, and endorsement for one’s chosen way of life” (Allport, 1966, p. 455). It has been suggested that brotherhood and unity become less important to the extrinsic individual’s own personal beliefs and values, while conformance to community-based norms increases in importance. Many, albeit not all, researchers tend to view high extrinsic religiosity somewhat negatively, and describe it as the use of religion to gain social acceptance or reward, and often associate it with dogmatic views. It should be noted, however, that the intrinsic and extrinsic dimensions are separate dimensions, and not endpoints on the same dimension. In addition, church attendance is often improperly used as a measure of “extrinsic” religiosity. Although disagreements certainly remain, it is important to understand these theological and psychological distinctions before embarking on a thorough understanding of the relationship between religion, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth. Empirical study To tie together the relationship between religious belief, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth an exploratory analysis was performed looking specifically at 23 countries that have a historical Christian tradition. We selected a single religious tradition for several reasons. First, it has become apparent from previous empirical studies that several problems can arise from pooling countries from different religious traditions (Barro, 2003). From a theological perspective, this should be obvious since the attitudes toward work and entrepreneurial activity vary from one religious tradition to another. Second, while some studies attempt to control for this statistically, our sample size was not sufficient. Third, given the historical Christian emphasis on charity, peace, and freedom have been likely incorporated into even the most secular

institutions and morality over the centuries, this limited sample controls for some of these inter-religion cultural and institutional differences. Even Max Weber made this important “secular absorption of religious morality” point in his analysis of not only Christianity, but also other religious traditions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, as well. Fourth, it is well recognized that most survey instruments designed to capture religious belief and activity may not be generalizable to different cultures (Piedmont and Leach, 2002). Thus, we limit ourselves to a non-pooled sample of “Christian” tradition countries. Several different sources of data were used. Religious belief To capture religious beliefs we used the WVS. The survey is conducted periodically. For our study, we used only countries sampled in the last full panel of the WVS (1999-2004). This excluded several potential countries from the sample. Three items were used to measure religious belief. “How important is God in your life?” (ten-point scale, we use mean); “Do you consider yourself a religious person?” (three-point scale, we use percentage considering “a religious person”), and “How often do you attend religious services?” (eight-point scale, we use percentage that report attending rarely to frequently, that is, sum responses 1-7). It should be noted that these questions more likely measure the “intrinsic” dimension of religiously, and not the “extrinsic” dimension. Thus, while recognizing that “extrinsic” religiosity may still be correlated to entrepreneurial activity through the development of social capital and network ties, our study specifically focuses on the “intrinsic” dimension. Entrepreneurial activity Entrepreneurial activity was measured by the 2005 GEM study. Specifically, we used a measure of the combined “nascent entrepreneurs” and “new business owners” (in business between 3 and 42 months). This represents the total “early-stage entrepreneurial activity” or what GEM previously labeled the total entrepreneurial activity (TEA). In addition, the data is further divided into “opportunity” (OPP TEA) versus “necessity-based” entrepreneurs. GEM reports these statistics on 35 countries. Only countries reporting being predominately “Christian” were included in the sample (source: 2006 CIA World Factbook). Thus, countries such as Japan and China were excluded from the sample. Economic growth Country level economic growth was measured by average annual growth in GDP over a ten year period, 1994-2004 (source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook Database). Country sample Based upon the data availability from both the WVS and the GEM study, a total of 23 countries are analyzed, with seven of the countries commonly classified as “emerging economies”. The “emerging economy” countries are Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Croatia, and Hungary; while the “developed economy” countries are the USA, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Canada, Austria, Iceland, Finland, Spain, Belgium, Slovenia, Netherlands, United Kingdom, France, Sweden, and Denmark.

