272 Int. J. Business and Globalisation, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2015

Copyright © 2015 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

The history of an Islamic entrepreneurship: achieving exporting-network leadership through religious legitimacy

Julio Araujo Carneiro-da-Cunha* Department of Management, Nove de Julho University (UNINOVE), Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 612. Água Branca. São Paulo, Brazil Email: juliocunha@uninove.br *Corresponding author

Matheus Graciani dos Santos Department of Management, University of São Paulo (USP), Av. Professor Luciano Gualberto, 908. Butantã. São Paulo, Brazil Email: matheusgracianisantos@gmail.com

Leandro Januário de Souza Department of Management, Nove de Julho University (UNINOVE), Av. Francisco Matarazzo, 612. Água Branca. São Paulo, Brazil Email: leandro.januario@bol.com.br

Nawfal Assa Mossa Alssabak Brazil-Iraq Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Alameda Santos, 771, cj. 31. Cerqueira César, São Paulo, Brazil Email: nawfal@brasiliraq.com.br

Flavio Romero Macau Department of Management, Paulista University (UNIP), R. Dr. Bacelar, 1212. Vila Clementino, São Paulo, Brazil Email: macau@unip.br

Abstract: Brazil is currently one of the top global exporters of Halal poultry to the Middle Eastern Islamic markets. This study focuses on the story of an Islamic certifier, since his initial efforts to his current successful position in the Brazilian export network of Halal poultry. We bring a specific theoretical review considering the separation of the Islamic entrepreneurship conducted by Muslims and the ones oriented to Muslims. A theoretical model with variables that characterise the Islamic entrepreneurship construct was also elaborated.

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Historical narratives from certifier’s founder and his son (his successor) along with organisational institutional documents, the Islamic entrepreneurship construct was empirically validated and complemented by additional variables identified on field research. Afterwards, five great periods of certifier’s evolution could be identified: prelude; establishment of guidelines; development; legacy heritage; apex. Each temporal era signs that its respective internationalisation and evolution cycle processes require specific Islamic entrepreneurship variables.

Keywords: Islamic entrepreneurship; Halal; Islam; Muslim; export.

Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Carneiro-da-Cunha, J.A., dos Santos, M.G., de Souza, L.J., Alssabak, N.A.M. and Macau, F.R. (2015) ‘The history of an Islamic entrepreneurship: achieving exporting-network leadership through religious legitimacy’, Int. J. Business and Globalisation, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp.272–293.

Biographical notes: Julio Araujo Carneiro-da-Cunha is a Professor at Nove de Julho University, Brazil. His main research interests are inter-organisational networks, strategy, strategic performance management, and entrepreneurship.

Matheus Graciani dos Santos is a Master Science candidate at University of São Paulo, Brazil. His main research interests are international business, international management, and international public relations.

Leandro Januário de Souza is a doctorate candidate at Nove de Julho University, Brazil. His main research interests are strategy, inter-organisational networks, and marketing.

Nawfal Assa Mossa Alssabak is the Chairman of the Brazil-Iraq Chamber of Commerce and Industry. His main research interests are Islamic culture, Islamic-oriented trade, Halal markets, and international business.

Flavio Romero Macau is a Full Professor at Paulista University, Brazil. His research interests are inter-organisational networks and information and knowledge management.

This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘The journey of an Islamic entrepreneurship: from the first Halal poultry exporter to a network leader’ presented at the VII 3Es (Encontro de Estudos em Estratégia) / Strategy Studies Meeting, Brasília, Brazil, 21–23 June 2015.

1 Introduction

Although religion has been largely neglected in organisations and management studies, there are still some initial efforts trying oriented to match the adequate relevance of religion in these studies since religion plays a central role in many societies (Tracey et al., 2014). For example, entrepreneurs’ religion influence has been considered a variable to entrepreneurship researches from various thematic areas such as business management, psychology, sociology and economy. Studies covering the interrelationship among entrepreneurship and religion had been characterised by researches focusing on the firm-level outcomes in the 1980 decade, evolving to the prominence of individual-based

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and micro-level outcomes perspective (Balog et al., 2014). In this shift, more studies of entrepreneurs who have their religion and spirituality as key variables to their business have been conducted (e.g., Bakunina, 2013; Essers and Benschop, 2009; Kauanui et al., 2008).

In this scenario, previous studies have already focused on different religions as determinant factors for entrepreneurship characteristics and decision-making, such as Jewish (e.g., Pava, 2010), Catholicism (e.g., Naughton and Cornwall, 2006; Percy, 2010; Raco and Tanod, 2014b), Protestantism (e.g., Rietveld and van Burg, 2014), Daoism (e.g., Dimovski et al., 2013), Hindu (e.g., Chaudhry and Crick, 2010; Christopher, 2011), Buddhism (e.g., Valliere, 2008), Confucianism (e.g., Cheung and King, 2004), and Islam (e.g., Davis, 2013; Kayed and Hassam, 2011), for example. The current study is going to focus specially on Islamic entrepreneurship.

Islamic entrepreneurs are not only those who act in Middle East or in Islamic countries, but also those who create entrepreneurships outwards, in different countries where Islam is not necessarily the main religion. Some researchers have already studied these entrepreneurship initiatives in non-Muslim majority countries such as France (Nekka and Fayolle, 2010), Sweden (Pio, 2010), Netherlands (Essers and Tedmanson, 2014), Brazil (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2013a), Canada (Stambouli and Arcand, 2013) and the USA (Smith et al., 2012). However, most religious-entrepreneurship studies focus on transversal analysis of specific themes without a longitudinal historical perspective that can support the development of an entrepreneurship initiative over the years. Longitudinal studies could support not only new ventures creation analysis, but also entrepreneurial conduction understandings. These Islamic-based enterprises should adapt themselves through different environmental changes without changing their central religious values.

