Indigenous Business Research Articles

How to Create a Distinctly Native Journal

In this essay, I describe three characteristics that Indigenous Business and Public Administration should aim to develop to be a distinctly Native journal. The journal should not be contained by dominant stereotypes of Native Americans. It should reflect the adaptability and innovation that Native Americans have shown in surviving the continuing colonial endeavor to erase us. Finally, the relationships between members of this community should be prioritized at least as much as the content. I developed these characteristics by reflecting on my experiences in higher education along with the ideas of other Native scholars.

Coyote Learns Indigenous Academic Writing

The Indigenous Business and Public Administration journal, IBAPA, strives to be a space where Native and Indigenous authors can de-colonize themselves from academic constraints and have a place where they can share their work to the greater Native and Indigenous community who could immediately benefit from their research. To accomplish this, IBAPA strongly encourages its authors to write in conversational styles, appropriate for their communities, while still retaining high standards for scholarship rigor. IBAPA’s expectations for its contributors is described through a Native-style Coyote story.

Indsights: A Window into the Indigenous Economy

In 2020, Indsights: A Window into the Indigenous Economy began as a collaboration between the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB) and Humber College. The purpose is to highlight the contributions of Indigenous peoples to the economy through open educational resources in the form of case studies. Indigenous business owners are invited to participate in a qualitative interview to discuss their entrepreneurial journeys, which are then developed into multimedia case studies. Each entrepreneur plays an active role in the creation of their respective study and has the opportunity to provide feedback and input. Indsights aims to publish 15 case studies online, each including an interview video, written component, and teaching notes. In doing so, this initiative offers learners a wealth of accessible online resources filling a gap in available content on Indigenous entrepreneurs.

The importance of understanding Indigenous employment in the Indigenous business sector

AbstractIndigenous employment has been the subject of numerous policies in Australia, with governments aiming to increase the workforce participation rate amongst Indigenous people in recent years. Indigenous‐owned businesses, formally defined as businesses that are at least 50% Indigenous‐owned, have been demonstrated in previous research to maintain substantially higher levels of proportional Indigenous employment than non‐Indigenous businesses. This suggests that Indigenous‐owned businesses maintain work environments that are more supportive of and conducive to Indigenous employment, meriting the influence of Indigenous‐owned businesses' workplace practices in future Indigenous employment policy design. Using administrative data from two Indigenous business registries (Black Business Finder and Supply Nation), this paper provides an updated empirical analysis of the Indigenous business sector. This paper demonstrates that Indigenous‐owned businesses of all sizes, industries, locations and profit statuses consistently average proportional Indigenous employment rates higher than the Indigenous proportional population. Of all the people employed in Supply Nation‐listed businesses, over 35% are Indigenous. The potential impact of the Indigenous Procurement Policy is illustrated by differentials in the size of businesses and their capacity to employ Indigenous staff. This paper provides analysis of the Indigenous business sector that can inform future policy direction for both Indigenous employment and Indigenous business policies.

Building bridges: using existing law to support the cultural self-determination of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander businesses and communities

ABSTRACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have a long and rich history of enterprise that dates to long before European contact. Today, through resilience and ingenuity, Indigenous businesses are one of the fastest growing sectors of the Australian economy and one of the most rapidly expanding providers of employment. Indigenous individuals are achieving these results in spite of the ways that the laws imposed through colonisation placed, and continued to place, First Nations peoples at a profound disadvantage in maintaining economic self-determination. Although law reform in this area is essential, progress is slow and there is often a perception that little can be done by individuals – especially non-Indigenous legal practitioners and businesspeople – until the reform takes place. There are, however, more immediately available options. Using examples, this article advocates for more systematic research into the capacity of existing laws and commercial legal tools to better strengthen First Nations entrepreneurship in Australia while simultaneously supporting Indigenous businesspeople to achieve success not only economically but also in ways that are culturally relevant to themselves and their communities. Importantly, these structures, processes and mechanisms comprise tools to be deployed by non-Indigenous as well as First Nations legal practitioners and businesspeople.

