Originally published as Journal of Enterprising Communities: People and Places in the Global Economy, Volume 1, Issue 2
Guest Edited by: Craig S. Galbraith, University of North Carolina – Wilmington
ISBN: 978 1 84663 474 1
The issue of religious belief and its role in economic activity, entrepreneurial behaviour, attitudes toward work and capital, and the formation of markets has been generally ignored throughout the disciplines of management and economics.
This Special Issue illustrates the increasing efforts to understand the complex calculus between the forces that frame economic and firm behaviour and the cultural and moral foundations that emanate from our notions of religion, spirituality and belief.
Contents:
Market justice, religious orientation, and entrepreneurial attitudes: an empirical study
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 thought-provoking finding: individuals who 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 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.
Ifa, the deity of wisdom, and importance of work among the Yoruba people
Takes the reader on a fascinating case study of the Yoruba people of Nigeria, and the fundamental importance that 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 behaviours.
A humility-based enterprising community: the Amish people in Lancaster County
Offers an ethnographic analysis of the Amish people, and highlights the issues confronting any well-established ethnic community that has strong religious and moral standards defining its economic activities.
The overlooked rugged communitarians of 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.
Religion and entrepreneurship in New Zealand
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.
The modern Weberian thesis: a short review of the literature
This paper 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, and examines some of the more important, post-1950 Weberian-based empirical research that has been published throughout the world.
An empirical note on entrepreneurial activity, intrinsic religiosity and economic growth
While the global connection between economic development and religious belief has been 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. The authors of the final paper specifically investigate the mitigating effect of entrepreneurship, and the impact religious belief has upon entrepreneurial activity.
About the Journal of Enterprising Communities:
People and Places in the Global Economy
The Journal of Enterprising Communities considers enterprise, people and places - a topic critical to the global economy as it is evolving. Increasingly the events critical to the sustainable prosperity of people (culturally, socially, economically and environmentally), are being played out at the nexus of the local or the community (people in places) and the transnational (corporations, groups and movements of the civil sector, and supranational organizations and agreements).
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