Considering this dilemma, it is important to understand how an Islamic oriented entrepreneurship sustains itself over the years. Some factors should be understood in order to deeply comprehend how an Islamic entrepreneurship might become successful establishing its market presence throughout the years, such as: religious values transference through different management generations; Islamic consumers’ relationships ties strengthening; the development of an internal value chain. An historical and developmental perspective could bring a boarder impression on challenges and risks that a religious-oriented entrepreneurship faces over time.

Based on this, a framework that supports ‘hits and misses’ from an Islamic entrepreneurial story could serve as cornerstone to present key-elements to guide further Islamic entrepreneurships. Previous studies have already elaborated models to support Islamic entrepreneurs in their home countries (e.g., Hoque et al., 2014); however, Muslims living abroad faces other challenges when establishing an Islamic-based enterprise among non-Muslim majority communities, and these differences still needs to be addressed into a new model. Hence, presenting central elements and relevant factors from this religious entrepreneurship journey would help other Muslims in establishing their business in foreign countries without jeopardise their Islamic precepts.

This entrepreneurial development brings up an intriguing question: which are the important factors that characterise an Islamic successful entrepreneurship conducted in a non-Muslim majority country throughout the years? To answer this question, the current research intent to describe an entrepreneurial initiative of a Muslim Halal-product exporter pioneer in Brazil and its further developments. It serves as background to:

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1 identify variables that explain the Islamic entrepreneurship construct in a successful experience

2 point out when these variables are more prominent in this organisational lifetime.

Considering that the study of Islamic religious markets has gained attention among academicians (Sandıkcı and Jafari, 2013), understanding the role played by entrepreneurship vis-à-vis the development of Halal (religious licit) poultry in non-Muslim countries emerges as a relevant subject.

This history is decisive to understand the initiatives taken that placed Brazil in the top worldwide positions in the ranking of Halal poultry exporters. It may allow us to understand how an exporter moved from one of the first exporters to play a central role at the actual Brazilian Halal poultry export network nowadays. Contributions toward essential actions that other Islamic entrepreneurs should adopt to obtain success in an Islamic oriented business are presented.

2 Religion as values that influence entrepreneurship

It is not a novel statement that religion influences individuals’ values (Dana, 2009) and faith orientation (Judge and Douglas, 2013), which are correlated with a wide-range of social-economic behaviour (Rietveld and van Burg, 2014). Such behaviour shapes how entrepreneurs will create and conduct their business. The religious and ethical values emerge in this context as key aspects of the influence of religious beliefs on the actions of individual entrepreneurs. Needless to say, entrepreneurial values and identity are not just reconstructed by religious beliefs, but they may also exploit cultural and faith-based networks to promote and sustain entrepreneurs’ created venture (Nwankwo and Gbadamosi, 2013).

According to Dana (2009), there are some basic orientations that should be considered when analysing the intersection existed in these two theoretical domains: entrepreneurship and religion. The author comments that each religion values entrepreneurship in different levels; some entrepreneurship patterns exist among all religions; particularities from each religion shapes the way entrepreneurships are created and conducted; opportunities provide entrepreneurship opportunities; some religious beliefs may not be aligned with entrepreneurial spirit, hampering the religious values; there are built-in mechanism in religions to perpetuate its values; at last, networks formed by co-religionists (information, supply chain, employment, credit) affect entrepreneurship.

These requirements are also applied into the Islamic perspective which traits categories are identified by Hoque et al. (2014): lack of knowledge; lack of initiative; risk taking; customer orientation; employment non-involvement; lack of strategic thinking; fear of Allah; hardworking; innovativeness; excellence; honesty and truthfulness; morality; vision; optimism; patience; social welfare; Halal earnings; economics. It can be observed that elements from traditional entrepreneurship as well as specific Islamic elements (e.g., fear of Allah, Halal earnings) are important to define and establish an Islamic entrepreneurship. These differences might be carefully considered when studying and analysing Islamic entrepreneurships.

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3 Islamic entrepreneurship

Considering that entrepreneurial initiatives may go beyond material interests and consider spirituality in its conception (Ungvári-Zrínyi, 2014), religious entrepreneurship has a wider perspective than the traditional entrepreneurship. In the Islamic perspective, there are basically two types of Islamic entrepreneurships: the first one is related to business Muslims create and conduct; the second one is related to entrepreneurships directed to the Islamic market. Both them need to be in compliance with Islamic requirements, which are based on Koran holy book.

3.1 Business done by Muslims

According to Elfakhani and Ahmed (2013), morals and ethical values from Islam support entrepreneurial process, such as: behavioural dimensions of entrepreneurship; enterprise management and marketing; capital and fund raising; resource utilisation. Since all these activities are conducted under religious norms that underpin the entrepreneurial actions, it is assumed that Islamic entrepreneurship is guided by the Quran precepts. Hence, the institutions that support Islamic entrepreneurship have religious norms that overcome regular competitive market rules.

Based on this, there a set of activities that is not permissible under the Islamic precepts, which are considered haram (illicit). According to Ghoul (2010), these activities are: money lending (as conventional banks and insurance organisations are considered haram); production, distribution or any kind of profit from alcohol, drugs, tobacco, pornography, gambling, weapons, music, entertainment, processing pork meat or non-Halal meat; hotels and airlines which alcohol is served as premise; financial ratios have also restriction related to organisations earnings.

