Theses and Dissertations

Advisor

Chrisman, James

Committee Member

Kofford, Steve

Committee Member

Arteaga-Fonseca, Jorge

Committee Member

Xu, Eric

Date of Degree

8-12-2026

Original embargo terms

Immediate Worldwide Access

Document Type

Dissertation - Open Access

Major

Business Administration (Management)

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

College

College of Business

Department

Department of Management and Information Systems

Abstract

A large majority of the world is religious. Indeed, religion has long been considered as one of the most influential institutions. However, religion’s influence on economic outcomes—and specifically entrepreneurship—has received only scant attention. In my dissertation, I first draw from New Institutional Economics to develop a mechanism-based framework explaining the specific pathways through which national rates of religious affiliation influence entrepreneurial activity. I then test the direct and indirect relationships between national rates of various religions and entrepreneurial activity. I find a positive relationship between rates of Christian affiliation and entrepreneurial activity and a negative relationship between Islamic affiliation and entrepreneurial activity. In sum, this dissertation furthers the literature by providing a theoretical framework that explains how and why institutional religious characteristics influence entrepreneurial activity, in addition to providing empirical evidence of the relationships between various religions and entrepreneurial activity.

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