A Faith-based Entrepreneurial Sensemaking Lens: Empowerment, Risk, and Agency

Abstract

Starting a business is an endeavour that requires the ability to identify an opportunity, match the necessary resources and manage the uncertainty and risk associated with doing so. Using a qualitative methodology, we explore the role that faith plays in this new venture creation as regards Christian entrepreneurs in South Africa and how it affects their sensemaking process. We find that that their faith influences the entrepreneurial sensemaking process in complex ways and demonstrate the formation of a shared sense of agency between God and the entrepreneur - a paradox of agency. This agency shifts from the entrepreneur in the creation phase to a faith-aligned agency over time, which helps mitigate identity conflict and uncertainty. We demonstrate the dynamics and webs of association between the economic and the social realms both in terms of the initial decision-making process but also the entrepreneurs' desire for both an economic and social impact.