Reframing Indigenous tourism entrepreneurial personality, experience, sense of community and challenges in community-based tourism-related business

Purpose This study aims to investigate the Malaysian Mah Meri Indigenous tourism entrepreneur’s personality, experience, sense of community traits and current challenges in community-based tourism (CBT)-related businesses. Design/methodology/approach Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather data from 10 Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs. Data were analysed using the NVivo 11 software. Findings The qualitative content analysis found three broad themes. Firstly, the authors found that the Mah Meri community possesses unique self-efficacy personality characteristics, significantly predicting their unsustainable entrepreneurial behaviours. Secondly, they are willing to share their values, beliefs and interests in their business offerings, which reflect their sense of community. Even with considerable entrepreneurial experience through learning from local wisdom and upskilling efforts by the government, the authors found that the community limitation mainly concerns the lack of early education, uninventive entrepreneurship practices and financial assistance. Practical implications This study provides an improved understanding of the Indigenous business environment for policymakers and Indigenous entrepreneurs. We found entrepreneurial personality, experience, sense of community determine and structure their CBT entrepreneurial activities. Originality/value This study provides a new perspective on Indigenous tourism entrepreneurs’ personalities, experiences, sense of community traits and challenges. The study also suggests encouraging sustainable Indigenous entrepreneurship practices for economic development, self-determination and community sustainability.

Missing Policy for Supporting Cultural Heritage Preservation of Batik Industry Clusters in Barlingmascakeb Region, Indonesia

The emergence of ‘new’ batik industry clusters in the Java mainland in the early 2000s has raised inquiries towards the interplay between indigenous business formation and government intervention. Following the historical trajectories, the batik industry has performed an intergenerational family business model by forwarding long-standing local genius in local development. However, top-down government intervention has also taken a key role in driving the local batik industry. Batik industry clusters in Barlingmascakeb Region may perform differently. This study focuses on scrutinizing how their persistence may contribute to local development where either the tradition root or policy support is missing. A mixed-method approach with sequential strategy was used by conducting case study analysis of the key informants and statistical analysis on the development of batik industry clusters in situ. The results show that their persistence is mostly encouraged by opportunistic trading businesses with little multiplier effects to local development. The local government policy merely serves a program matching instead of promoting the so-called cultural heritage preservation. As a result, the localized cultural identity brought by the batik industry clusters is unrecognizable and leaving profit-taking of the batik trading at the place.

Counting on Indigenous accountants: Collaborative curriculum development for an Indigenous pre-accounting enabling program

With less than 100 registered Indigenous accountants in Australia compared to an estimated 200,000 non-Indigenous people in the field, there is serious underrepresentation of the Indigenous population in the profession. There are many imperatives for increasing the number of Aboriginal people in accounting, but the barriers that individuals face before or upon entering the field are formidable. Therefore, the development of enabling programs in higher education is essential. The objective of this research is to develop a curriculum for the Indigenous Pre-Accounting Enabling Program at Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Darwin, Australia that is culturally empowering, breaks down the barriers for entering university, motivates Indigenous students to study accounting, links students to Indigenous professionals, offer gateways into the industry, and establishes a community of Indigenous students online and on campus. The novelty of the program is its early involvement of Indigenous accountants as role models as well as Indigenous corporations, regulators of Indigenous businesses (such as the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations) and accreditation bodies such as the Chartered Professional Accountants and Chartered Accountants.

Concurrent 11. Presentation for: Strategies for actively engaging with Indigenous businesses

