Family, community, and globalization: Wayuu indigenous entrepreneurs as n-Culturals
Cross Cultural & Strategic Management
ISSN: 2059-5794
Article publication date: 6 March 2020
Issue publication date: 30 June 2020
Abstract
Purpose
To explore the cultural context of Indigenous family entrepreneurs and to apply to them the concept of n-Culturals, thus contributing to validating the concept.
Design/methodology/approach
Interview data collected from Wayuu entrepreneurs in La Guajira region of Colombia and from Māori entrepreneurs in the Rotorua region of New Zealand were analyzed qualitatively. The analysis primarily focused on Wayuu entrepreneurs, with the results for Māori entrepreneurs used for comparison, to help to interpret the Wayuu data.
Findings
For Wayuu entrepreneurs, family members play a range of crucial roles in enterprise operations, with the family and the kin-centered local Indigenous community emerging as an informal organization surrounding the enterprise. Family is the source of Indigenous culture, while the mainstream culture is centered on global Western business culture, rather than the culture of the country. The Indigenous entrepreneurs integrate the values of the two cultures in managing their enterprises, thus acting as n-Cultural. Māori entrepreneurs who managed enterprises with a strong Indigenous character were similar in this respect to Wayuu entrepreneurs.
Social implications
As n-Culturals integrating the values of Indigenous culture and the mainstream culture, Indigenous entrepreneurs develop valuable traits, becoming a valuable component of the human capital in their regions, even when their enterprises fail.
Originality/value
Existing research on multicultural individuals is largely limited to immigrants and expatriates. By characterizing Indigenous family entrepreneurs as n-Culturals, the present study contributes to validating the concept and opens the way for further research on how Indigenous entrepreneurs manage their multicultural identities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Massey University Research Fund. This article forms part of a special section “Family Business and Local Development in Iberoamerica”, guest edited by Luis Gomez-Mejia, Claudio G. Muller, Ana Cristina Gonzalez, Rodrigo Basco.
Citation
Tretiakov, A., Felzensztein, C., Zwerg, A.M., Mika, J.P. and Macpherson, W.G. (2020), "Family, community, and globalization: Wayuu indigenous entrepreneurs as n-Culturals", Cross Cultural & Strategic Management, Vol. 27 No. 2, pp. 189-211. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCSM-01-2019-0025
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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