However, at the other hand, some authors such as Adamu et al. (2013) encourage that Islamic practices should be implemented in the workplace since these Islamic rituals can foster entrepreneurial outcomes. Besides, Audretsch et al. (2013) identified that Islam is one of the most favourable religions to self-employment. Hence, Muslims tend to be oriented to work towards entrepreneurial ventures since their values are associated to entrepreneur characteristic.

Indeed, it is important to understand that there is a moral axis of inner judgments and moral convictions that Islamic entrepreneurs face: at one side, there is the altruism behaviour, while there is the self-interested and self-regarding man at the other side (Özcan, 2012). If acting under self-interests, Muslims might act against their values. However, according to Gauthier (1986) apud Özcan (2012), the economic environment where there is a free competition market, there is also a free-moral scene.

The fact is that contemporaneous capitalist entrepreneurs constantly need to act opportunistically to obtain gains and to seize the business identified opportunities, however, this behaviour might not be in compliance with Islamic moral values (Özcan, 2012). Since Muslims entrepreneurs place religious values over economic values, elements such as Halal assurance and percept from Allah (obtained through the Quran) are important particularities for Islamic business (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2013a). Islamic entrepreneurs have a personal internal driving force that leads their process of opportunity realisation (Cha and Bae, 2010). In essay, entrepreneurs seek not only money returns, but also their entrepreneurial dream realisation, in which they can supply other personal aspirations, such as the religious one. Hence, when establishing a new venture,

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they may seek to entrepreneurial initiatives that can also lead them to spiritual and religious realisation. Based on these specific characteristics, Gümüsay (2014) states that an entrepreneurship from an Islamic perspective involves three pillars: the entrepreneurial; the socio-economic/ethical; and religio-spiritual.

A Muslim entrepreneur professional realisation involves an inter-relationship among business and religious perspectives. They are all are reinforced by the Islamic community where Muslim individual lives. An Islamic entrepreneur has religious and economic background that cannot be denied. Narratives of past entrepreneurial achievements are associated with entrepreneurial legacy, which is imprinted to family further generations when this family is cohesive (Jaskiewicz et al., 2015). In the Islamic-oriented family business (including Muslim immigrants) in which Islamic laws regulate family and parental relationships, Muslims tend to respect these ancestral norms (Bilgé and Aswad, 1996) and family business are more long-term oriented (Pistrui and Fahed-Sreih, 2010). Islamic inheritance system is more comprehensive and contains a broader framework than other systems inter-generational transfers (Ismail et al., 2014). It means that in a Muslim family business continuity seems to be oriented by family legacy. Hence, in order to understand an Islamic-oriented family business entrepreneurship, it would be interesting to consider not only one single generation, but its continuity by next generations.

At last, considering that there are high levels of unemployment and poverty among Islam economies, Islamic business model can be developed in bottom-up perspective, using local clusters as an alternative to development (Hunter, 2014). When a business community with shared values is created, such values gain enforcement to be accepted and diffused. Furthermore, relations from a Muslim network community are resources that gain more relevance when these Muslims are outwards, working in foreign markets, especially those ones living in a non-Islamic country.

For example, in the food sector, previous studies such as Dana’s (2006) have already identified that middlemen minorities entrepreneurs allocated in foreign counties, mainly if under political dispute, might create specialised arrangements to attend their own community. In essay, Islamic communities with agricultural or livestock (including poultry) expertise might also arise. These communities might create specific products to serve their selves.

Additionally, studies such as Neville et al.’s (2014) one identified that immigrants’ new ventures, mainly those ones that are used to export, tend to outperform other non-immigrants new business. This advantage is supported by resources that immigrants usually have, specially, the access to an international network. In the Muslim case, we might assume that they have foreign contacts in their home countries at Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where they can seek for support or for an importing market. Besides, they might seek to find external cultural and institutional proximity on their destination market because the majority of Muslims are strongly connected among each other through their religion bonds all over the world (Schooter and Abdelzaher, 2013). There is an international business convergence due to the both societies’ similarities (Chibba, 2015).

3.2 Doing business to Muslims

When searching for a market that might have cultural proximity and, hence, that tends to accept their products, it is important to differentiate the business done by Muslims

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with business done to Muslims. Considering such separation, it is important to understand that in order to meet an Islamic market expectation, exporting enterprises cannot seek only for regular quality issues, but also to work with products and services that regard Islamic religious requirements, under Halal processes and standards in the whole supply chain (Tieman and Ghazali, 2013). In fact, Halal food international networks (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2013a) still need to be deeper developed to better supply Islamic markets (Tieman, 2015). These are particularities that should not be considered as barriers to achieve Islamic markets since they are not totally incompatible with capitalist consumer ideology (Sandıkcı, 2011). Such characteristics are demands that need to be highly attended and entrepreneurs who can fulfil these expectations might face a huge market. In this scenario, trustworthiness of a Halal brand (Rios et al., 2014) and its process (Tieman et al., 2013) plays a central role. Only those entrepreneurships that can offer a trustable product or service have conditions to attend such demand. Such trustworthiness is usually brought from long-term organisation reputation and not from a sudden inception. Especially considering that Islamic entrepreneurs can increase his reputation with the support of his personal moral, what enables him to easily develop a good image and thereby develop his enterprise oriented to the Islamic market since his personal ethics reflect in his business (Hoque et al., 2014).

