Religiosity Effects on Employees in SMEs: An Islamic Country Perspective

This study aims to investigate the adaptation of internalization factors and employees’ competitive behavior in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The empirical findings suggest that the integration of religious orientation brings better results along with the other determinants (subjective norm, attitude, behavior control and intention) of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Further, this study indicates the significant direct relationship between religious orientation, attitude, perceived control and intention with employee behavior, except for subjective norms and intention, which shows an insignificant relationship. This empirical findings suggest that owners and managers of SMEs should place some efforts in providing support to increase religious orientation in SMEs, as this would likely to enhance all other factors. This study reports unique empirical findings to support the generalizability of the theory while also adding a new facet to the TPB by using SMEs as a social lab and data from a developing country.