Religion and Business Behavior in the Philippines

Abstract

This presentation is a partial output of the research conducted to examine the complex and multivariate mediation of culture, religion and situation in the development of attitudes, values and patterns of business behavior among Chinese and Filipino businessmen and women in the Philippines. This research was conducted among the top Chinese and Filipino-owned companies (in terms of profitability) in the Philippines. A total of 123 companies, Chinese (27.64%) and Filipino (72.36%), responded to a questionnaire survey and the analysis is based on their responses. In addition, in-depth personal interviews were conducted among 26 owners and/or entrepreneurs and top executives. The research challenges the adequacy of the explanation of entrepreneurship which attributes poorer economic performance to the economic traditionalism of Roman Catholic religion as claimed by Weber. In the Philippines successful Chinese and less successful Filipino businessmen and women are, for the most part, Roman Catholic. Catholicism as observed from the practices of the Filipinos conforms to economic traditionalism. Catholicism as practiced by the Chinese is mediated by their traditional cultural values which emanate from their Confucian heritage. As a result of this mediation Catholicism generates different consequences for economic behavior between the two communities. In place of Weber's emphasis on the psycho-spiritual tensions as the causal factor in economic behavior, this research argues that religious orientations themselves are mediated by other non religious factors such as everyday attitudes towards disciplined conduct and the situational status of the Chinese as immigrants and the Filipinos as natives. In exploring these mediations the study argues that religion is one of the major factors in the understanding of the differences in economic performance between the two communities in Philippine society.