Collaboration also plays an important role for entrepreneurship in developing countries, being used and adapted to suit the entrepreneurship to the local social and market conditions (Ratten, 2014). So, when a Muslim is trying to establish a new venture anywhere outside a Islamic country (what includes Brazil, a developing country), it is important that the entrepreneur can establish collaborative relations with local players in order to enable business conditions through a better understanding of local formal and informal institutions and to legitimate their business through local acceptance. It means that collaboration among Muslims and non-Muslims may be important to institute business in a non-Islamic region. Muslims act as enablers to allow foreign products to be imported by Middle East and mainly-Islamic countries, but they still need local partners to enable the business conduction in its full network chain.

Moreover, the collaboration variable is valid also to Muslims among themselves. In essay, credit networks, information networks, supply chain networks and employment networks influence the creation of religious-based entrepreneurships (Dana, 2009). The support from the Islamic foreign community might be an underpinning on how entrepreneur conducts his business. For example, a Muslim that is willing to start a new venture might get some financing from other co-religionist due to the existence of such network.

At these networks, even the non-Muslims may be affected by Islamic discourse in order to respect and attend foreign Islamic markets. It happens because religious discourse may institutionalise the religious-oriented stakeholder perspective into the organisation or the conglomerate (Sidani and Showail, 2013). In essay, when an organisation or a network is oriented to supply religious markets, this consumer religiosity from outside religious environment may influence internal institutions. So, even when there is a non-Muslim network working towards the treatment of an Islamic marketing, Islam institutions may be implemented into this local Brazilian network in order to provide a better supply to this foreign market.

It is important to discuss also that Muslim entrepreneurs may find challenges when facing organisational innovations that inhibit their religious values (Games et al., 2013). Modernisations prescription might also be mismatched with communities’ values and the

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role these are to play in development (Dana and Dana, 2007). This happens when process innovations deny any Islamic values that obligate an Islamic-oriented production to stick with traditional methods. At one hand, an Islamic-oriented production may lose productivity; however, at the other hand, it enables them to attend the Islamic market which the common production would not be able. It is a trade-off that non-Muslim organisations oriented to attend the Islamic market must face. For example, in the Halal poultry industry, some technology-advanced processes that increase slaughtered hens per minute should not be implemented, since only the regular cut with a sharp knife, in which the slaughters says the holy words, is in compliance with Islamic requirements, according to Quran.

4 Methods

In the current research, the choice of a single case is supported by Gartner’s (2010) concerns about the diversity of individuals, scenario settings and kind of businesses that constitute the entrepreneurship phenomena. We believe that each case is important to a phenomenological understanding of an entrepreneurship reality, under its own specificities. Besides, such phenomenological approach might be useful for entrepreneurship studies, even considering that it does not represent the majority of the area studies (Abebrese, 2014). That is why the entrepreneurial business story of CDIAL and its own particularities were adequate to understand factors that support an Islamic successful entrepreneurship under a phenomenological approach, in order to achieve this paper main objective.

Based on this, entrepreneurs who have been conducting this organisation have a central role in the data collection. Entrepreneurs’ narratives and speeches, as well as their companies’ institutional material were used as source of information. Such information was used to build up the entrepreneurial story, in which analysis and conclusions can be done. Hence, a qualitative analysis was conducted over interview and documental data. Considering that other studies have already experienced qualitative efforts to understand Islamic entrepreneurship in Muslim-majority locations, such as Kayed and Hassam (2011) research, we can assume that qualitative analysis may be adequate to our purposes.

As for entrepreneurs’ narratives, the practical theory approach was considered. This technique can use life stories from interviewed entrepreneurs’ discourse and develop practical theory from these experiences (Rae, 2004). A phenomenological perspective was used as information analysis orientation because it is adequate when using entrepreneurs’ life stories experiences that can capture entrepreneurs’ own perceptions, what enables a deeply understanding of their knowledge and concepts (Raco and Tanod, 2014a). Specially, to capture from their narratives motivations and purposes that support their decision-making since such narratives bring information that explains an entrepreneurial organisation identity, exploring the procedural and decision-making logic from exploited opportunity (Martens et al., 2007). Considering a wider context, life story approach can bring a potential contribution from successful entrepreneur’s experiences on how small firms can propel their economic growth (Johansson, 2004). Besides, researches can produce data without their own preconceptions and influences when emerging and going deeper into entrepreneurs’ lived experience, which are explained by narratives and analysed under phenomenological perspective (Raco and Tanod, 2014a).

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However, it would be dangerous to consider only these narratives as source of information. There might be the impacts of a particular audience or omissions from the entrepreneur’s narrative that compromise the narrative product (Jones et al., 2008). Furthermore, it is appropriate to complement and verify information from interviews with documental data (historical and contemporaneous data). So, institutional documents containing historical and actual data from the studied organisation were considered in this study. To avoid biases from social interests that such documents may have, some concerns were considered when conducting a documental analysis. The awareness with the context in which the document was written as well as document writer’s (CDIAL organisation) interests when writing it were considered for this analysis (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2013b).

To enable such analysis from documents and interview transcriptions, a content analysis was conducted. Categories that could describe essential elements from an Islamic entrepreneurship were elaborated from literature review. They were used to elaborate an initial-questions guide of a semi-structured interview which was conducted with Ali Ahmad and his younger son, Ali Saifi, who both has been driving CDIAL businesses. Each interview was personally conducted and took near one hour and a half each. After transcribing interviews, pre-existed categories were confirmed to be valid and new categories were identified, as a method foreseen by Vergara (2012) as a mixed content analysis.