Entrepreneurial activity

193

JEC 1,2

194

Results The data presented a full range of religious attitudes. For the item, “How important is God in your life?” mean country values ranged between a high of 9.61 (Brazil) to a low of 4.02 (Denmark). For reference, other high-mean countries were Mexico (9.45), South Africa (9.09), Chile (8.75), Argentina (8.53), the USA (8.47), Ireland (7.47), and Italy (7.43). Low mean countries included Sweden (4.1), France (4.4), UK (4.92), and The Netherlands (4.93). Similar results are found for, “Do you consider yourself a religious person?” This ranged from a high of 85.1 percent (Brazil) to a low of 37.1 percent (Sweden). However, there were some differences. For example, Denmark reported a relatively high 70.7 percent. For the question, “How often do you attend religious services?” the data ranged from a high of Italy (95.4 percent report attending rarely to frequently) to a low of France (39.1 percent report attending rarely to frequently). To determine if these three questions capture the single “intrinsic” dimension, a factor analysis was run. Using a principal component extraction (eigenvalue . 1.0) the factor analysis resulted in a single factor from the three items. This single factor accounted for 86.38 percent of the total variation. A factor score was then created from these three items to form a single religious belief scale. The factor score loading coefficients were 0.926, 0.915, and 0.947, respectively. This single scale, labeled “intrinsic religiosity” (INT REL) was used in the analysis. With respect to entrepreneurial activity, TEA ranged from highs of 12.2 percent (the US), 11.3 percent (Brazil), 11.1 percent (Chile), and 10.7 percent (Iceland) to lows of 1.9 percent (Hungary), 4.0 percent (Sweden) and 4.4 percent (Belgium). Separating opportunity-based (OPP TEA) from necessity-based early stage entrepreneurship resulted in a high of 10.7 percent (the US) to a low 1.14 percent (Hungary). Other countries that had high opportunity-based early stage entrepreneurial activity were Iceland, Chile, Ireland, and Canada. Low opportunity-based early-stage entrepreneurship countries include Sweden, France, Netherlands, Slovenia, Croatia, and South Africa. Regarding economic growth, again there was wide diversity in the data. Average annual ten year economic growth (GDP) ranged from a high of 8.09 percent (Ireland) to a low of 1.33 percent (Argentina). Mean annual ten year economic growth for the developed economies in our sample was 3.39 percent, with a 3.32 percent mean annual growth rate for the emerging economy countries. Impact on entrepreneurial activity Several different analyses were performed. For reference, Figure 1 shows a graph indicating the relationship between INT REL and TEA for the full sample. Clearly, as hypothesized the trend line points to some type of positive relationship. For a first analysis, the sample was divided into equal sub-groups of high and low “intrinsic” religiosity countries (based on the scale, INT REL). This partition was done for both the full sample and the sub-sample of developed economy countries. With respect to early-stage entrepreneurial activity, there is a statistically significant difference between high and low “intrinsic” religiosity countries. With the sub-sample of developed economies, the results indicate that the high “intrinsic” religiosity countries enjoy a much higher rate of early stage entrepreneurial activity, both in the combined TEA as well as in the level of the early-stage opportunistic entrepreneurial activity (Figure 1). For the TEA metric, high “intrinsic” religiosity

countries have a mean of 7.96 while low belief countries have a mean of 4.85 ( p , 0.01). For opportunity entrepreneurial activity (OPP TEA) similar results are found, with a mean of 6.90 for high “intrinsic” religiosity countries and 4.09 for low “intrinsic” religiosity countries ( p , 0.01) (Figure 2). With the total sample we only examined the TEA. Given that prior research (GEM, 2006) found that the level of necessity- versus opportunity-based entrepreneurships is high correlated (and curvilinear) with GDP, with lower GDP countries having more necessity-based entrepreneurial activity, it was felt that this would confound the results for the pooled sample when examining the impact on opportunity entrepreneurship. However, given that the TEA metric is a combination of opportunity and necessity-based entrepreneurship, the confounding effect should be less for the TEA metric in general. When examining the TEA metric for the combined sample, again the hypothesis is supported that high “intrinsic” religiosity countries show higher levels of entrepreneurial activity than lower belief countries. For high “intrinsic” religiosity countries, TEA was 8.01 while for low “intrinsic” religiosity countries TEA was 5.13 ( p , 0.05). Table I presents the results of a bivariate regression analysis, with both TEA and OPP TEA as the dependent variables and INT REL as the explanatory variable.

