Breaking with Dogma: Unorthodox Consumption Patterns and Women's Labor Market Outcomes in Turkey

Using information about household consumption data from TURKSTAT's Household Surveys for 2007–13 as a sign of religious unorthodoxy, this study explores the effect of religion on women's labor force and educational participation in a Muslim-majority country, Turkey. A household is categorized as “unorthodox” if its members report that they consume goods that contradict conservative Sunni practices, such as alcohol. This information is then used in female labor force participation estimations. Results show that living in an unorthodox household has a positive and highly significant effect on the probability of married women's labor market participation. For single women, the estimations provide weaker evidence regarding the positive effect of unorthodoxy on the probability of participation in education and the labor force. The study concludes that protection of the rights to follow unorthodox practices in society may bear positive implications with regard to women's agency.     

Thresholds: A model of religious governance and evolution

Religious organizations set thresholds of belief and behavior required of their members. In a simple model of individual religious behavior, this paper shows that if a religion denies the benefits of membership to those who fall short of the threshold, it stands to gain an increase in compliance with its rules by forcing members to the edge of defection, hence the incentive to set the thresholds strategically. When members’ compliance costs are private information, the model yields several regimes: a pooling contract if costs are close enough to each other, a separating contract if costs are different enough, and an expulsion solution if the proportion of high-cost types in the total membership is too low. Changes in costs and in membership composition trigger changes in thresholds and switches between regimes, thus providing a model of religious governance and evolution. We then review the history of sectarianism in the three monotheistic religions and show that the model can help account for the basic differences between them as well as explain the historical evolution of dogmas and behavioral rules within each of them. A specialized case study focuses on the evolution of Catholic religious orders.     

The causal effect of religious piety on shareholder wealth: evidence from acquirer returns and historical religious identification

Prior research shows that religion promotes honesty. Honesty in turn motivates managers to view an expropriation from shareholders as self-serving, opportunistic and unethical, thereby alleviating the agency conflict. Religious piety is thus expected to discourage agency-driven acquisitions that reduce shareholder wealth. We exploit the variation in religious piety across US counties (and states) and show that firms located in a more religious environment are indeed less likely to make poor acquisitions, measured by the stock market reactions to the acquisition announcement. To draw a causal inference, we use historical religious piety as far back as 1952 as our instrument. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis confirms that religious piety induces firms to make better acquisitions. Our analysis based on propensity score matching also corroborates the conclusion.     

A Universal Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants： Religious Restrictions

The International Federation of Accountants （IFAC） has emerged as a worldwide organization to help bring about international convergence with regard to professional standards, including standards governing ethics. The IFAC has issued a Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants for use by accountants members of the IFAC around the world. This study extends prior research about the variables that could block the possibility of adopting the universal single code of ethics proposed by the IFAC. In particular, this study analyses the influence of the dominant religious affiliation of the country to which the accounting organization belongs on the decision to adopt the IFAC Code. Data about 165 accounting bodies, members of IFAC, from 125 countries has been obtained from the IFAC Member Body Compliance Program. The results of our study show that to date, not all the accounting organizations members of the IFAC have adopted the Code. Further, results reveal that religion is a significant factor in the decision to adopt IFAC Code of Ethics. In particular, the study demonstrates that the national accounting organizations belonging to countries where the predominant religion is Christianity are more prone to adopt the IFAC Code of Ethics as their own. This paper contributes to the knowledge of the current state of ethical harmonization for the accounting profession. Moreover, an understanding of the religious restrictions provides guidelines to the international accounting organizations for an effective implementation of the ethical standards worldwide.     

Periodicals Received

Chapter 7 is designed for debtors who do not have the ability to pay their existing debts and many times leads to a legal release of most debt. Chapter 13 is designed for debtors who have the ability to pay all or part of their debts in installments over a period of time. Bankruptcy research finds that the southern region of the USA has a significantly higher portion of Chapter 13 filings than the rest of the country, unexplainable by quantifiable demographic, legal, or economic differences. Our results suggest that religion is the driving force behind the abnormally high Chapter 13 filings in the southern USA.     

