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This paper aims to highlight the role of mindfulness in the development of indigenous knowledge (IK), indigenous innovations and entrepreneurship or new entry.

Through an extensive analysis of extant mindfulness and indigenous entrepreneurship literatures, the paper argues for the facilitating role of individual mindfulness in IK, indigenous innovations and entrepreneurship and generates several propositions as a result.

The paper argues that mindfulness encourages the appreciation of other forms of knowledge and practices distinct from the more prevalent Western forms, and by so doing, promotes indigenous innovation and indigenous entrepreneurship (or indigenous new entry or new business venture).

It is reasoned that indigenous communities around the world have rich experiences and accumulated knowledge that have enabled them develop explanations of their environments and economic development and sustainability, and by recognizing and valuing such knowledge and experiences, mindfulness facilitates innovations and entrepreneurship.

The facilitating role of IK in developing indigenous innovations and indigenous entrepreneurship is clearly evident, at least in indigenous societies; however, researchers are yet to recognise and explore this dynamics as deserved. Mindfulness not only opens up the mindset of researchers to further explore this phenomenon but also helps society to recognise the contributions and value of IK.

This work is a pioneer in the effort to integrate mindfulness concept into the indigenous entrepreneurship research. By using mindfulness lens to view the relationship between IK, indigenous innovations and entrepreneurship, the study locates mindfulness as both antecedent to and moderator of these relationships.

Entrepreneurship by Indigenous people in Canada and Australia, while historically connected to the ancestral lands and traditional practices of Indigenous people, has been evolving and expanding in scope and nature. In this article, the authors aim to offer an integrative framework for capturing the contemporary dynamics and outcomes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people as they pursue venture creation as part of their broader development aspirations.

Drawing on literature from place-based views of entrepreneurship and social identity theory, the authors develop a typology to account for four modes of entrepreneurship by Indigenous people along two contextual dimensions – Indigenous territory and Indigenous marker.

Indigenous practicing entrepreneurship may choose to conduct business within or outside of traditional lands and demonstrate more or less indigeneity in their business activities as they marshal resources and seek opportunities. The authors identify how these diverse Indigenous businesses contribute to the economic development among Indigenous communities as part of their ongoing struggle to rebuild their “nations” using business.

This article contributes by differentiating sociocultural vs economic resources in noneconomic contexts to develop a theoretical typology of Indigenous entrepreneurship. By detailing the relations between Indigenous territories and Indigenous lands and between Indigenous identity and Indigenous markers, the authors contribute to a more nuanced and practical conceptualization of Indigenous entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between entrepreneurship and resilience in an indigenous context. The overarching research questions are: What are the mechanisms that link entrepreneurial thought and action to resilience in a marginalized context? How can entrepreneurial thought and actions lead to building economic, community and cultural resilience?

An exploratory-naturalistic case study methodology was used to examine the entrepreneurial journey of the Boruca. Data were collected from in-depth semi-structured and unstructured interviews among 10 informants over a five-year period. Constant comparative method was used to analyze the data.

Due to the need to survive, the Boruca engaged in entrepreneurial thought and action, which, in turn, led to the development of community, cultural and economic resilience. The authors developed a conceptual model to illustrate how individual resiliency gained through entrepreneurial thought and action led to community, cultural and economic resiliency of the Boruca.

This paper examines the entrepreneurial journey of one of the eight indigenous tribes of Costa Rica. Future research should expand their sample to include the other indigenous contexts.

From a practical standpoint, this paper suggests the need for entrepreneurial training among indigenous businesses as a key factor in developing resiliency. This is applicable for non-profit, for-profit and public organizations interested in preserving world ethnic cultures and empowering indigenous people.

Gaining deeper and richer insights into the linkages of resilience and entrepreneurial success is important for supporting efforts of those seeking to forge pathways out of poverty.

This paper suggests a different view of the relationship between resilience and entrepreneurship when the context is outside of the resource-rich context of the developed world.

Using an integrated framework for performance management of nonprofit organizations, this paper aims to present an analysis of the activities of an Indigenous social enterprise in the town of Yirrkala in northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory of Australia. The evaluation focuses on the social effectiveness of the organization and its ability to help generate income and employment and drive social capital creation.

The analysis is informed by data derived from “yarns” with social enterprise staff and semi-structured interviews conducted with key informants who were selected using snowball sampling. Data were transcribed and analyzed thematically.

The analysis reveals that the organization provides a successful community-based pathway for increasing Indigenous economic participation on local terms at a time of regional economic decline and high levels of Indigenous unemployment nationally.

The measured effectiveness of Nuwul highlights the need for targeted policy support for Indigenous enterprises and that social entrepreneurship is far more likely to be successful in a supportive government policy environment, a critical need for government-initiated policies to encourage the formation of Indigenous social enterprises that are entrepreneurial and innovative in their solutions to poverty and marginalization. Such policies should not only aid the establishment of Indigenous ventures but also facilitate their long-term growth and sustainability.