Entrepreneurial activity

195

TEA

−2

14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

−1

0

1

2

Figure 1. “Intrinsic” Religiosity (INT REL) v. Entrepreneurial Activity (TEA): Full Sample

INT REL (standardized)

10 TEA, 7.96 8

6

TEA, 4.85

OPP TEA, 6.9

Figure 2. Entrepreneurial activity and religiosity country cluster: developed economies

4 OPP TEA, 4.09 2 Low Intrinsic Religiosity

High Intrinsic Religiosity

JEC 1,2

196

From the regression analysis the relationship between “intrinsic” religiosity and entrepreneurial activity appears both positive and statistically significant. For the full sample, an R 2 of 0.282 was obtained with TEA as the dependent variable. Given the previously established curvilinear relationship between opportunity-based early-stage entrepreneurial activity and per-capita GDP (GEM, 2004, 2006), we did not analyze OPP TEA for the full sample. For the developed economy sub-sample similar results were obtained. For both the TEA and OPP TEA regressions, the estimated coefficient on the “intrinsic” religiosity variable was positive and statistically significant. The explanatory power of the regressions was also high, with R 2 of 0.307 and 0.318, respectively. We also obtained similar results for the regressions using just the emerging economy sub-sample, but sample size limitations (N ¼ 7) were a problem. Overall these results appear very consistent with both Weberian arguments regarding religious belief in general (note, that this analysis did not test the often cited Weberian Protestant v. Catholic hypothesis) as well as the theological arguments regarding the moral aspects of entrepreneurial activity. Impact on GDP growth We then examined mean differences for GDP growth between the equal sub-samples of high and low “intrinsic” religiosity. For the full sample high “intrinsic” religiosity countries had an annual growth rate of 3.56, while low “intrinsic” religiosity countries has an annual growth rage of 3.16 percent ( p , 0.10). This finding is consistent with previous empirical research in developmental economics, such as McCleary and Barro (2006a, b). For the developed economy country sub-sample, high “intrinsic” religiosity countries had an annual growth rate of 3.88, while low “intrinsic” religiosity countries have an annual growth rate of 2.09 percent, however, the difference was not statistically significant. As a final analysis, to determine the combined impact of entrepreneurial activity (which from above, is positively related to “intrinsic” religiosity) plus any additional residual impact of religiosity on GDP growth a regression analysis was performed, with GDP as the dependent variable and INT REL and TEA (or OPP TEA) as explanatory variables. Table II presents the results of this analysis. For the full sample, the estimated model was not statistically significant. However, for the developed economy sub-sample a statistically significant model was estimated. Using INT REL and TEA as explanatory variables, the regression results in an R 2 of 0.295, and INT REL and OPP TEA model resulted in an R 2 of 0.250. In both models the entrepreneurial activity variable was in the hypothesized direction (positive) and Model Independent variables

Table I. Bivariate regressions: entrepreneurial activity and “intrinsic” religiosity

Constant INT REL R2 F N

Full sample TEA 6.67 1.51 * * * 0.283 8.23 23

Developed economies TEA OPP TEA 6.41 1.44 * * 0.307 6.19 16

5.50 1.35 * * * 0.318 6.54 16

Notes: *prob , 0.10 (one-tailed); * *prob , 0.05; * * *prob , 0.01

Emerging economies TEA OPP TEA 5.35 2.64 * 0.338 2.55 7

3.57 1.50 0.223 1.42 7

statistically significant. However, while the INT REL variable was also positive in both models, it was not statistically significant. It should also be noted that a log-linear regression for the developed economies (not shown in Table II) actually produced a slightly more powerful model that the linear models with R 2s of 0.348 and 0.338, respectively. In the log-linear model the entrepreneurial activity variable was again statistically significant (in both models, p , 0.05), while the INT REL model was not statistically significant. Taken together, these findings point to a conclusion that while “intrinsic” religiosity is indeed related to economic growth, the primary relationship may be through the intervening variable of entrepreneurial activity. In other words, higher levels of “intrinsic” religiosity lead to higher levels of entrepreneurial activity, which in turn, is related to economic success. Also, even when controlling for entrepreneurial activity there appears to be the possibility of an additional positive, albeit slight, impact of “intrinsic” religiosity on economic growth. While this last relationship was not statistically significant in our sample, we were limited by a relatively small sample size.

