RESPONSIBLE ENTREPRENEURSHIP VISION DEVELOPMENT AND ETHICS

The history of Turkish industry in Romania, and key milestones in its socio-economic… 455
of the key research objectives of this thesis study. By researching Turkish business ethics and
how activities coincide with religious roots in a different culture may help determine possible
multifaceted identities that exist among Turkish entrepreneurs in Romania, depending on
political and market situations. This brings attention to the disparity between Islam and Christian
cultures, and whether there is a fundamental component of the religious belief structure
that is consistently expressed in the face of certain business trading activities and social structures
in commercial environments. There are multiple beliefs embodied by Sunni and Shia
Muslims that form the five pillars of Islamic law; guiding lifestyle and societal functions such
as banking, advertisement, marriage, and the consumption of food and beverage (Khraim,
2010). With this in mind, it begs the question on which markets are most influenced by Turkish
and Islamic values in Romania, and whether there is a common denominator that separates
purchase decisions in a predominantly Christian society. This is of particular interest
given the historical bond between Turkey and Romania, because there may have been several
compromises during the course of the history covered thus far.
According to Hirschman (1983) there are three possible theories for why religion has been
omitted from consumer and business trading behavior studies. Firstly, it could be that
researchers in marketing and consumer insights are simply ignorant of there being an influential
link between faiths and purchasing/trading behavior. Secondly, the absence of religion
in marketing and economic debates might be attributed to intentional discrimination within
the research community to avoid sensitive topics that are easily scrutinized as “taboo” topics.
The third reason Hirschman argued was that the subject may simply have been overlooked
all this time as such a silently obvious influential factor.
Conclusions
The long standing economic bond between Turkey and Romania has its roots in the early
political struggles between neighboring nations, which provides remit for continued alliance
till this day. After drawing strength from such early political turmoil due to collaborative efforts
to help each other, Romania has evidently prospered through its economy gradually by fortifying
its trading relationship with Turkey, even though this has proven some challenges in
differences in prioritized market investments, as addressed by Briegel (2014). Despite the reassurance
of there always being a mutual agreement to recover concerns from both nation’s
representatives in the Ministry of Economy, there still remains a void in business psychology,
specifically how Turkish entrepreneurs and corporations behave in a country that does
not coincide with their cultural values or Islamic belief structures. This unexplored influence
is an important holistic and conceptual factor that may underpin a large variance in Turkish
business integration in Romania, and could also provide another explanation alongside economic
movements why there tends to arise differences in investment interests regarding Romania’s
market sectors. It is worth investigation, particularly in reference to Delener’s (1990)
notion that religion and cultural values are one of the most powerful dictatorships mediating
decisions in almost all societal domains, including business partnerships and market trading.
It is therefore important to identify which specific business activities have a tendency to be
influenced the most by inter-cultural cohesion compromise, and which market trading conditions
tend to reinforce or instill Islamic belief structures. One of the assumptions that need
to be tested is that the quality of the relationship between an Islamic population and a non-