After identifying the categories set that explain the important elements of an Islamic entrepreneurship conducted in a non-Muslim country, the following step was to relate the narrative story with economic, social and political scenario in which the created venture was immersed along the last 40 years. Although we understand that the current research is a phenomenological-based study, some important hints of the organisation evolution could be complemented based in the CDIAL immersion and relation with its scenario.

According to Hytti (2005), when treating the entrepreneurship as a social process immersed in its time and space, it may enable researchers to create new meanings that were not previous addressed. In this perspective, entrepreneur is not treated as a great hero, but as a person embedded in his time and place, what contributes to a lower tendency to become a myth-oriented tale and it can support a more accessible entrepreneurship results to a larger quantity of people with less since it should not be too biased by the mere entrepreneur successful narrative speech. Based on this orientation, entrepreneur’s story contextualisation is considered as key element to understand temporal, social, industry, and spatial entrepreneurship characteristics (Zahra et al., 2014).

In essay, we consider a multilevel approach, avoiding a single-oriented perspective. We avoid the research under an actor-centric or a context-centric orientation because business opportunities are taken as found or created by entrepreneurs whose efforts are moderated by the environmental context (Garud et al., 2014).

5 Results

Based on CDIAL’s history and on external events that were relevant to understand the organisation’s evolution, some specific periods were identified to explain this history.

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5.1 The prelude (1970–1983)

During the second half of the 1960s Brazil opened new embassies and diplomatic posts at MENA in order to expand its diplomatic presence in the region. Thereafter, the oil crisis of 1973 and the consequent rise of oil prices leaded to a deepening of the relations between Brazil and the Middle East. Brazilian foreign policy strategies aimed at increasing the Brazilian exports to the region due to a perceived necessity of balancing the growing commercial deficits caused by the increase of oil prices (Campos, 2014). The Middle East was perceived by the Brazilian government not only as the most convenient source of oil but also as a potential market for non-traditional Brazilian products (Rosa, 1996).

Such characteristics create an environment where new demands from the Middle East increased during the 1970s. Livestock was one of the products that were gaining relevance in this context, influenced by foreign demand along with actions from the recently-created – 1976 – ABEF (Brazilian Association of Chicken Producers and Exporters). For example, in 1975, the first Halal export year, 8.8% of the Brazilian exports to Saudi Arabia were of poultry (Traumann, 2007) while Kuwait, Iraq and Egypt were other countries that continuously purchased the Brazilian Halal poultry in this period. In order to attend such demands, Islamic entities located in Brazil were called by importers to guarantee the Halal legitimacy of these products.

During these first shipments, Ali Ahmad was a directory member of the Brazilian Islamic centre. He could participate on these first requirements from Middle East markets. Ali Ahmad could also increase his foreign contacts, expanding his contacts of friends, family and Islamic leaders to include foreign importers from Middle East to his network.

However, there was an urgent need to gage higher levels of knowledge applied to the Halal techniques since different agents could be conducting different processes. The period of 1975–1984 was characterised as a learning phase since its beginning: “In early 1975, religious and sanitary delegations from Saudi Arabia and Egypt visited Brazil to give guidance and help introduce the process to the certifying bodies in the country” [UBABEF, (2012), p.2]. Afterwards, Islamic centres in Brazil had to spread their learning’s on how to deal with these new requirements from this expanding business. But exports demands were higher than the training capabilities available.

In the meantime, Halal certification process was still not centralised by a leader certifier neither it was not properly controlled by an Islamic centre. There was a control gap which opportunistic agents were acting without the proper knowledge and respect to the Halal processes. Ali Ahmad explained these issues:

Due to these exports, some funds were entering. It brought up the necessity to discuss what [a Halal livestock] is, what we could charge and how could we operate this certification activity. We had no one in our units and some foreign visits started to appear. When we perceived it was a serious continuous business and not just a punctual sale, we began to organize ourselves. But what [exporting] enterprises were doing? They were looking for any Muslim and asked them to visit their production plant to obtain a certificate. Then, some opportunists appeared claiming they were Muslims when they weren’t. I noticed there were some certificates issued by non-Muslims! So I entered in this activity in the 1980s.

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Based on these concerns and discomfort from Ali Ahmad, he identified that there was an urgent need to organise and regularise these activities in Brazil. It is noticeable that there is an internal driving force that triggers his actions when he states that he wants to establish initiatives that regularises and clarifies his religious believes. It is not just business intentions, but an initiative that unifies his business aspirations with his religious mission.

5.2 Establishment of guidelines and organisation (1984–1987)

The greatest challenge faced by Ali Ahmad was to moralise the certification process in Brazil. Islamic representatives were all disturbed with this situation and the religious community was increasingly worried with such issue. That was when Ali Ahmad decided to lead the Islamic community to join forces and to conduct co-joint initiatives to establish ethical certification processes.

It appeared a company, then appeared another company… they were all appearing. It [Middle East] was an attractive market and everybody was starting to notice it. They were all planning to export and that is why they were looking for us. When we noticed that it was a serious continuous business we decided to establish rules. The first norms were established by me. I made a spreadsheet on how to produce a Halal product.

In this scenario, the concern of the entrepreneurship was highly connected to the religiosity of its founder, Ali Ahmad, who emphasises in his narrative how being a Muslim was of central importance for his concern with establishing strict guidelines for the production of Brazilian Halal.

Besides, it is important to notice that only with cooperatively work with governmental agencies, producers (exporters), importers, commerce chambers, and national associations, CDIAL could lead the establishment of a network oriented to export livestock to Middle East under strict norms (Carneiro-da-Cunha et al., 2013a). There were underlying requirements that could only be conducted by specific partners, whose reputations were internally known by network members. However, CDIAL’s reputation with Middle East importers was still to be built. The Middle East market still needed to legitimate CDIAL as a whole world trusty certifier.

