A new study has revealed that entrepreneurs in America pray more frequently, and are more likely to see God as personal.
According to a study by Baylor University scholars of business and sociology, they are more likely to attend services in congregations that encourage business and profit-making.
Their research is an analysis of data from the ongoing Baylor Religion Survey.
A total of 1,714 adults chosen randomly from across the country answered more than 300 items in the survey, designed by Baylor scholars and administered by the Gallup Organization in 2010.
The study is part of a larger research project on religion and entrepreneurship funded by the National Science Foundation.
Entrepreneurs are categorized in the study as those who have started a new business or who are trying to do so.
Mitchell J. Neubert, Ph.D., associate professor and Chavanne Chair of Christian Ethics in Business in Baylor's Hankamer School of Business said that thay know they are praying more, but they don't know yet what they're praying about.
"It might be for the wisdom to navigate uncertainty. It could be 'Please give me more success,' or 'Give me more energy'," he said.
When it comes to entrepreneurs' concept of God, "they tend to think of God as a more personal, interactive being, and that is tightly related to why they pray more frequently," Kevin Dougherty, Ph.D., an associate professor of sociology in Baylor's College of Arts and Sciences, said.
More than half of the entrepreneurs in the survey pray daily, while a third pray several times a day.
The study is published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.
