Religious Organizations Crossing Boundaries: The Centrifugal Expansion of U.S.-based Mission Agencies Open Access
Bok, Jared (2016)
Abstract
This dissertation explores the expansion of transnationally centrifugal Protestant Mission Agencies operating out of the U.S. I investigate expansionary behaviors by drawing on a range of theoretical approaches including neoinstitutionalism, organizational ecology, vicarious learning, religious identity, and social movements. Using event history analysis, I investigate rates of initiated engagement in activity sectors and rates of founding new international ministries, focusing on 1970 to 2008 for the former and 1982 to 2007 for the latter. Concerning activities, heterogeneity between activity sectors determines the extent of influence of external environmental processes, such as density dependence and sector exits, and internal factors, such as size and religious identity. Only sector exits has a consistently negative effect on transition rates, and only in the five sectors where its effects are significant. In addition, I find that declining sectors do not exhibit anticipated ecological density-dependence and vicarious learning effects through sector exits. Religious identity, between Evangelical and non-Evangelicals, plays an important role in rates of initiated engagement but, as with other factors, the direction of its effect depends on the sector. Rates of founding new international ministries more consistently fit neoinstitutional and ecological expectations. Density has a curvilinear inverted U-shaped effect on founding rates, age has a negative effect, and size a positive one. Vicarious learning from exits has no effect, however, suggesting that founding rates are independent of ministry failures. Internationally, agencies involved in evangelism tend to found ministries in countries with low proportions of Protestants, while agencies involved in relief and development gravitate towards underdeveloped countries. Additionally, agencies tend to move towards rather than away from countries suffering from wars, religious polarization, and government restrictions on religious freedom. Collectively, these results contribute: 1) empirically to a better understanding of Christian organizations operating transnationally, 2) theoretically by demonstrating the extent to which organizational and environmental processes typically used to explain secular organizational behavior can also be used in studying religious organizations, and 3) practically, by helping agencies situate themselves within the broader picture of Christian missions and by informing political leaders and decision-makers of the international locations where American Christians tend to operate.
Table of Contents
I. INTRODUCTION. 1
The History of Centrifugal Religious Organizations in the U.S.. 6
II. THE ORGANIZATION OF CENTRIFUGAL RELIGION: CHARACTERSTICS, ACTIVITIES, AND INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES OF U.S. MISSION AGENCIES. 13
Organizational Data. 14
International Data. 58
III. CENTRIFUGAL FORCES: A THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF ORGANIZATIONAL, RELIGIOUS, AND INTERNATIONAL-LEVEL FACTORS UNDERLYING AGENCY DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES..77
Neoinstitutionalism. 78
Vicarious Learning. 89
Organizational Ecology. 92
Religious Identity. 101
Social Movements. 106
Control Variables. 115
IV. EXPANDING CHRISTIAN REPERTOIRES: HOW PROTESTANT MISSION AGENCIES INITIATE ENGAGEMENT INTO NEW ACTIVITY SECTORS. 121
Setting the Stage: Event-History Methodology and Descriptives. 121
Pulling Back the Curtain: Event-History Results and Discussion. 133
V. THE GLOBAL EXPANSION OF CENTRIFUGAL RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS: HOW PROTESTANT MISSION AGENCIES FOUND NEW INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES. 160
Setting the Stage: Event-History Methodology and Descriptives. 160
Pulling Back the Curtain: Event-History Results and Discussion. 169
VI. CONCLUSION. 188
VII. REFERENCES. 199
Appendix A: Data and Variables. 218
Appendix B: Categorization of 143 Agency Activities into 9 Sectors. 225
Appendix C: Comparison of Data Years as Reference Points for MCA. 229
Appendix D: Comparison of MCA Coordinates for Different Time-Interval Models. 230
Appendix E: Wars in Top 5 International Ministry Countries, 1951-2007. 231
Appendix F: Religious Freedom in Top 5 International Ministry Countries, 1981 to 2008. 232
Appendix G: Hypotheses and Variables. 233
Appendix H: Initiated Engagement in Activity Sector(s) Causal Diagrams. 234
Appendix I: Founding of New International Ministries Causal Diagrams. 235
Appendix J: Summary Statistics for Initiated Activity Sector Engagements. 236
Appendix K: Correlation Tables for Initiated Activity Sector Engagements. 240
Appendix L: Event History Models for Initiating Engagement in Activity Sectors. 247
Appendix M: Event History Models for Initiating Engagement in Activity Sectors (Single-Imputed Data). 249
Appendix N: Event History Models for Initiating Engagement in Relief & Development. 251
Appendix O: Summary Statistics for Founding New International Ministries. 252
Appendix P: Correlation Tables for Founding New International Ministries (by Sample). 254
Appendix Q: Event History Models for Founding New International Ministries 257
Appendix R: Event History Models for Founding New International Ministries with Decade Fixed Effects. 259
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