Entrepreneurial activity

197

Conclusions Well-known developmental economists such as Robert Barro and Xavier Sala-i-Martin are increasingly looking to understand economic development within the larger framework of culture, institutions, and societal attitudes. With the emergence of this work there is mounting evidence that at the macro, country-specific level religious beliefs are positively related to economic success. In general, the studies tend to be grounded within a traditional Weberian analysis of religiosity, work, and culture. While these studies have certainly been thought provoking, we argue that four important issues have been largely overlooked in prior attempts to understand the complex calculus between religious belief and economic development. First, given that there is strong evidence from the GEM program that entrepreneurial activity is related to country-specific economic growth, perhaps an important intervening variable in the complex calculus between religious belief and economic development is, in fact, entrepreneurial activity. Second, few (if any) of the published economic and entrepreneurship studies explicitly consider the critical differences between “intrinsic” and “extrinsic” religiosity, and how these different dimensions may effect entrepreneurial activity and economic growth in different ways. Third, the generalizability of surveys, such as the world cultures survey, across different religious Model Independent variables Constant INT REL TEA OPP TEA R2 F N

Full sample GDP growth 2.35 0.01 0.15 – 0.097 1.70 23

Developed economies GDP growth GDP growth 1.58 0.11 0.28 * * – 0.295 4.86 16

Notes: *prob , 0.10 (one-tailed); * *prob , 0.05; * * *prob , 0.01

1.93 0.16 – 0.27 * 0.250 2.16 16

Table II. Regressions: entrepreneurial activity, “intrinsic” religiosity, and GDP growth

JEC 1,2

198

traditions, is somewhat suspect. This is particularly an issue since there is strong evidence that the moralities, behaviors, and attitudes derived from a strong religious history are inevitability incorporated into the more secular institutions of the modern world. Fourth, the theological foundations of economic activity tend to go well beyond the well-cited work of Max Weber. Much greater understanding of the historical context of work, entrepreneurial behaviors, and market morality is needed to fully understand the impact of religious beliefs and moral behavior on modern economics. The empirical study presented in this paper attempts to address all four of these issues. Given the concern about generalizability across different religious traditions, we focused on a cross-section sample of 23 historically “Christian” countries. Two conclusions can be drawn. First, while “intrinsic” religiosity does appear positively related to economic growth, entrepreneurial activity measured by both total early-stage entrepreneurial activity and opportunity-based entrepreneurial activity is a critical intervening component. Thus, “intrinsic” religiosity is highly related to entrepreneurial activity, and this, in turn probably leads to economic success. Second, after statistically controlling for entrepreneurial activity, there does still seem to be an additional positive impact of “intrinsic” religiosity on economic growth. However, at least in our sample, this additional residual impact of religiosity beyond entrepreneurial behavior appears relatively small, and not statistically significant. A possible explanation for this finding is that in pre-modern times, most work activities incorporated strong elements of entrepreneurial reward. The percentage of the work force made up by entrepreneurial farmers, prospectors, new world immigrants, explorers, shippers, traders, craft workers, and merchants was much greater in the pre-industrial period. In fact, almost all pre-industrial revolution work incorporated critical entrepreneurial elements. Even work not usually associated with entrepreneurship, such as feudal farming, wild west law enforcement, medieval tax collecting and administration, renaissance trade apprenticing, age of exploration soldering, Caribbean pirating, and post-slavery share-cropping, involved opportunistic self-initiative, profit accruing incentives, and risk assumption. After the industrial revolution, however, many of the entrepreneurial incentives in the normal work life were removed, and replaced with the commodities of labor and capital. In particular, the commoditization of labor was later institutionalized in the welfare based, unionized semi-socialist economies of many modern developed economies, such as in much of Europe. Under these conditions, two things might happen. First, the only economic outlet for a strong work morality may lie in actually “starting a business” since unionization and socialized economics create a disincentive for distinct individual effort within a labor-based work environment. Second, for those not able to “start a business” a shifting of work energies to other life activities, such as household services, may be occurring. By these arguments not much additional correlation between “intrinsic” religiosity and economic growth beyond that explained by the TEA and OPP TEA measures might be expected, particularly in many developed countries. There are clearly several limitations to our study. First, many countries were not included in our analysis. Not only were all non-Christian countries excluded by design, but also due to the limitations of our data sources, many predominantly “Christian” countries were also excluded. Thus, our data can only be considered a sample of the over 80 predominately “Christian” countries in the world. While our sample does

