Māori pataka — Used under Creative Commons licence CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 by Tim Welbourn

Advancing social and cultural entrepreneurship

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How can we encourage economic development to benefit current and future generations, using an indigenous lens?

Social entrepreneurs are people who are alert to opportunities to address a social need. Indigenous entrepreneurship similarly identifies and takes opportunities to improve the circumstances of a collective group of indigenous people. For Māori in particular, this means not only working to benefit the community rather than just the individual, but also balancing the needs of today with those of future generations. 

Otago Polytechnic, the University of Otago, and UpStart (later powerHouse Ventures) collaborated to develop an innovative experiential entrepreneurship programme for Māori tertiary students, called He Kākano. This was a four week full-time programme which incorporated traditional and entrepreneurial practices daily into all aspects of the programme, with 80% of the time spent outside the classroom. He Kākano benefited from the Te Whata Business Model Canvas (see image below), developed for Māori by Corey Bragg, who works with Tokona te Ao - Tribal Economies, Te Rūnanga of Ngāi Tahu. 

Corey Bragg and Roma Simmons-Donaldson (a University of Otago honours student) then worked with Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki (KHRP) on a formal strategic planning and business modelling process, conducting two entrepreneurship workshops which embedded the cultural values and intergenerational aspiration of KHRP. Again the Te Whata Business Model Canvas was used. Funding for Roma Simmons-Donaldson's Summer Studentship was provided by Ngā Pae o Te Māramatanga, New Zealand's Centre of Māori Research Excellence.

Janine Kapa (Otago Polytechnic), Dr Diane Ruwhiu (University of Otago), Roma Simmons-Donaldson and Corey Bragg evaluated this work with KHRP. The overall outcomes of the work were positive. The workshops succeeded in stimulating and enhancing the economic development aspirations of KHRP. Te Whata was found to be an effective framework for the Rūnaka to collaboratively embark on a formal strategic planning and business modelling process. The result was that a specific business concept was established, including a plan to advance this concept which is currently in the process of implementation.  These tools and approaches have the potential to help enhance the social, cultural and economic aspirations of other indigenous communities, both locally and internationally.

Contact Janine Kapa for more information.

Read more Māori research in the latest Kaupapa Kāi Tahu issue of our Scope journal.