Religion and Entrepreneurial Exits: Divine Attributions and Eternal Time-frames

Abstract

This conceptual study, drawing upon the literature on causal attributions and time perspectives, explores how religion may influence entrepreneurs’ decisions to exit ventures. Religious beliefs and principles will likely shift entrepreneurs’ (a) causal attributions of success and failure from internal or external loci to a third locus of causality, i.e., the divine, and (b) temporal depths from weeks, months, or years to eternity. Such shifts may, in turn, influence entrepreneurial exits through the nonmarket logic of religion, with contemplative practices acting as the underlying mechanism. Using the context of Jainism, a minority religion – originating in India – characterized by self-employed adherents and a seeming paradox between austerity and ostentation, this study develops propositions that relate religion to business exits.