2008 - Marketing Educators' Association

The final set of hypotheses predicting the impact of
sociological factors on the religiosity and spirituality of
students suggests that self sufficiency has an affect.
However, statistical analysis fails to indicate any
effects. Thus, H5 is not supported.
The next three pairs of hypotheses suggest certain
economic factors have an impact on student religiosity
and spirituality. However, statistical analysis fails to
reveal influence from any of the economic factors on a
student’s religiosity or spirituality. Thus, H6, H7, and H8
are not supported.
The ninth set of hypotheses predicts that political party
affiliation does not influence a person’s spirituality
(H9b). As can be seen in Table 1, this hypothesis was
fully supported. However, H9a predicts that members of
the Republican Party are more religious than are
members of other political parties. The data collected
allowed comparisons of the effects of being a
Republican, Democrat, Independent, or others on a
person’s religiosity. As predicted, Republicans are
more religious than Democrats (F = 2.412, p < .10),
but are not more religious than members of the other
political groups. Another difference found in these
comparisons was that Independents are more religious
than are Democrats (F = 3.179, p < .10). Thus H9a is
partially supported.
The tenth set of predictions hypothesize that since
different types of students are attracted to different
majors, and that a student’s major will impact his/her
religiosity and spirituality. H10a is partially supported
because the analyses show that marketing majors
are more religious than are non-business majors (F
= 2.781, p < .10) and non-business majors are more
religious than are accounting majors (F = 2.759, p <
.10). In addition, marketing majors are more spiritual
than are management majors (F = 4.489, p < .05);
accounting majors are more spiritual than are
management majors (F = 5.628, p < .05); and
general business majors are more spiritual than are
accounting majors (F = 3.312, p < .10). Thus, H10a is
partially supported.
The final set of hypotheses in this study predicts that
both a student’s religiosity and spirituality impact that
student’s GPA. No support was found for spirituality
having an impact (H11b). On the other hand, analysis
clearly indicates that students’ religiosity impacts
their GPA (t = -2.195, p < .05). However, the finding
is opposite of the prediction; thus, H11 is not
supported.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Among the sociological factors, only charitable
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involvement impacted a student’s religiosity as
predicted. Opportunities for charitable involvement are
often available in social settings by being active in
organized religions. The t-values on the impact of some
of the other sociological factors (professional ambition,
materialism, and self sufficiency) on religiosity were
nearly large enough to be significant and a larger sample
size may result in more of the hypotheses being
significant. One implication for professors of these
students is that opportunities for service learning or even
requirements for community service may be important in
raising student religiosity and thus their academic
performance.
Several sociological factors had an influence on student
spirituality. These factors include charitable involvement,
professional ambition, and materialism. Professional
ambition and materialism proved to have a negative
impact on spirituality, while charitable involvement has a
positive impact. These findings support the notion that
spirituality is a deeper human quality that appears to
transcend a person’s desire for achievement in other
areas, such as professional ambition and materialism.
The positive impact of charitable involvement is likely
because of a person’s more altruistic desire to be
charitable, rather than his/her desire for social
involvement, as might be the case in religiosity. The
implications for professors of these students and
charitable involvement are the same as above in the
discussion about religiosity. However, the significant
findings about the impact of professional ambition and
materialism may help explain the findings on the
negative influence of religiosity on a business student’s
academic performance. It is conceivable that a majority
of students majoring in business are motivated by the
possibility of making money, thus coming into colleges of
business with professional ambition and some
materialism. Since these concepts negatively impact
religiosity, it makes sense that religiosity among
business students would negatively impact business
students’ GPA.
Economic factors did not significantly impact religiosity or
spirituality. It is possible that many students have not had
enough life experience to integrate religiosity and/or
spirituality into their lives. If such is the case, the findings
make sense in that the students have not made the
connection between their religious or spiritual beliefs to
other significant factors in their lives. Many of them will
make these connections in later life and research is
beginning to indicate the important of religion and
spirituality in the performance of businesses.
An individual’s politics do not influence his/her
spirituality; however, politics do appear to influence a
person’s religiosity. Both of these findings were as
predicted by the study’s hypotheses. Republicans