Presented on Wednesday 18 May: Session 11 Indigenous businesses are significantly contributing to the Australian economy and the improved circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their families and communities through social and economic empowerment. Supplier diversity has significant and measurable long-term business benefits. Diversity within supply chains can not only bring new ideas and solutions to an organisation, but also boost competitiveness and market growth. But it goes further than these commercial benefits to encompass social value; the ability to reduce socio-economic inequality and create stronger, more stable communities. In this case study, the authors demonstrate key strategies for actively engaging with Indigenous businesses resulting in an increased spend of A$83.9 million compared to A$54.9 million for the same period last year, representing a 54% year-on-year increase. These key strategies are: (1) Identify verified Indigenous businesses; (2) Align objectives and requirements with key stakeholders; (3) Start small and increase scope with capability; and (4) Make it easy for Indigenous businesses to engage with organisations. Realising the potential of Indigenous businesses will create a new generation of entrepreneurs who grow their own business knowledge, networks, assets and wealth, removing barriers to employment for future generations and helping create a positive cycle of social and economic empowerment. Case study: Indigenous Beverages Australia is a unique company run and owned by a Goreng Goreng heritage family. Initially supplying a range of quality natural spring water, beverage and specialty coffee products, the company is now one of Ventia’s largest Supply Nation-certified suppliers providing products including coffee cups, coffee beans and isotonic drinks throughout Australia. To access the presentation click the link on the right. To read the full paper click here

Strategies for actively engaging with Indigenous businesses

Indigenous businesses are significantly contributing to the Australian economy and the improved circumstances of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, their families and communities through social and economic empowerment. Supplier diversity has significant and measurable long-term business benefits. Diversity within supply chains can not only bring new ideas and solutions to an organisation, but also boost competitiveness and market growth. But it goes further than these commercial benefits to encompass social value; the ability to reduce socio-economic inequality and create stronger, more stable communities. In this case study, the authors demonstrate key strategies for actively engaging with Indigenous businesses resulting in an increased spend of A$83.9 million compared to A$54.9 million for the same period last year, representing a 54% year-on-year increase. These key strategies are: (1) Identify verified Indigenous businesses; (2) Align objectives and requirements with key stakeholders; (3) Start small and increase scope with capability; and (4) Make it easy for Indigenous businesses to engage with organisations. Realising the potential of Indigenous businesses will create a new generation of entrepreneurs who grow their own business knowledge, networks, assets and wealth, removing barriers to employment for future generations and helping create a positive cycle of social and economic empowerment. Case study: Indigenous Beverages Australia is a unique company run and owned by a Goreng Goreng heritage family. Initially supplying a range of quality natural spring water, beverage and specialty coffee products, the company is now one of Ventia’s largest Supply Nation-certified suppliers providing products including coffee cups, coffee beans and isotonic drinks throughout Australia.

State-centric Ploys in the Rise and Liquidation Process of the Nangah Company Limited (Cameroon), 1962-1991

Corporate enterprises in British Southern Cameroons as in most African territories under colonial rule were dominated for the most part by non-nationals. After the independence and reunification of British Southern Cameroons with the Republic of Cameroon on 1st October 1961, there was a visible paradigm shift in the actors and scope of intervention of corporate business life in Anglophone Cameroon, the territory roughly representing the erstwhile British Southern Cameroons. The Social and economic needs of the new state in office structures, hotels, transportation and the increased exigency for public utilities, gave room for fresh business opportunities. This resulted in the birth of indigenous business companies prominent among which was the famed Nangah Company limited. Though this company became the symbol of indigenous entrepreneurship in Anglophone Cameroon in the 1960s and 1970s, it became a victim of “problematic” liquidation in the 1980s largely as a result of political manipulation. It is centrally in this context that this paper mostly drawing from primary historical sources and employing a descriptive and analytical approach, examines the political influences involved in the rise and eventual collapse of the Nangah Company. The findings revealed that the backbone of the speedy ascendancy of the Nangah Company was the Kamerun National Democratic Party (KNDP) support given that the main shareholders of the company were financial benefactors of the KNDP Party. The paper equally disclosed that, following the putting in place of a one party state in 1966 and later the Unitary State in 1972, political suspicion and social clashes between D. A. Nangah and President Amadou Ahidjo, led to the political victimization of the Nangah Company. This personality differences partly contributed to ushering the company to a calamitous demise. It also emerged from the investigation that, the Nangah Company was entangled by the double matrix of the inability by the .........

