Three essays on the relationship between Islamic institutions and entrepreneurship

Abstract

This thesis researches the influence of Islamic institutions on aspects of the entrepreneurial phenomenon. It draws from institutional theory and social psychology and contributes to the scholarly study of religion and entrepreneurship. It comprises three papers that examine different facets of the entrepreneurial phenomenon in an Islamic institutional context. The first paper affords a critical review of the cognate literature, to unpack the intricacies of the relationship between Islamic institutions and entrepreneurship – typically eclipsed under one-dimensional treatments of the relationship. Focusing on the cognitive pillar, the second paper discusses how Islamic institutions affect the phenomenon of overcoming doubt during the process of entrepreneurial opportunity belief formation. The third paper examines how Muslim entrepreneurs make sense of failure in light of Islamic cognitive institutions. The first paper is conceptual and analyses the literature from the standpoint of institutional theory. The second and third papers are informed from in-depth interviews with 35 Muslim entrepreneurs from Oman. Overall, the thesis demonstrates that religion is an important element of the community fabric that can materially influence entrepreneurial decision-making and sense-making by shedding light on the nuances of the process.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Efstratios Ramoglou: orcid.org/0000-0001-5134-5525

ORCID for Vadim Grinevich: orcid.org/0000-0002-3207-3680

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