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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.

Spirituality is a foundational concept within African indigenous communities. Spirituality informs the socio-cultural, political, environmental and economic operating systems within these communities. It is perceived as a strength, but with the systemic debasement of the African indigenous spirituality, many systems informed by spirituality have been impacted in various ways, including the ethno-medical livelihood practices.

This chapter is based on a study that used an exploratory ethnographic case study approach with qualitative methods of data collection to explore the understanding of spirituality and its influence on well-being. The study context is Bomvanaland, in the Eastern Province of South Africa. The people of this area are called ‘amaBomvane’. The study is positioned within the social justice, constructivist interpretivist paradigm, combining Resilience theory (Mertens, 2009) with Ubuntu (an African indigenous framework), which is an African moral philosophical framework, as the influencing frameworks of the study. The study outcomes posit a practice of ethno-medical spirituality that is foundational to the identity and culture of the people who come from this area. This practice is embedded in Ubuntu, supporting resilience and well-being that carry the potential to positively influence their economies.

Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid venture creation represents a significant opportunity for Indigenous peoples to build vibrant Indigenous-led economies that support sustainable economic development and well-being. It is a means by which they can assert their rights to design, develop and maintain Indigenous-centric political, economic and social systems and institutions. In order to develop an integrated and comprehensive understanding of the intersection between Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures, this chapter adopts a case study approach to examining Indigenous entrepreneurship and the underlying global trends that have influenced the design, structure and mission of Indigenous hybrid ventures. The cases present how Indigenous entrepreneurial ventures are, first and foremost, hybrid ventures that are responsive to community needs, values, cultures and traditions. They demonstrate that Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures are more successful when the rights of Indigenous peoples are addressed and when these initiatives are led by or engage Indigenous communities. The chapter concludes with a conceptual model that can be applied to generate insights into the complex interrelationships and interdependencies that influence the formation of Indigenous hybrid ventures and value creation strategies according to three dimensions: (i) the overarching dimension of indigeneity and Indigenous rights; (ii) indigenous community orientations and (iii) indigenous hybrid venture creation considerations.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual overview of linkages between buen vivir and social enterprise as emerging from a review of the literature regarding indigenous development approaches in Latin America. As reported in the literature such approaches aim to reduce poverty and affirm indigenous cultural identities through the sustainable use of natural resources.

The conceptual arguments build on a review of literature regarding social enterprise, mainly in its European conception, on social and solidarity economy according to several Latin American scholars, and on streams of literature related to indigenous development and indigenous entrepreneurship.

Against the failure of externally‐driven developmental policies, social enterprise can be considered as a useful vehicle for indigenous peoples to establish direct control and management of natural resources and territories that constitute an important step towards their self‐determination and self‐managed development.

An empirical validation of the presented argument is lacking in this paper and further empirical work is needed.

The paper is an attempt to provide a general conceptualization of social enterprise as a meaningful tool for the development of indigenous peoples in Latin America, bringing together different concepts borrowed from theories on social enterprise, social and solidarity economy and indigenous development.

The purpose of this study is to explore Australian Indigenous women’s customary use of marine resources and views on aquaculture as a development opportunity. The value participants placed on economic, social and cultural outcomes were explored, as were benefit sharing, governance and business considerations.

Using a form of action research, workshops were conducted with a focus group of Indigenous women and interviews with men and women living on a remote island off northern Australia. Multimedia materials and a game were used to elicit a deeper understanding and facilitate discussion.

Women preferred aquaculture options respectful of culture and accommodating cultural and family obligations, that engage young adults in meaningful work, improve access to sea country and provide local foods and support economic development. Participants placed significant dependence on their governance body to support businesses and expressed disparate views on profit sharing. Women continue to engage in customary harvesting and fishing but various limitations impact on this.

Conclusions based on one case study need to be confirmed in other communities. Future research should include a broader representation of youth and strategies to improve people’s understanding of aquaculture operations and business management.

This research improves our understanding of Indigenous women’s preferred economic development pathways and their advocacy role within the community. These findings are relevant for policy-makers, businesses, other Indigenous communities and researchers.

This paper seeks to recognise and integrate Indigenous women’s economic and cultural aspirations within development policy. Such a place-based, gender-based consultative process is generally lacking in the Australian Indigenous policy arena.

In light of the shortcomings of the current world order for indigenous peoples and the environment, there is a need to make “another world possible” by promoting new ways of thinking and articulating indigenous economies. This paper aims to address this issue.