These initiatives from Ali Ahmad to create Halal export supply mechanism gained more relevance because there were opportunities for new market entry in Middle East. Mainly considering that a period of shortage of foreign exchange started near 1981 and new initiatives for international trade were being elaborated, specially, the incentives to manufactured products export (Lamonica and Feijó, 2011). The end of the military regime in Brazil since 1985 brought the agriculture export relevance back in track. Such opportunities could only be availed if Brazil could be seen as a trust supplier. With the network built, the next step was to be perceived as trusty certifier.

5.3 Development (1988–1994)

To build such trust to foreign importers, Ali Ahmad needed to differentiate himself from other small certifiers that were acting opportunistically. They did not meet the adequate religious and technical conditions to do such certification. This situation had been causing a huge concern to buyers from Middle East countries, what culminated in the

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avoidance of unknown and non-reliable Brazilian certifiers by them. Ali Saifi corroborates his father’s thoughts related to this period arguing the following:

It was decided that this disorder would end. Since [at this time] near 90% of the exported Halal products were being shipped to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, these countries decided to allow only our organization to be the [official] Halal certifier for these markets, in order to moralize the situation. It gave us full support to organize the entire production of Halal in Brazil. We spent four years alone [without competitors] in this market. We were the entity prepared to do this job because [they perceived] we had structure, experience and credibility. And the most important in this business is to have credibility.

During this time, reputation and credibility was being developed since CDIAL was the most experienced organisation in Brazil with the structure to attend Middle East importers requirements. Such elements were essential to put not only CDIAL, but the whole Brazilian network in the route for international exports to Middle East. However, Ali Saifi understands that this is not an isolate action from CDIAL, but the unification of efforts towards the same objective – to fix the national network as a great Halal poultry exporter. At this time, governmental agencies and ministries were working more close to the poultry exporters to deeper support exportations.

The poultry industry’s success is the fruit of efforts by the entire production chain, as well as work carried out by researchers and scientists in designing and applying technical and scientific tests required in order to guarantee food security and quality for the flock. one of the most important sources of support for the meat sector is the National Network of Animal and Plant Laboratories (Rede Nacional de Laboratórios Agropecuários) of the Unified Animal and Plant Health System (Sistema Unificado de Atenção à Sanidade Agropecuária – SuaSa), of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Supply (MAPA) [UBABEF, (2011), p.72].

Ali Saifi’s speech demonstrate the importance of the governmental support: “If the government [represented by the ambassador] is not with you, forget it!” The network linkages formed before were really important to allow foreign market penetrations and it was essential the existence of national capacity to supply these new business opportunities.

It is interesting to discuss also that Ali Saifi defends that besides these efforts to open up Islamic markets, building partnerships with the private sector is extremely important to participation increase such markets. When huge international private companies established formal contracts with Brazilian network, it increases sales but, moreover, it associated the national network agents as respectful suppliers in the international market and improved their acceptance as Halal product suppliers. Ali Saifi states that one of the biggest Brazilian chicken supplier was “not only positioned as our clients, but also as partners in all necessary changes and… [efforts towards market growth]. These kinds of partnerships were extremely important for us”. Partnerships seem to stimulate collaboration to support such network in order to coordinate activities oriented to deliver adequate Halal products to Middle East. If one agent fails to attend Halal requirements, all others would become impaired.

At last, one important factor to be discussed is the emergence of a local specialised cluster among Brazilian producers and other network agents, including the Islamic and non-Islamic individuals. There was a set of procedural and operational know-hows that were being constantly developed to attend the Middle East. Such expertise served as base

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to force the creation of further innovations when the network becomes more competitive and mature. This international competitiveness awareness was becoming relevant in Brazil since 1990 to 1994 when political regulations instituted the commercial opening of the country, reducing customs duty in order to stimulate the substitution of imports for domestic products (Guerra, 1997). This general enhancement of national organisations would make them not only home-based productive, but also internationally competitive.

5.4 Legacy heritage (1995–2002)

As the younger son, Ali Saifi grew up close to his father, Ali Ahmad. He was his father’s companion during his daily job routine. This close relationship thought him many values and techniques:

I was a companion to my father since he was eight or nine years old. I was young and I used to go to my family’s store, in the family business. [Near three years after] I was traveling with my father because […] So, as being the youngest, I ended up growing close to him, more than the others [sons]. And I think it ended up influencing in my breeding, and even in my way of walking, the way I talk, my way of acting, they are all similar as his. I have a lot like him because I was the son that stayed more with him. […] And I was there, beside my father, getting the hang of things, intentionally or not, while watching, traveling and participating in congresses, attending meetings.

Besides all the Islamic religion influence Ali Saifi received from his family habits, there are values also related to personal behaviours that he understands that were essential to conduct CDIAL business. Ali Saifi commented on that:

[My father transmitted me] the so-called credibility. Never accept anything wrong for any money. So, for example, regardless of whether the company needs to export […] our job is to really ensure that the product arrives to the Muslim as he should arrive, just as Halal. And this parameter lead [our actions] and we grow based on this. […] Another thing he taught me is what I always say: ‘Never sign a paper that you do not agree with him’. The Halal certificate is a statement […] If I do not agree with what is written I cannot sign it. […] And these factors are what did CDIAL as it is today.

