International Journal of Management and Commerce Innovations ISSN 2348-7585 (Online) Vol. 7, Issue 2, pp: (461-468), Month: October 2019 - March 2020, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Islamic Entrepreneurship: Issues and Debates 1
1
Tayeb Mebroui, 2Aissa Mosbah
Al-Madinah International University in Malaysia
2
Management & Science University in Malaysia
Abstract: In this paper we explored Islamic Entrepreneurship (IE); a phenomenon gaining momentum in the academic circle in recent times. In particular, we looked at the following 3 aspects: definition, issues, and debates on the role of Islam. First, in contrary to what many may think of it, IE refers to entrepreneurial initiatives that obey Sharia. Thus, IE is different from Muslim entrepreneurship (abbreviated as Muslipreneurship). Although the latter phenomenon is sometimes addressed within the Islamic frame, the Islamic part applies to the owner/entrepreneurs status but not to the enterprise actions and strategies. Being a Muslim business owner does not necessarily mean the business is Sharia compliant. Both the entrepreneur behaviours and the enterprise actions and strategies must conform Sharia. Second, the issues that surround IE can be categorized into perceptual issues, practical issues and academic issues. Third, the role of Islam in entrepreneurship, and the economy in general, in Muslim countries has surged a debate that can be summarized in two different views. The first believes that Islam supports entrepreneurship whereas the second view claims that Islam, rather, discourage entrepreneurship. The paper also discusses the missing link between the distinct views. Keywords: Islam, entrepreneurship, catalyst, barrier, business, issue, view.
1. INTRODUCTION Numerous studies have recognized the importance of entrepreneurship in the socio-economic life of societies. Entrepreneurship leads to wealth creation, unemployment reduction, revenues generation, economic growth, innovation, industrial competition and increase in consumer choices. The determinants of this phenomenon, on the other hand, are various and can be categorized into six types: entrepreneur-related factors, firm-related factors, firm strategy factors, environmental factors, institutional factors, and cultural factors. Religion, as key component of culture, is considered a driving force that that impact entrepreneurship (Pistrui and Fahed-Sreih, 2010; Zelekha et al., 2014, Gursoy et al., 2017, Audretsch et al., 2007, 2013; David and Lawal, 2018). In fact, religion in organisations and management studies did not receive much study (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2015). While Dodd and Seaman (1998) describe the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship as complex, they argue that religion affects the entrepreneurial activities of the believers, influences their decision towards becoming entrepreneurs, their managerial style and the scope of their contact network. Furthermore, the interaction of religion values with the enterprise culture and how religions impact the entrepreneurial decision making particularly among Eastern religions such as Islam (Carswell and Rolland, 2004; Audretsch et al., 2007; 2013). Therefore, Islam and its effect on entrepreneurship through what is known as Islamic entrepreneurship (IE) appear to be an important business research area (Ratten et al., 2017) worth studying. However, although many arguments attribute important roles to Islam in shaping Islamic entrepreneurial behaviours (Hassan and Hippler, 2014), the way through which Islam influences economic development and entrepreneurship has not reached consensus among scholars. Despite the growing number of studies on IE, this discipline has not been well presented nor understood. Many of the existing studies focused on presenting texts from the Quran and Hadith to describe how Sharia guides the entrepreneurial practices. Other studies investigated the extent of commitment of Muslim entrepreneurs to Islamic principles. Therefore, while many issues have accompanied the development of this discipline of study, different –but contradicting- views have been formed regarding the impact of Islam on entrepreneurship. The current paper addresses these issues and debates to generate conclusion that adds to the clarity of IE. In the remainder of the paper we (1) explore the existing definitions to
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