Religious Impact on the Performance of Entrepreneurs: A Comparative Study of Male and Female in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Religion is a very abstract and complicated concept. Although a lot of works have examined the relationship between religion and entrepreneurial activities, few studies tested the impact of religion on gender entrepreneurial performance. In this study, we use Ghana as a sample to empirically explore how religion impacts on gender entrepreneurial performance from three dimensions i.e. marital life, inheritance system and societal perception in sub-Saharan Africa. Our empirical findings suggest there are inequalities from the impact of religion on the performance of male and female entrepreneurs. This research revealed a significant impact of religion through marital life and societal perception on male entrepreneur’s performance as compared to their female counterparts. In contrast, inheritance system had no significant impact on gender which deviates from the norm in the sub-Saharan African community. Implications of the findings have been discussed and recommendations are made at the end of the paper.

Keywords: Entrepreneurs, Gender, Religious Impact, Sub-Saharan Africa