Relating practice to theory in indigenous entrepreneurship : a pilot investigation of the Kitsaki partnership portfolio

In Canada and elsewhere around the world, Indigenous Peoples are struggling to rebuild their "nations" and improve the socioeconomic circumstances of their people. Many see economic development as the key to success. This is certainly true for Indigenous people in Canada (the First Nations, Metis, and Inuit, collectively called Aboriginal or Indigenous people). Among them, participation in the global economy through entrepreneurship and business development is widely accepted as the key to economy building and nation "re-building." As elaborated in the next section, the demand is that this participation must be on their own terms for their own purposes, and traditional lands, history, culture, and values play a critical role. There is an intriguing symmetry between the modernity of the desire for global business competence and competitiveness and the insistence upon the distinctive importance of cultural heritage in developing new enterprise. The way that the two superficially contrasting concepts of innovation and heritage are combined in the field of Indigenous entrepreneurship has been expounded by Hindle and Lansdowne.1<br /><br />Recognizing the challenges they face in attempting to compete in the global economy on their own terms, Indigenous people are increasingly developing enterprises in the form of partnerships of all types among themselves and with non-Indigenous enterprises. As both a form and a context of business organization, the partnership or alliance model is particularly fraught with the need to blend the old with the new, heritage with innovation. This study is a preliminary investigation of the Kitsaki initiative of the Lac La Ronge Indian band. In it we:<br /> <br />* explore several ventures involved in the partnership, asking key operatives for their opinions about the factors that explain success and failure;<br /> <br />* distill the explanations into as few, all-embracing factors as possible;<br /> <br />* relate the findings to the emerging theory of Indigenous entrepreneurship, with particular reference to the suggested paradigm of Indigenous entrepreneurship developed by Hindle and Lansdowne (2002);<br /> <br />* project the results of the investigation into suggestions for a more structured program of future research.<br />

From what we know to how we use it : five principles for turning entrepreneurship research and practitioner action guidelines

This and the companion paper that follows owe their existence to a paper presented by Kevin Hindle at the AGSE Regional Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research Exchange in February 2004. In his paper, Hindle (2004) argued passionately that entrepreneurship researchers must ensure that the best of their hardwon wisdom does not find its beginning motivation and final resting place in the pages of arcane journals that practitioners never read. He suggested that if every entrepreneurship researcher committed, say once every two years, to write a "how to" article it would significantly enhance the status of the research community in the eyes of practising entrepreneurs and those who provide support and services to them.<br /><br />The argument was well-received, particularly by two people in the audience, Robert Anderson, the managing editor of the Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship, the journal of the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship/Conseil Canadien des PME et de l'entrepreneuriat (CCSBE/ CCPME), and Brian Gibson, the editor of Small Enterprise Research, the journal of the Small Enterprise Association of Australia and New Zealand (SEAANZ). For both editors, Hindle's argument was a familiar one. The membership of CCSBE/CCPME and SEAANZ consists of academic researchers, educators, government employees in both policy and program areas, and those offering support and services to entrepreneurs and the managers of small enterprises. In both organizations, there is a general consensus that the needs of "academics" are well met, but not so the needs of the non-academic constituents.

Commercialisation of new knowledge within universities : exploring performance disparities

This paper finds that vast disparities exist in new technology commercialisation outputs between a small percentage of high performing universities, and the remaining bulk of under-performers. Theoretical explanations for these findings are as follows. First, high performing universities attract resources, both human and financial, with a much stronger pull than lower performing universities. Second, this study confronts a gap in the literature with regard to the prominence of entrepreneurship within the innovation and technology development process. Third, this study brings new light to bear on the reliability and validity of evaluative tools (variables) currently accepted as indicators of innovation in the university technology transfer context.

Understanding success in indigenous entrepreneurship : an exploratory investigation

In Canada there are numerous studies about indigenous Entrepreneurship, most descriptive with little theory development or testing, This leaves a gap in the information available to researchers, policy makers and practitioners. In this paper we describe a research program intended to address this gap beginning with the activities of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, considered an exemplar of successful indigenous entrepreneurship. From these activities, we draw propositions about indigenous entrepreneurship that are compatible with generic theory. Finally, we describe how we will move from these propositions to a model of indigenous entrepreneurship using grounded theory and structural equation modelling.<br />

An empirically justified theory of successful indigenous entrepreneurship : a case study of the Osoyoos Indian Band

The Osoyoos Indian Band case study signals the beginning of a PhD research project that will take approximately three years to complete. Taken in isolation, the objectives for the Osoyoos case study are modest. We want to refine our theoretical model and improve the case study protocol before embarking on a set of 5 case studies to explore Indigenous entrepreneurship; what it is, what communities do to succeed and a generalized definition of a successful venture from an Indigenous Canadian perspective.<br />

How should we measure indigenous entrepreneurship? A search for explanatory variables

In Canada and elsewhere around the world Indigenous Peoples are struggling to rebuild their ‘nations’ and improve the socioeconomic circumstances of their people. We are embarking on a program of research in an effort to understand this phenomenon and to inform the process. In this paper we (i) explore the approach to development being adopted by Indigenous people in Canada; (ii) conduct a preliminary literature review; (iii) identify input indicators of entrepreneurship and business development capacity, process measures of development activity and an output indicator of development effectiveness and (v) identify the information available from secondary sources relating to these indicators and the gaps in information that will have to be filled by primary research.<br />

A cost-effectiveness analysis of the management of sore throat in children in Australia

For the first time a cost-effectiveness analysis of the management of sore throat in Australian children has been conducted using accurate epidemiological data generated from recent Australian studies.<br />