This paper examines Māori enterprises involved in geothermal energy production as existing expressions of this other “possible world”.

The paper finds that Māori enterprises involved in geothermal energy production are increasing in number and are demonstrating complex ways of conducting business. In seeking a clearer picture of these enterprises, it was found that analysing how Māori values were “added in” to these businesses was not enough. Instead it was found that examining how these enterprises could be charted with ethical coordinates allows a more complete account of what is taking place.

This paper is of value for scholars analysing the value‐based aspects of economies, particularly indigenous business enterprises. Charting ethical coordinates allows the analysis of indigenous enterprises to move away from thinking about them in binary terms, as either Indigenous or non‐indigenous. Having a way of thinking about and articulating the complexity of indigenous enterprises enables a richer conversation about their attributes.

The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement (NLCA) between the Inuit in the Nunavut Settlement Area (formerly part of the Northwest Territories) and the Crown of Canada, led to the creation of Nunavut in 1999. A public government in the Inuit homeland, Nunavut has the responsibility to put into effect the Inuit rights and benefits set out in the NLCA as well as provide a wide range of services tailored to the needs of all Nunavummiut of which 85% are Inuit. With a vast and largely untapped mineral, oil, and gas potential, Nunavut is now preparing to a private sector market economy open to global investors in natural resource exploration and exploitation. Certainly, Nunavut is a place where economic development and indigenous rights intersect crosscutting global, national, and territorial boundaries. This chapter looks at how indigenous peoples rights and the imperatives of a globalized/globalizing economy, are projected into and taken up by Nunavut Arctic College, Nunavut's sole postsecondary education institution. Integrating textual and contextual instances of analysis, this chapter highlights how the College translates seemingly conflicting policy messages, into all-encompassing education practices that weave into the omnipresent right to indigenous self-determination.

This chapter focuses on exploring social innovation among Māori entrepreneurs. The notion that social entrepreneurship (SE) has always been a core part of Indigenous entrepreneurship is supported by existing literature. However, the role of Indigenous worldviews and the entrepreneurial ecosystem within which the Indigenous entrepreneur operates has been overlooked. A Case Study method was used, Case 1 was a whānau (kinship)-based social enterprise and Case 2 was a trust-based social enterprise. Both cases showed similarities in terms of cultural integration of Māoritanga into their values and how they created social innovation. Case 1 models a social engineer by designing architectural works that integrated Māori designs, but with a contemporary style that changed how the community designed projects. Case 2 also exemplified similar characteristics, but with more focus on creating economic development through community-based enterprise with a social goal using very innovative means such as community volunteering and youth engagement. Case 3 stood for a more shared-economy approach to social innovation. The entrepreneurial ecosystem is perceived by the cases quite similarly because they felt government policies were irrelevant because they did not integrate the core values of Māori. The implications of these findings are mainly policy-based because the Crown needs to re-evaulate how it engages with Māori social entrepreneurs.

In Australia, there are agencies funded by the government to provide support to Indigenous peoples wishing to start a business and to provide ongoing support for their businesses. In this chapter, we highlight the government-funded agencies mentioned by Indigenous small business owners and provide insights into their experiences. Informing this chapter are 36 interviews with 30 Indigenous small business owners and 6 Indigenous business stakeholders from urban, rural, and remote areas of Australia. We explore the practice of support from an axio-onto-epistemological perspective. We use the theory of practice architectures lens to analyse the data, identifying how the practice of support is enabling and constraining Indigenous small business owners. Next, we share how these government-funded agencies are understood to be used according to Indigenous stakeholders. Last, we recommend improvements that may further support and sustain Indigenous small businesses.

The purpose of this paper is to explore Indigenous Works’ efforts to facilitate Indigenous-led research that is responsive to the socio-economic needs, values and traditions of Indigenous communities.

This paper is grounded in an Indigenous research paradigm that is facilitated by Indigenous-led community-based participatory action research (PAR) methodology informed by the Two Row Wampum and Two-Eyed Seeing framework to bridge Indigenous science and knowledge systems with western ones.

The findings point to the need for greater focus on how Indigenous and western knowledge may be aligned within the methodological content domain while tackling a wide array of Indigenous research goals that involve non-Indigenous allies.

This paper addresses the need to develop insights and understandings into how to develop a safe, ethical space for Indigenous-led trans-disciplinary and multi-community collaborative research partnerships that contribute to community self-governance and well-being.