Abstract
This article investigates the influence of entrepreneurs’ religious beliefs on entrepreneurial career persistence, with altruism as a mediating mechanism at the psychological level. Based on the theory of role boundary permeability, we propose that the moral values contained in entrepreneurs’ religious beliefs permeate into their entrepreneurial domain, making them more altruistic. Using a unique longitudinal, multilevel dataset derived from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we tested our hypotheses on 4,848 observations of entrepreneurs’ career persistence spanning three consecutive two-year periods (2012−2014, 2014−2016, and 2016−2018) using multilevel logistic regression. Our findings show that religious beliefs enhance entrepreneurial altruism and subsequently increase the probability of entrepreneurial career persistence. More broadly, our study provides new insights into the psychological-level mechanisms at work in the entrepreneurial practice of religious entrepreneurs, adding an important new explanation to the limited research on how religion matters for entrepreneurship.
| Originalsprog | Engelsk |
|---|---|
| Tidsskrift | Journal of Small Business Management |
| Vol/bind | 62 |
| Udgave nummer | 5 |
| Sider (fra-til) | 2638-2669 |
| ISSN | 0047-2778 |
| DOI | |
| Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Bibliografisk note
Funding Information:We identified a sample of entrepreneurs from the CFPS project sponsored by the Institute of Social Science Survey of Peking University. CFPS adopts a stratified sampling method, and the sample is distributed across 25 provinces/cities/autonomous regions in North China, Northeast China, East China, South China, Southwest China, and Northwest China (excluding Tibet, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang, and Inner Mongolia). It is a large-scale national social tracking survey, with representation in terms of economic development and geographical location (Xie & Hu, ; Xie & Lu, ). CFPS is a longitudinal survey with follow-ups conducted every second year. The first wave was done in 2010, with follow-up surveys performed in 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. The data reflect changes in Chinese society and culture, as well as the economy and health trends. The CFPS questionnaire includes community, family, adult, and child components that capture personal information about such matters as personal career choice, education, family status, and cognitive characteristics. All data include individuals embedded in families and embedded in communities, providing a unique longitudinal, multilevel dataset.
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© 2023 International Council for Small Business.