Purpose

Previous studies have shown how the nature of businesses and the strategies pursued by their owners are affected by the personality traits of their owners. These personality traits can be formed in the early stages of life due to experiences and the surrounding context, where religion is a particularly important aspect of this context. This study aims to explore how religion affects entrepreneurial activities through the personality traits created.

Design/methodology/approach

This study uses interviews with 43 Muslim entrepreneurs in Scotland to examine the role played by religion. This ensures that the national institutional context is kept consistent but also allows an in-depth examination of relationships, which are likely to be interlinked and recursive.

Findings

The traits created influence the nature of the entrepreneurial activities undertaken with the potential to harm and support the entrepreneurial endeavours. It is the combination of personality traits that are formed which have the greatest effect. As such, it is found that Muslim entrepreneurs display less openness and creativity associated with new ideas, but this does not reflect risk aversion rather hard work in itself is valued, and patience combined with an external locus of control mean entrepreneurial behaviours are not altered to boost poorly performing business activities.

Originality/value

For Muslim entrepreneurs in Scotland, their traits explain why growth may not be a foremost consideration of these entrepreneurs rather they may value hard work and meeting the ideals of formal and informal institutions associated with religion. For those seeking to support minority groups through the promotion of entrepreneurship, either they must seek to overcome these ingrained traits or alter support to complement the different objectives held by Muslim entrepreneurs.

中文翻译：

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宗教、人格特质和创业活动的本质：苏格兰穆斯林企业家的见解

目的

先前的研究表明，企业的性质及其所有者所追求的战略如何受到其所有者的个性特征的影响。这些人格特征可以在生命的早期阶段由于经历和周围环境而形成，其中宗教是这种环境中特别重要的一个方面。本研究旨在探讨宗教如何通过创造的人格特质影响创业活动。

设计/方法论/途径

本研究通过对苏格兰 43 名穆斯林企业家的采访来考察宗教所扮演的角色。这确保了国家机构背景保持一致，但也允许深入审查可能相互关联和递归的关系。

发现

所创造的特征会影响所进行的创业活动的性质，并有可能损害和支持创业努力。它是所形成的具有最大影响的人格特质的组合。因此，我们发现穆斯林企业家对新想法表现出较少的开放性和创造力，但这并不反映厌恶风险，而是重视努力工作本身，而耐心与外部控制点相结合意味着企业家行为不会改变促进表现不佳的商业活动。

原创性/价值

对于苏格兰的穆斯林企业家来说，他们的特征解释了为什么增长可能不是这些企业家的首要考虑因素，而是他们可能重视努力工作并满足与宗教相关的正式和非正式制度的理想。对于那些寻求通过促进创业精神来支持少数群体的人来说，他们要么必须设法克服这些根深蒂固的特征，要么改变支持以补充穆斯林企业家所持有的不同目标。