contain Western European, Eastern European, South American, African, and North American countries, and included both emerging and developed economies, our results may not be generalizable to the larger population. In addition, we did not investigate the interaction of religiosity with other measures of culture. Finally, by design we only investigated the dimension of “intrinsic” religiosity, and did not specifically consider the “extrinsic” religiosity dimension. With these limits in mind, however, we believe that our study raises several intriguing issues regarding the interaction between religious belief structure, entrepreneurial activity, and economic growth. Certainly much more work is needed, particularly in the area of casual modeling the critical relationships, and providing much stronger theoretical foundations to explain the emerging empirical trends. References Allport, G. (1966), “The religious context of prejudice”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 447-57. Allport, G. and Ross, J. (1967), “Personal religious orientation and prejudice”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 432-43. Baeck, L. (1999), The Legal and Scholastic Roots of Leonardus Lessius’s Economic Thought, Publication No.37, Storia del Pensiero Economico, Dipartimento di scienze economiche dell’Universita` di Firenze, Florence, available at: www.cce.unifi.it/dse/spe/rivista.htm (accessed 1 March, 2007). Barro, R. (2003), “Religion and economic growth”, Paper 9682, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA. Barro, R. and McCleary, R. (2003), “Religion and economic growth across countries”, American Sociological Review, Vol. 63, pp. 760-81. Barro, R. and Sala-i-Martin, X. (2004), Economic Growth, 2nd ed., MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Bergin, A. (1991), “Values and religious issues in psychotherapy and mental health”, American Psychologist, Vol. 46, pp. 394-403. Brooks, A. (2006), Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth about Compassionate Conservatism, Basic Books, New York, NY. Candland, C. (2000), “Faith as social capital: religion and community development in Southern Asia”, Policy Development, Vol. 33 Nos 3/4, pp. 355-74. Dana, L. and Galbraith, C. (2006), “Poverty, developing entrepreneurship and aid economics in Mozambique: a review of empirical research”, in Galbraith, C. and Stiles, C. (Eds), Developmental Entrepreneurship: Adversity, Risk, and Isolation, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 187-201. De Noble, A., Galbraith, C., Singh, G. and Stiles, C. (2007), “Market justice, religious orientation, and entrepreneurial attitudes”, Journal of Enterprising Communities, Vol. 1 No. 2. Demsetz, H. (1967), “Toward a theory of property rights”, The American Economic Review, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 347-59. Deutschmann, C. (2001), “Capitalism as a religion?: An unorthodox analysis of entrepreneurship”, European Journal of Social Theory, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 387-403. Dodd, S. and Seaman, P. (1998), “Religion and enterprise: an introductory exploration”, Entrepreneurship: Theory and Practice, Fall, pp. 71-86. Donahue, M. (1985), “Intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness: review and meta-analysis”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 48 No. 2, pp. 400-19.