This familiar values transference provides to different generations, some personal values directed to business conduction that might have not been transmitted in the same manner if it was not for the heritage legacy. Such legacy with values related to the Islamic religion plus the family values were important to conduct business without major disruptions the company transition from Ali Ahmad to Ali Saifi in the beginning of the 2000s.

However, despite the importance of being from the Islamic family lineage in a succession, it is not considered enough. In Ali Saifi vision: “The one who is going to assume the leadership of Halal [business] will not gain the position only for being my son. He will need to be prepared, being him my son or someone else’s child”. It demonstrates that there is a commitment with God and with the Islamic requirements that surpass the family heritage. Hence, it is perceived that Islamic values might be maintained over the family leadership continuity. We can see a new category for the Islamic entrepreneurship that is the existence of the technical and, most of all, spiritual preparation.

The history of an Islamic entrepreneurship 285

During this period, the APEX (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) was created in 1997 and Brazilian agencies and companies started to be more present in international events and fairs. “The APEX activities led Brazilian businessmen to open new doors in China, Russia, India and Middle East countries” [Caixeta et al., (2006), p.12]. Initiatives trying to expand Brazilian exports were being conducted with Islamic countries and CDIAL needed to be aware on this increasing market opportunity. At this time, it was extremely important to increase productivity and to conduct a smooth and innovative manager transition to avail such opportunities in a more competitive international market.

5.5 CDIAL’s apex (2002–nowadays)

According to Haffner and Holland (2012), since 2003, when the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva begun, Brazil’s relations with the Middle East and the Arab League were incidentally increased and became part of the agenda for new markets seeking. Exports were being stimulated, bringing economic, commercial and financial results, what multiplied the Brazilian trade balance with the region until its peak in 2008.

There were increasing exports directed to Middle East from this period, what includes the poultry exports. In 2000, Brazil exported 422,000 ton of chicken to the Middle East countries, increasing this quantity to 1,694 thousands ton in 2012 (MDIC, 2014). Besides, in 2004 Brazil turned into the biggest poultry export in the international trade market (USDA, 2013). It was important to CDIAL to be productive and efficient to be part of this improving marketing, adding value to the process that the concurrence was not ready yet. In this context, one of the first initiatives from Ali Saifi was the implementations of control software. It was an implementation in a crucial period, when a ‘new administration’ was required, as he states. He assumed his concerns with processes related not only to the operationalisation of Halal slaughtering, but also with the whole processes involving the certification issuing.

A process cannot compromise the other. The Halal certificate issuing, for example, lasted for three days. At that moment, things such as the internet and program were becoming huge. That internet boom was happening and I glimpsed an idea and I said, ‘I’ll turn the Halal slaughter in Brazil’. Formerly, the Halal certificate was being completed in those [writer] machines […] It was taking three days [for a certification issue]! […] We, the Halal [certification process], could not be the part that takes three days. So, I developed a system along with a third party company, what reduced these three days to thirty minutes to issue the certificate. I ceased the bottleneck. It also reduced costs, time and increased the control.

Other innovation identified was the poultry production control checklist that was also adopted by huge private organisations and also by governmental vet inspection. However, there were not innovations related only to process improvement. An example of product innovation was the creation of griller and special cuts to attend specific demands from the Middle East importers.

Parallel other initiatives were taking place to reinforce Brazil and MENA countries relations. While the government was also improving its diplomatic relations to Islamic-majority countries (Haffner and Holland, 2012), UBABEF (Brazilian Poultry Association) and APEX were also preparing visits and organising the participation of Brazilians in international events in order to increase the Middle East market opening.

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Figure 1 demonstrates an example of an UBABEF’s action oriented to increase Brazilian poultry participation in the Arab market with the sponsoring from APEX.

Figure 1 UBABEF’s stand at Gulfood Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (see online version for colours)

Source: UBABEF (2011, p.85)

Brazil was starting to be seen and perceived as a common presence at the international market oriented to MENA countries. At this time, the increasing demand forced the creation of new Halal business to attend Islamic market and, consequently, new certifiers were being created. However, since this certifying job is based on trustworthiness and credibility built along the years, Middle East importers usually asked CDIAL support to inspect and support other certifiers in Latin America to ensure the other certifiers were in fully accordance to Islamic precepts and that no disruptions would occur in the other certifiers’ activities due to their learning process. Hence, CDIAL’s institutional legitimacy has been gradually growing and recognises among Islamic authorities throughout the years. Ali Saifi mentioned that:

Historically, Halal started when some importers from Arab countries came to Brazil and taught local authorities how to work; and now I’m restarting this sort of thing [support and teaching to other certifiers]. I’ve already done support jobs in some countries such as Uruguay; I have also given some support to Argentinean Islamic center. […] Now we were asked to train certifiers in Europe because some [Middle East] importers did not fully agree with the production there and then asked me to visit lots of countries. I am traveling now to Germany to check up this request.

[…] we has more experience than the others due to our needs. And thank God, in parallel, our credibility was maintained. When there is a new project, they always look for someone who has more experience and we were the popular ones here. Now I’m in the position to organize the Halal five countries in South America, perhaps we will have the sixth. […] But this is a story of strength, seriousness…that we did not sell out our principles, always believing in God and with much effort. […] We were being developed along with Brazil.

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This speech can also highlight the role CDIAL has in the international Islamic network. Commonly, CDIAL leaders are asked to travel around the world to support other certifiers in their certification process. Considering the non-Muslim majority countries, CDIAL from Brazil represents a respectful and reputational organisation among the Islamic network in such level that they can support other beginner certifiers.

