1 Religious beliefs and entrepreneurship among Dutch protestants Cornelius A. Rietveld 1 and Elco van Burg 2 1 Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Department of Management and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract: Religious beliefs affect the economic behavior of individuals. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between religious beliefs and entrepreneurship. Empirical evidence that entrepreneurship rates differ among religions suggests that religious beliefs influence the pursuit of entrepreneurship. However, how and which specific religious beliefs play a role in this relationship remains unknown. Therefore, we study the relation between two key religious beliefs and entrepreneurship within one specific branch of Christianity, namely, Protestantism. Using a unique sample of 756 Christian protestant entrepreneurs and employees from the Netherlands, we show that protestant entrepreneurs have a stronger belief than comparable protestant employees that their work is a calling from God and that protestant entrepreneurs are more likely to perceive a duty to add value to society through their occupational work. These results indicate that research on the relation between religion and entrepreneurship is instrumental in explaining the engagement of people in entrepreneurship. JEL codes: L26, Z12, Z13 Keywords: Entrepreneurship, religion, Christianity, Protestantism, beliefs Corresponding author: Cornelius A. Rietveld, Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected], tel.: +31104088935, fax: +31104089141
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Religious beliefs and entrepreneurship among Dutch
protestants
Cornelius A. Rietveld1 and Elco van Burg2
1Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2Department of Management and Organization, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Abstract: Religious beliefs affect the economic behavior of individuals. The aim of this study is to investigate the relation between religious beliefs and entrepreneurship. Empirical evidence that entrepreneurship rates differ among religions suggests that religious beliefs influence the pursuit of entrepreneurship. However, how and which specific religious beliefs play a role in this relationship remains unknown. Therefore, we study the relation between two key religious beliefs and entrepreneurship within one specific branch of Christianity, namely, Protestantism. Using a unique sample of 756 Christian protestant entrepreneurs and employees from the Netherlands, we show that protestant entrepreneurs have a stronger belief than comparable protestant employees that their work is a calling from God and that protestant entrepreneurs are more likely to perceive a duty to add value to society through their occupational work. These results indicate that research on the relation between religion and entrepreneurship is instrumental in explaining the engagement of people in entrepreneurship.
Corresponding author: Cornelius A. Rietveld, Department of Applied Economics, Erasmus School of Economics, Erasmus University Rotterdam, P.O. Box 1738, 3000 DR, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, [email protected], tel.: +31104088935, fax: +31104089141
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1. Introduction
Religion shapes values, beliefs and behavior and thus economic behavior and
decision making (Iannaccone, 1998; Lehrer, 2004). Many studies have shown that a
link exists between religion and economic development, although the results are
inconclusive. Research shows that religion has both positive and negative effects on
indicators of economic welfare and growth (Chiswick, 1983, 1993; Grier, 1985;
Tomes, 1985; Heath et al., 1995; Steen, 1996; Barro and McCleary, 2003; Lipford and
Tollison, 2003; Mangeloja, 2005; Bettendorf and Dijkgraaf, 2010). These divergent
findings seem to result from heterogeneity in analyzed countries, regions, and
religions. Barro and McCleary (2003) conjecture that stronger religious beliefs—
relative to mere religious group membership—drive growth because such beliefs
promote enduring aspects of individual behavior that increase productivity. Moreover,
Guiso, Sapienza and Zingales (2003) find that religious beliefs are associated with
higher per capita income and growth. Therefore, we study the link between religious
beliefs and entrepreneurship as a specific contributor to economic growth (Audretsch
et al., 2006; Carree and Thurik, 2003).
Religion and related beliefs are argued to shape entrepreneurship (Dodd and
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8. Tables & Figures
Table 1. Framework to study the relation between religion and entrepreneurship and current studies on this topic. Micro Macro Within one religion Current study
Table 2. Descriptive statistics of the sample. Mean values are reported, and standard deviations are given in parentheses. The p-values for differences between non-entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs are calculated using the Pearson Ȥ2 test for categorical data. Total Sample Non-
ERIM Report Series Research in ManagementERIM Report Series reference number ERS–2013–015–STRDate of publication 2013–10–10Version 10–10–2013Number of pages 22Persistent URL for paper http://hdl.handle.net/1765/41554
Email address corresponding author [email protected] Erasmus Research Institute of Management
(ERIM)RSM Erasmus University / Erasmus Schoolof EconomicsErasmus University RotterdamPO Box 17383000 DR Rotterdam, The NetherlandsPhone: +31104081182Fax: +31104089640Email: [email protected]: http://www.erim.eur.nl
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