Entrepreneurial activity

199

JEC 1,2

200

Galbraith, C. and Galbraith, O. (2004), The Benedictine Rule of Leadership, Adams Media, Avon, MA. Galbraith, C. and Stiles, C. (Eds) (2006), Developmental Entrepreneurship: Adversity, Risk, and Isolation, Elsevier, Amsterdam. Galbraith, C., Stiles, C. and Benitez-Bertheau, J. (2004), “The embryonic development of an ethnic neighborhood: a longitudinal case study of entrepreneurial activity”, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 95-113. Garvey, G. (2003), “The theory of the firm, managerial responsibility, and catholic social teaching”, Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 525-40. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2004), 2004 Executive Report, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Babson, MA. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2006), GEM 2006 Results, Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Babson, MA. Gold, L. (2003), “The roots of the focolare movement’s economic ethic”, Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 6 No. 10, pp. 143-59. Gorsuch, R. and McPherson, S. (1989), “Intrinsic/extrinsic measurement: I/E revised and single-item scales”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 28, pp. 348-54. Guiso, L., Sapienza, P. and Zingales, L. (2003), “People’s opium? Religion and economic attitudes”, Journal of Monetary Economics, Vol. 50 No. 1, pp. 225-82. Harris, K. (2003), “Spirituality and religiousness: defining concepts in psychotherapy”, paper presented at poster session, 2003 Mid-Winter Research Conference on Religion and Spirituality, Timonium, MD, available at: www.kevinharris.s5.com/DefConceptEssay. html (accessed 12 January 2004). Hill, P. and Hood, R. (Eds) (1999), Measures of Religiosity, Religious Education Press, Birmingham, AL. Hill, P., Pargament, K., Hood, R., McCullough, M., Swyers, J., Larson, D. and Zinnbauer, B. (2000), “Conceptualizing religion and spirituality: points of commonality, points of departure”, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Vol. 30, pp. 51-77. Hirschmeier, J. (1964), The Origins of Entrepreneurship in Meiji Japan, Harvard University Press, Boston, MA. Hodge, D. (2003), “The intrinsic spirituality scale: a new six-item instrument for assessing the salience of spirituality as a motivational construct”, Journal of Social Service Research, Vol. 30 No. 1, pp. 41-61. Inglehard, R. and Baker, W. (2000), “Modernization, cultural change, and the persistence of traditional values”, American Sociological Review, February, pp. 19-51. Iyer, G. (1999), “The impact of religion and reputation in the organization of Indian merchant communities”, Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 14, pp. 102-17. Kahoe, R. (1974), “Personality and achievement correlates of intrinsic and extrinsic religious orientations”, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 29, pp. 812-8. Klay, R. and Lunn, J. (2003), “The relations of god’s providence to market economics and economic theory”, Journal of Markets & Morality, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 541-64. Kwon, V. (1997), Entrepreneurship and Religion: Korean Immigrants, Taylor & Francis, London. Landes, D. (1999), The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some are So Rich and Some So Poor, Norton, New York, NY.

McCleary, R. and Barro, R. (2006a), “Religion and economy”, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 49-72. McCleary, R. and Barro, R. (2006b), “Religion and political economy in an international panel”, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 45 No. 2, pp. 149-75. Martes, A. and Rodriguez, C. (2004), Church Membership, Social Capital, and Entrepreneurship in Brazilian Communities in the US, in Stiles, C. and Galbraith, C. (Eds), Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Structure and Process, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 171-202. Piedmont, R. and Leach, M. (2002), “Cross-cultural generalizability of the spiritual transcendence scale in India: spirituality as a universal aspect of human experience”, American Behavioral Scientist, Vol. 45, pp. 1888-901. Rathbard, M. (1995), Economic Thought Before Adam Smith, Edward Elgar, New York, NY. Rose, S. (2001), “Is the term ‘spirituality’ a word that everyone uses, but nobody knows what anyone means by it?”, Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 16, pp. 193-207. Van de Ruit, C. (2001), “Micro-finance, donor roles and influence and the pro-poor agenda: the cases of South Africa and Mozambique”, draft working paper, University of Kwazulu-Natal, Durban. Winter, J. (1974), “Quantitative studies of the applicability of the weber thesis to post-world war II USA: a call for redirected efforts”, Review of Religions Research, Vol. 16, pp. 47-58. Woodrum, E. (1985), “Religion and economics among Japanese Americans: a Weberian study”, Social Forces, Vol. 64 No. 1, pp. 191-203. Further reading Dollahite, D. (1998), “Fathering, faith and spirituality”, Journal of Men’s Studies, Vol. 7, pp. 3-15. About the authors Craig S. Galbraith is a Professor of Entrepreneurship and Technology at the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington. His research interests include the impact of institutions, technology, and social capital on entrepreneurial activity in high risk situations. Craig S. Galbraith is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: [email protected] Devon M. Galbraith is an Instructor at the Cameron School of Business, University of North Carolina Wilmington. Her research interests are in the areas of human resource management and accounting information systems within small to medium sized enterprises. E-mail: [email protected]