5.6 Timeline unifying CDIAL’s internal and external aspects

Considering variables that define the Islamic entrepreneurship construct from the theory review and added by the empirical findings, a resume of these variables can be found at Table 1. Table 1 Variables that represent an Islamic entrepreneurship

Variable Identified in Period when it is more prominent

Moral and ethics Theory review Establishment of guidelines

Internal driving force Theory review Prelude

Legacy Theory review Legacy heritage

Specialised cluster Theory review Development

Values Theory review Legacy heritage

Foreign contacts Theory review Prelude

Trustworthiness Theory review Development

Reputation Theory review Development

Collaboration Theory review Development

Networks Theory review Establishment of guidelines

Institutional legitimacy Theory review Apex

Innovation Theory review Apex

Partnership Empirical phase Development

Spiritual preparation Empirical phase Legacy heritage

Source: Elaborated by the authors

Besides, in order to synthesise the five eras in the same scheme along with the external events and the internal aspects (variables presented at Table 1), Figure 2 timeline was drawn.

This timeline demonstrates that CDIAL’s story can be seen under the influence, in some level, of the external events (that influence also the poultry exports). Besides, it is important to note that the variables that constitute the Islamic entrepreneurship were considered more prominent in specific evolution periods. Hence, CDIAL’s internal aspects appear in different intensity along organisation lifetime. Such prominence might be explained, in some level, due to the influence of the external events appurtenant in the CDIAL’s story.

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Figure 2 CDIAL’s timeline

Innovation Institutional legitimacy

(internationally)

Values Legacy

Preparation

Internal driving force

Foreign contacts Ethics

Network

CollaborationSpecialised cluster

Trustworthiness Reputation Partnership V

aria

bles

Prelude Apex Legacy heritage Development Estab. of guidelines

1970 Nowadays 2002 1988 1995 1984

• Poultry exports increase

• MENA opening market deeper initiatives

• Importers’ demands to CDIAL’s coordination

• APEX creation • First MENA

opening market initiatives

• International market opening

• Governmental organs’ approximation

• End of military regime

• New embassies and diplomatic posts in MENA

Ext

erna

l eve

nts

Source: Elaborated by the authors

6 Conclusions

6.1 Theoretical domain contributions

The first relevant theoretical contribution in that Islamic entrepreneurship should be seen both as the business done by Muslims as the business done to Muslims. Such division demonstrates that researches should be aware that Islamic entrepreneurship is not only those business run by Muslims, but also those business oriented to the Islamic market. Both perspectives should be considered to establish a theoretical contribution under a broader approach to define such construct (Islamic entrepreneurship) and its respective variables.

Based on this, we provided a model defining the Islamic entrepreneurship construct based on variables from available theory and also supported by field approach. Such empirical set of evidence demonstrated also other important factors that should be considered in an Islamic entrepreneurship. These variables can be found at Table 1. We could identify that such variables may appear more incidentally in different phases of the entrepreneurship cycle, according to organisational evolution, what might be influenced by external factors and environmental contingencies.

In this case, it is also important to note that besides the religious values transmitted along generations, there are also values from cohesive families that are also transmitted. Both kinds of values are essential to be understood and considered when studying Islamic family entrepreneurship. So, it is acceptable the Jaskiewicz et al.’s (2015) theory that entrepreneurial narratives are embedded in family values to further generations when this family is cohesive, as a religious-oriented family might be cohesive. Present findings go further when considering that such values in Islamic family entrepreneurship involved personal family values and Islamic values, and they might be intrinsic between each other. So, researches should be aware on both existences to avoid disregarding any of

The history of an Islamic entrepreneurship 289

them when studying these entrepreneurships. Besides, it can be stated that an Islamic entrepreneurship lead succession does not depend merely on a family descendant, but on the spiritual and technical preparation of the successor, since these values on organisation leadership are essential to maintain business credibility and to attend Islamic requirements. In essay, the commitment with God’s requirements surpasses the family succession.

6.2 Methodological domain contributions

As for the methodological domain contribution, the current study was supported by a multi-perspective approach, using entrepreneurs’ narratives in conjoint with the environmental context analysis where the entrepreneurship was immersed. Using both actor-centric and context-centric approaches is a recent technique that is not commonly observed in the entrepreneurship theme studies, what includes the Islamic entrepreneurship researches. Results do not rely only on entrepreneurship narratives of success since they were improved as researches could see them against external events that influence directions and strategies along the entrepreneurship life story.

6.3 Substantive domain contributions

Islamic organisation life cycle is different from the traditional organisations because it depends on religious reputation to achieve its development when providing products to the Muslim community. Hence, its apex comes only after legitimacy obtained in an Islamic network. Such legitimacy and trust is achieved after continuous interactions that are enabled at first by the cultural proximity among exporters and importers. When Islamic-oriented exporters sell to MENA countries, they become favoured because entrepreneurial businesses done by Muslims are, at some level, more tendentious to achieve success when delivering religious-oriented goods to Islamic markets (business done to Muslims).

When attending Muslim-oriented countries’ demands in an international market, Islamic entrepreneurs should be aware on the influences from home country events, as the ones from foreign countries of destiny. Events from both sources may affect entrepreneurship decision-making and development.

6.4 Managerial and technical implications

Current results contribute to other small venturing enterprises to achieve higher growth rates based on abstractive processed obtained through the presentation of challenges and experiences faced by entrepreneurs’ life stories, as described by Johansson (2004), specially, to Islamic small businesses installed in non-Muslim countries. Hence, learning through the successful story of an Islamic entrepreneurship might encourage other Muslims to identify their actual development phase, what can support them to conduct their business to a further stage after investing in the important variables of the next development cycle phase.

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