Although Indigenous entrepreneurial activities have been found to be effective in addressing Indigenous disadvantage in Australia, little is known about their community impact. The article provides original empirically grounded research on the measurement of Indigenous entrepreneurial activities and their wider community impact. The data show, against the backdrop of mixed results of government efforts to drive Indigenous economic mainstreaming, that the entrepreneurial activities analyzed in this paper are an example of more flexible and culturally appropriate pathways for achieving Indigenous equality in rural and remote regions of Australia.

This study aims to examine entrepreneurial performance differences between indigenous Dayak women entrepreneurs of their high versus low enterprising tendency in Sarawak, Malaysia.

A quantitative approach was used for data collection and analysis. The population of this study was the indigenous women entrepreneurs in Sarawak, Malaysia. Primary data were collected from 129 indigenous women entrepreneurs using convenience sampling. The survey instrument for measuring enterprising tendency and entrepreneurial performance was adopted from the relevant literature. Data were analyzed using independent t-tests in Statistical Packages for Social Science.

This study found that indigenous women entrepreneurs with higher enterprising tendencies performed better than those with lower enterprising tendencies. A significant difference was found between entrepreneurs with a higher enterprising tendency and those with a lower enterprising tendency in three of the five entrepreneurial attributes: need for achievement, creative tendency and calculated risk-taking. Nevertheless, no significant difference was observed in need for autonomy and internal locus of control between the two groups of indigenous women entrepreneurs.

Very few studies are available in the Malaysian context explicitly concerning women entrepreneurs in general and indigenous Dayak women in specific. Therefore, this study provides novel insights into the relationship between enterprising tendency and entrepreneurial performance among indigenous Dayak women entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

The Ibaloy is an indigenous ethnic group in the Northern Philippines. Due to modernization, changes in lifestyle, livelihood and spiritual inclination many have forgotten about their culture. Income-generating activities such as handicraft businesses and food security are among their needs and aspirations. With the potential that indigenous entrepreneurship has in improving their cultural and economic status, this study aims to identify which crafts in their material culture can be publicly shared as tourism products and to assess the landscape within which indigenous entrepreneurship can be undertaken.

The study utilized a qualitative methodology which involved a combination of participant observation and semi-structured interviews. An interview guide which consisted of open-ended questions that focused on themes such as identification of Ibaloy crafts, the crafts’ various categorization and significance, the challenges and opportunities and their perceptions on what they want done for their crafts and material culture in general was developed for this purpose. The primary respondents were the Ibaloys themselves and other key informants from government and other stakeholders.

Other than serving their purpose in an Ibaloy household and as objects used for special occasions, Ibaloy crafts have the potential to be developed as tourism products. While many challenges abound, availability of resources and collaborative support by the government and other institutions can bring opportunities that will lead Ibaloy crafts to become prime tourism products.

The findings point to a compelling need for policymakers and concerned authorities to take immediate action to ensure the culture and heritage of the Ibaloys are protected.

The study adds to the literature about Filipino indigenous peoples, particularly the Ibaloys of Cordillera, and their aspirations for the inclusion of their material culture to the tourism industry. It can serve as a guide in addressing issues and concerns related to indigenous entrepreneurship that may be addressed through policy intervention and support from stakeholders.

Exploring the links between resilience, sustainability and entrepreneurship from an indigenous perspective means exploring the historic and socio-cultural context out of which a community originates. From this perspective, informed insight into a community’s ability to adapt and to transform without major structural collapse when confronted with exogenous challenges or crises can be gained. This paper explores the interplay between resilience and entrepreneurship in a New Zealand indigenous setting.

The authors provide a theoretical and case study approach, exploring four intersecting leadership roles, their guiding value system and application at a micro kin family level through a tourism venture and at a macro kin tribal level through an urban land development venture.

The findings demonstrate the importance of historical precedent and socio-cultural values in shaping the leadership matrix that addresses exogenous challenges and crises in an entrepreneurship context.

The research is limited to New Zealand, but the findings have synergies with other indigenous entrepreneurship elsewhere. Further cross-cultural research in this field includes examining the interplay between rights and duties within indigenous communities as contributing facets to indigenous resilience and entrepreneurship.

This research is a contribution to theory and to indigenous community entrepreneurship in demonstrating what values and behaviours are assistive in confronting shocks, crises and challenges. Its originality is in the multi-disciplinary approach, combining economic and social anthropological, indigenous and non-indigenous perspectives. The originality of this paper also includes an analysis of contexts that appear to fall outside contemporary entrepreneurship, but are in fact directly linked.