To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: [email protected] Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints

Entrepreneurial activity

201

JEC 1,2

202

Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy Vol. 1 No. 2, 2007 pp. 202-203 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1750-6204

Book review Global South Asians: Introducing the Modern Diaspora (New Approaches to Asian History) J.M. Brown Cambridge University Press New York, NY 2006 Keywords South Asia, Religion, Culture, Ethnography Review DOI 10.1108/17506200710752610 As the title of this book suggests, people from South Asia have migrated to a number of different countries throughout the world and this migration has significantly influenced international entrepreneurship. Judith Brown in this book describes the influence of South Asians in the world economy. Most of the South Asians who have migrated come from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan and it is their culture and in particularly their religion that has influenced their business activities. This book is divided into five chapters with an introduction and conclusion also included. The first chapter is on the traditions of stability and movement of South Asians. The author highlights that religion is a dynamic force that has influenced in particularly Indian migration. Indian Muslims are involved in networks that encourage education and it is through these networks that their global business activities especially in the areas of exporting and importing have flourished. The second chapter is on the making of a modern diaspora. The author discusses that this diaspora is heavily influenced by religion in terms of migrants returning to their homeland to marry and to be buried. A discussion on the changing nature of the diaspora of South Asians in terms of how religion influences everyday life is addressed. For example, there is a growing number of businesses that are focusing on religious aspects such as promoting the use of halal meat in their products. Chapter 3 discusses how global South Asians have created new homes and communities. Religion has provided a supporting institutional framework that has enabled businesses to export their products and services to South Asia. In particular, jewellery, cooking ingredients and travel to South Asia have been reliant on religion to support their growth. The author highlights that there is a strong connection between religion and culture that stems from South Asia no matter whether a person is Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Jains or Parsis. Chapter 4 examines how global South Asians relate to their new homeland. The author discusses the experience of South Asian women in the diaspora in terms of religion and the traditions that they pass onto their children. Chapter 5 discusses how global South Asians relate to the old homeland. This chapter is interesting as it provides unique commentary on how South Asians living outside their homeland keep their religious traditions alive in an environment often very different to that from which they grew up. This link with religion is often an identifying force that enables business contacts and networks to be made

throughout the world. The book highlights that many South Asians left their homeland to seek business opportunities but religion is the strongest factor that ties them and their descendents to their homeland. Whilst many books have examined historically South Asia, this book focuses on the important topic of creating a modern diaspora. Given the huge influence that South Asian food, movies and culture have had on the world, it is important to realise the role of religion behind these activities. There is a gap in the existing research on the role of religion and entrepreneurship so this book adds to this important discussion in the literature. It would have been useful to include more commentary on the role of religion and how it has explicitly influenced business activities in the diaspora. However, as the author implies, the role of religion in business is often taken for granted rather than specifically studied. This book provides for very interesting reading for scholars interested in ethnic, indigenous and international entrepreneurship. The book also highlights the important role of communities in fostering entrepreneurial activities. Vanessa Ratten The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Book review

203