FOSTERING AN ECONOMIC LINKAGE BETWEEN INDIGENOUS GHANAIAN FIRMS AND LOCAL CONTENT POLICY IMPLEMENTATION: A CRITICAL REVIEW

The desire to use the extractive industry as a catalyst to provide an enhanced and positive economic breakthrough for resource-rich countries continues to be at the forefront of the debate on natural resource abundance and development. After several years of concentrating on fiscal policies as a means for accomplishing positive impact, local content policies (LCPs) have re-emerged as one of the tools that could allow linkages within the extractive sector in developing economies, particularly those in Africa. By integrating extensive literature on the subject under investigation, this paper critically analyses whether Ghana’ LCP implementation has been able to foster an economic linkage between indigenous Ghanaian-owned firms in the upstream sector. Our critique also seeks to ascertain if the development of LCP has been an efficient springboard in leveraging development transformation. Following on from other studies on LCPs, it is widely argued that local content policies can be a useful strategy for resource-rich countries in their quest for economic transformation, but this assertion appears to be vague as local content policy implementation and its cascading ramifications on indigenous businesses have produced mixed results. What this means is that local content policy implementation strategies differ from country to country and so no single policy will fit for all as some countries focus on various areas based on their level of development and economic aspirations. This paper offers observations and insights for rethinking theoretical approaches that can help establish the linkages between local content policy implementation and its implications on indigenous firms.

Editorial: Sustainable Business Models for the Growth of Indigenous Businesses in Africa

This special issue of the World Review of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development (WREMSD) explores Sustainable Business Models for the Growth of Indigenous Businesses in Africa. The Special Issue was motivated by a desire to provide a robust collection of current theories and research on sustainable models for the growth of Indigenous Businesses in Africa.

Reframing Chinese Business History

Business history is expanding to include a greater plurality of contexts, with the study of Chinese business representing a key area of growth. However, despite efforts to bring China into the fold, much of Chinese business history remains stubbornly distal to the discipline. One reason is that business historians have not yet reconciled with the field's unique origins and intellectual tradition. This article develops a revisionist historiography of Chinese business history that retraces the field's development from its Cold War roots to the present day, showing how it has been shaped by the particular questions and concerns of “area studies.” It then goes on to explore five recent areas of novel inquiry, namely: the study of indigenous business institutions, business and semi-colonial context, business at the periphery of empire, business during socialist transition, and business under Chinese socialism. Through this mapping of past and present trajectories, the article aims to provide greater coherence to the burgeoning field and shows how, by taking Chinese business history seriously, we are afforded a unique opportunity to reimagine the future of business history as a whole.

From the ground up: growing an Australian Aboriginal cultural festival into a live musical community

PurposeThe purpose is to review the formation, event management, performance development and consumption of South East Australia’s inaugural 2018 Giiyong Festival with emphasis on the sociocultural imaginary and political positionings of its shared theatre of arts.Design/methodology/approachA trialogue between a musicologist, festival director and Indigenous stakeholder accrues qualitative ethnographic findings for discussion and analysis of the organic growth and productive functioning of the festival.FindingsAs an unprecedented moment of large-scale unity between First and non-First Nations Peoples in South East Australia, Giiyong Festival elevated the value of Indigenous business, culture and society in the regional marketplace. The performing arts, coupled with linguistic and visual idioms, worked to invigorate the Yuin cultural landscape.Research limitations/implicationsAdditional research was curtailed as COVID-19 shutdowns forced the cancellation of Giiyong Festival (2020). Opportunities for regional Indigenous arts to subsist as a source for live cultural expression are scoped.Practical implicationsMusic and dance are renewable cultural resources, and when performed live within festival contexts they work to sustain Indigenous identities. When aligned with Indigenous knowledge and languages, they impart central agency to First Nations Peoples in Australia.Social implicationsThe marketing of First Nations arts contributes broadly to high political stakes surrounding the overdue Constitutional Recognition of Australia's Indigenous Peoples.Originality/valueThe inclusive voices of a festival director and Indigenous manager augment a scholarly study of SE Australia's first large Aboriginal cultural festival that supplements pre-existing findings on Northern Australian festivals.