This study aims to investigate the influence of social and spatial embeddedness on indigenous rural entrepreneurship in Amazon/Brazil. Rural entrepreneurship has increased in recent years. Some studies have focused on the relevance of spatial embeddedness in understanding this phenomenon, whereas others have highlighted the importance of social embeddedness. Although some scholars have associated both construct dimensions to understand rural entrepreneurship in developed economies, such an association remains scarce when considering both emerging and developing contexts.

The strategy was qualitative, using the integrated case study method. The case was the Paiter-Suruí indigenous tribe in the Amazon region, Brazil, recognized for the entrepreneurship of their community. Fourteen indigenous rural entrepreneurs participated in the study.

Field data show that entrepreneurs embed themselves in dense social networks that influence their decisions, including those involving the creation of enterprises. In addition, entrepreneurs are deeply embedded in rural territoriality (spatial), impacting how they create and seek to develop their own ventures.

The study of an empirical context that is still poorly explored has made two main contributions to the social and spatial embeddedness literature. First, evidence shows social influence on spatial embeddedness and vice versa, suggesting the need to integrate both perspectives. Second, this study contributes to the literature on rural entrepreneurship by shedding light on novel strategies for developing such enterprises. In addition, this study emphasizes the relevance of investigating the challenges that hinder rural entrepreneurial development in emerging and developing contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to describe an in‐depth study of indigenous Samoan economic systems, to ascertain what aspects of the systems enable community values and innovation; what are the effects of neo‐colonial globalisation on the functionality of the systems, and what can be deduced about the best ways to ensure sustainable economic development of Samoan villages in face of globalisation.

Participatory action research has been carried out continuously within two Samoan villages between 1995 and 2006. Grounded theoretical approaches have been critically utilised, based on primary data from within the villages, local Samoan literature and academic literature from multiple disciplines, including human ecology, postcolonial literature; indigenous knowledge (IK); entrepreneurship, and post‐Keynesian and development economics. Ethnographic detail is included in the presentation of grounded theoretical constructs.

Community values are incorporated into business activities within the Samoan villages researched. Community values operate at two levels: that of an extended family and of the village comprising of extended families. Different sets of resources are available and managed by extended families and villages. The chief of each extended family is an entrepreneur as well as manager to ensure the economic viability and independence of their family, and that their capital base is enhanced. The chiefs of extended families form a village council which determines how village resources are utilised. The systems, based on IK, are functional to fulfil community values of equity and lack of poverty. Samoan indigenous entrepreneurship operates to ensure the independence of all extended families, including their capacity to be innovative. This appears to be possible because of the customary land tenure system that does not allow alienation of natural capital. Such a conclusion contradicts the commonly expressed view that economic development requires the creation of tradable property rights.

Only two Samoan villages were researched in depth. They are both traditional and from the same district. Even though this enables high‐quality data to be obtained about indigenous economic systems in Samoan village, it did into provide data about what may be more generally occurring among Samoan villages. Notwithstanding this, data were gained about what are the deep cultural pressures and challenges as Samoan indigenous economic systems face neo‐colonial globalisation.

In contradiction to what is commonly argued in development economics literature, the research has found that the instituting of tradable property rights is likely to degrade economic development. The reason is because the IK constituting the Samoan indigenous economic systems implicates inalienable property rights for extended families and villages. Even though access to development capital through the opportunity to mortgage property may bring initial increase in economic development, community values to ensure equity and lack of poverty are likely to be compromised. The research concludes that the best option for the sustainable development of Samoan rural villages is to maintain customary land tenure, but to ensure there remains an ongoing emphasis on education, comprising of both IK and all knowledge pertaining to the new global economy and the opportunities it provides.

All aspects of the research are original. All data were collected by the author, and all grounded theoretical development was carried out by the author.

This paper aims to contribute to indigenous entrepreneurship theory by identifying what constitutes an indigenous enterprise, focussing on Aotearoa New Zealand as a case.

This paper combines policy (quantitative survey) and academic research (qualitative interviews) to answer the same question, what is an indigenous enterprise in Aotearoa New Zealand?

The authors found a degree of consistency as to what counts as an indigenous enterprise in the literature (e.g., identity, ownership, values), yet a consensus on a definition of Maori business remains elusive. They also found that an understanding of the indigenous economy and indigenous entrepreneurial policy are impeded because of definitional uncertainties. The authors propose a definition of Maori business which accounts for indigenous ownership, identity, values and well-being.

The main limitation is that the literature and research use different definitions of indigenous enterprise, constraining comparative analysis. The next step is to evaluate our definition as a basis for quantifying the population of indigenous enterprises in Aotearoa New Zealand.

The research assists indigenous entrepreneurs to identify, measure and account for their contribution to indigenous self-determination and sustainable development.

This research has the potential to reconceptualise indigenous enterprise as a distinct and legitimate alternative institutional theory of the firm.

The research challenges assumptions and knowledge of entrepreneurship policy and practice generally and the understanding of what is the nature and extent of an indigenous firm.