Tourism: a sacred journey? The case of ashram tourism,India

Religious tourism — tourism that is motivated by faith or religious reasons — has been in evidence for centuries. In more recent times, however, it has been suggested that modern tourism has become the functional and symbolic equivalent of more traditional religious practices, such as festivals and pilgrimages. In other words, it is claimed by some that tourism is a sacred journey. To date, however, little work has been undertaken to explore this position; the purpose of this paper, therefore, is to contribute to this debate. Based on an exploratory study, it considers the motivations and experiences of Western tourists visiting the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the nearby utopian township of Auroville in Pondicherry, south east India. It identifies two principal groups of visitors, namely ‘permanent tourists’ who have immersed themselves indefinitely in a spiritual ‘Other’, and temporary visitors. The latter are categorised into sub‐groups which point to a variety of spiritual and non‐spiritual motives. The paper concludes that there is a continuum of spirituality inherent in tourism, though this is related to tourists' experience rather than initial motivation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The international expansion of religious organizations in Africa

The marketing of religion remains a large research area to explore, simply because the studies that have been conducted are mostly applications of a marketing mix to the religious offer. In the context of globalization, it is surprising that the internationalization of religious organizations remains an uncovered subject because Christian religions have a biblical mission to become international. This paper explores the phenomenon of the internationalization of religious organizations in order to better understand their preferred expansion modes in Ivory Coast, since Western evangelist Christian communities in West Africa have flourished in recent decades. The current analysis allows us to draw a conclusion that the process of religious expansion is truly the result of a strategic reflection supported by marketing tools and communication. This emphasizes the role of marketing as a leverage for profit and nonprofit organizations, as well as its growing importance as a means for appealing to the masses among new Christian communities of Third World countries. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

当前大学生宗教信仰问题原因探析——基于沈阳工业大学的调查分析

本文根据对大学生信教的现状及特征进行分析,在此基础上,提出大学生宗教信仰归根于社会环境的急剧变化;家庭因素的不利影响;自我心理因素的制约;个人科学信仰的缺失;教育手段方式的落后;宗教文化的魅力吸引六方面原因。     

Academy of Marketing Conference 2002 The Marketing Landscape: Signposts for the Future

Abstract

This paper addresses previous calls for research to investigate the relationship between acculturation, consumption, and religion. Specifically, this paper argues that previous research investigating these relationships amongst ethnic minorities may have deliberately ignored religious differences for convenience. This paper investigates Indians living in Britain, drawn from India's three main religions: Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism. Using an ethno-consumerist framework, we interviewed sixteen, second-generation Indian women living in Britain, who were matched in terms of their acculturation, socio-economic backgrounds, and level of religiosity. The data analysis showed subtle but important divergences between the religions, with Hindu participants' religion having little influence on their consumption, whilst Sikh participants consumed products that affirmed an ethnic rather than religious identity. In contrast, Muslim participants consumed products that they felt rejected their Indian cultural identity and affirmed their British and Muslim identities. A number of marketing findings and limitations are presented.     

Religious and Economic Preferences: An Empirical Analysis of State Tax Rates and Public Spending

In an attempt to examine the role of religion and religious institutions in the formation of economic and political preferences, we empirically test the relationship between religious and economic variables in the context of the 50 US states. Specifically, we test whether changes in the religious composition of states over time influences state tax rates (public revenue), and state spending patterns (public expenditure). We use church membership rates and religious contributions as alternative measures of a state's religiosity level. The results report a weak relationship between state tax rates and the religiosity of the state population over time. However, a negative relationship was observed between religiosity and public welfare spending, and a positive relationship between religiosity and public education spending. Variations arise when Catholics are included in the analysis of public spending.