PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between religion and entrepreneurship and whether religious practice impacts on how individuals view the individual and societal contribution of business enterprise. As ethnic diversity is increasing within the Western world, so too is the religious mix of value systems and religious belief systems that come with such diversity/religions. Paralleling increasing diversity is the decreasing participation rates in the traditional Christian churches. The paper questions the impact of this changing religious mix on entrepreneurial participation and perception.Design/methodology/approachA total of 2,000 randomly‐selected New Zealanders were telephone‐surveyed to measure their perceptions of individual and societal impacts of entrepreneurial participation and religious practice.FindingsThe findings indicate that increasing ethnic diversity and associated religious value systems are certainly not going to negatively reduce the business start‐up rate. If anything, the start‐up rate may be enhanced.Originality/valueThe paper shows that the value that New Zealand society places upon entrepreneurship is not diminished by the increasing religious diversity in the country.
