Institutional entrepreneurship in a religious order: The 1741 Constituciones of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God

Abstract

An extensive branch of accounting literature studies accounting and religion. The variety of religious organizations studied, theoretical approaches, and roles assigned to accounting are as extensive as the range of the values that are rooted in religious organizations. However, the literature has not yet described the role of the individual in the spread of accounting and accountability into a religious organization and what leads the individual to advocate such change. The concept of institutional entrepreneurship can shed light on this topic. To this end, this work studies the change in the Constituciones (rules) of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God in eighteenth-century Spain. Father Ortega, as General of the Order, played a key role supporting the implementation of accounting and accountability techniques.