Religious Entrepreneurship: A Study of Businesses that Explore the Religiosity Niche

The purpose of this paper consisted of comprehending the particularities of religious entrepreneurship concerning businesses that emerge in a religious context and sell religious products. Based on a theoretical framework that articulates both entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial process definitions, and that establishes relationships between entrepreneurship and religion, 22 businesses that sell products from various religious denominations located in the three largest cities of the Triângulo Mineiro region were studied through qualitative research. The results show the manifestation of a particular type of entrepreneurship, associated with the following categories: the religious entrepreneur, involving the analysis of ideas and individual motivations for business creation; religion as business opportunity, involving the analysis of contextual, religious and business aspects that influence religious entrepreneurship; and the results of those entrepreneurial actions, involving concrete and symbolic effects of religious entrepreneurship.