Decolonizing the Business Case Study

Business education needs to be decolonized. The teaching case is at the heart of contemporary business school pedagogy. However, case studies rarely reflect Indigenous business values or practices. In this paper, we argue that Indigenous ontologies, epistemologies, and axiologies need to be integrated into mainstream business school curricula and that this can be accomplished through a case writing methodology grounded in Indigenous research methods. We scrutinize the lack of Indigenous-focused business cases currently available, as well as describe some of the most important initiatives to date that attempt to address this gap. It is our hope that business scholars and researchers alike will have a deeper understanding of the need for inclusion and decolonization of business school curricula.

Causal Relationship Between Financial Sector Development in SMEs & Economic Growth in Southern Africa Region

This study explores causal relationship between financial sector development in SMEs and economic growth in Zimbabwe using annual time series and the Error Correction Model (ECM) framework. Monetary sector improvement and financial development stayed a controversial issue in Southern African nations. Market analysts have distinctive hypothetical and exact perspectives on the causal connection between monetary sector improvement and financial development. support supply driving speculation that monetary sector improvement prompts financial development & credit to request pulling speculation which proposes that monetary improvement results from financial development. Study made use of Unit Root Tests, Cointegration, ECM and Granger Causality Tests. Empirical findings revealed a bidirectional relationship between financial sector development in SMEs, economic & business growth. Business & Economic Growth enhance a strong and flexible legal system allowing banks to allocate resources (credit) more efficiently to SMEs. Credit should be accessed by all enterprise fairly to encourage the development of indigenous businesses through SMEs.

Indigenous corporations: Lessons from Māori business forms

The economic and political empowerment of Indigenous people are linked although the issue of economic empowerment is often overlooked. This Brief analyses the corporate governance model and business structures used by Māori in New Zealand along with some developments in Canadian Indigenous businesses. Based on this, the Brief makes suggestions for proving the regulatory support and options available for Indigenous businesses in Australia.

Indigenous Business Support Services: A Case Study of the Quebec Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Canada

Support services — also known as accompaniment practices and advisory services — are essential for the development of small businesses. In terms of support services specific to Indigenous businesses, the literature is rather silent. Yet, one can expect that the recent and growing market-related entrepreneurial trend in Indigenous communities will generate increasing accompaniment needs in those contexts. The objective of this research is to better understand the entrepreneurial ecosystem and its current synergy, as well as identifying the challenges of Indigenous entrepreneurship. To do so, we rely on a qualitative methodological approach, focusing on the Indigenous entrepreneurial ecosystem in Quebec, Canada. Overall, our research highlights the need to adapt support services to Indigenous-related entrepreneurial issues. This research paves the way for a broader discussion related to how local governments, economic development organizations, funding agencies, and business support services organizations can work together for a comprehensive economic development strategy within Indigenous contexts.

Measuring Mediating Effects of Intrapreneurship Mindset and Skills on Organizational Performance and Growth: An Empirical Investigation on Indigenous Organizations in Sri Lanka

A well-crafted human resource strategy to nurture a corporate culture that helps cultivate risk-taking intrapreneurs is conducive for the success of the indigenous corporation in Sri Lanka. However, compared to multinational organizations, the implementation and measurement of employee’s risk-taking readiness in indigenous enterprises, especially when introducing new business ventures, is lacking. Hence, this study aims to investigate how the intrapreneurial mindset and skills of employees in indigenous organizations are nurtured to influence organizational performance and growth. An online survey was administered using a random sample of 322 respondents selected from various indigenous business organizations registered at the Department of Registration of Companies, Sri Lanka. Data suggests that strategic human resource management activities at indigenous business organizations in Sri Lanka influence organizational performance and intrapreneurial skills and mindset. The findings make an important contribution to the existing body of literature by bridging the gap, establishing the importance of strategic human resource management. One of the limitations this study encountered was the number of elements selected to investigate in the overall HR process. This study has significant practical implications for senior managers and human resource managers in designing policies for indigenous organizations in Sri Lanka.