Recently, Prof. Dr. David Bendig and Dr. Fabian Ernst from the Institute for Entrepreneurship published their article "Better Safe than Sorry? Religious Directors and Digital Innovation" in the International Journal of Innovation Management (VHB JQ3: B).

In Europe, the influence of religion is steadily declining, while in the U.S. the Christian faith remains one of the most important social factors. An example of this is that 60% of the American population would not vote for a presidential candidate if he or she were an atheist. Moreover, in the 117th U.S. Congress, only one senator has publicly announced that she is non-denominational.

For a number of years, companies have focused on digital innovation in order to grow sustainably and with a promising future. Although a large number of studies have analyzed factors influencing corporate innovation, no link has yet been established between digital innovation and executive religiosity.

In their article, the two researchers provide empirical evidence based on extensive secondary data for a negative correlation between the presence of religious leaders and the proportion of digital patents and citations. The authors thus demonstrate, among other things, that American companies should pay attention to religious diversity when staffing leadership teams in order to fully exploit their innovation potential.

The full text of the study can be viewed here.