Robert Irvine Mochrie

ICT‐enabled collectivity as a positive rural business strategy

This paper examines the development of Internet‐based, virtual business forums and their potential for overcoming some of the difficulties faced by business owners in rural areas. Rural environments provide challenges for business owners due to limited local markets and limited access to resources. The paper examines the success of collective action by business owners in rural environments in Scotland to establish Internet‐based business forums that seek to meet such challenges. Using case study methodology, the paper finds variable experiences and proposes a model of the process of collective action.

Competition and Participation in Religious Markets: Evidence from Victorian Scotland

Abstract In 1885, the largest churches in Scotland were engaged in a dispute about state funding. We use data generated in the course of that dispute to test two related hypotheses. First, as market size (proxied by population) increases, the competitiveness (or complexity) of the religious market structure will not decrease. Second, religious activity, as measured by giving per member, church income and participation, will not decrease as market competitiveness (or complexity) increases. Empirical evidence lends support to the first hypothesis, but casts doubt on the second, and the supply-side theories underpinning it, which posit a causal link between increased competitiveness (complexity) and higher levels of religious activity. In interpreting the results the importance of a rich understanding of institutional arrangements—particularly market structure, governance and financing—is underlined.

Money, Sex and Religion: The Case of the Church of Scotland

This empirical study addresses whether the gender of a minister has any effect on remuneration in the Church of Scotland in 2004. The data set merges three cross-sectional sources, namely denominational data, church census information and local geographic (postcode) characteristics. We find that male ministers are more likely to be matched to affluent churches permitted to pay a voluntary stipend premium all else equal. Moreover, conditional on eligibility, there is evidence that male clergy are more likely to receive this bonus. The data are unable to discriminate between demand and supply side explanations of these findings.