Are religion and culture relevant for corporate risk-taking?international evidence

  1. José María Díez-Esteban 1
  2. Jorge Bento Farinha 2
  3. Conrado Diego García Gómez 3
  1. 1 Universidad de Burgos
    info

    Universidad de Burgos

    Burgos, España

    ROR https://ror.org/049da5t36

  2. 2 Universidade Do Porto
    info

    Universidade Do Porto

    Oporto, Portugal

    ROR https://ror.org/043pwc612

  3. 3 Universidad de Valladolid
    info

    Universidad de Valladolid

    Valladolid, España

    ROR https://ror.org/01fvbaw18

Journal:
Business Research Quarterly

ISSN: 2340-9444 2340-9436

Year of publication: 2019

Volume: 22

Issue: 1

Pages: 36-55

Type: Article

DOI: 10.1016/J.BRQ.2018.06.003 DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openOpen access editor

More publications in: Business Research Quarterly

Abstract

Using a large sample of firms from 37 countries over the period of 2007–2015, we empirically analyse the impact of religion and national culture characteristics on the level of corporate risk-taking around the world and the channels through which this can take place. First, we initially observe that different religious backgrounds have different impacts on corporate risk-taking, these being negative for Catholic and Islamic-based countries and positive for firms in Protestant nations. Secondly, we observe that companies in countries with high scores of power distance, masculinity, individualism and long-term orientation tend to increase risk-taking while high levels of uncertainty avoidance moderates corporate risk-taking behavior. We also show results that in companies where institutional investors are the most relevant reference shareholder the influence of religion on corporate risk-taking is not felt, unlike when the main shareholder is an individual or a family.

Funding information

This research has been financed by Portuguese Public Funds through FCT (Fundação para a Ciência e aTecnologia) in the framework of the project UID/ECO/04105/2013.

Funders

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