traditional knowledge conference 2008 te tatau pounamu

Kaupapa Māori Entrepreneurship:Traditional Concepts Applied toSustainable Business DevelopmentElla HenryTe Ara Poutama, Auckland University of TechnologyIntroductionThis paper provides an overview of a research project that focuses on further developing ourunderstanding of Kaupapa Māori Entrepreneurship (Henry, 2007). The first stage of the project involvesthe secondary analysis of data collected as part of the New Zealand Global Entrepreneurship Monitor(GEM), which has included over forty interviews with Māori experts in entrepreneurship since theproject began in New Zealand in 2000.The content analysis will explore the common themes and perceptions held by these experts usinga Grounded Theory approach, with a view to better understanding Māori entrepreneurship and placing itwithin a kaupapa Māori framework (Frederick & Henry, 2005). That framework will evolve out of theMāori values, beliefs, experiences and practices that emerge from the interview data.This study will contribute to the further development of kaupapa Māori research methods becausethe content analysis will be done using N-Vivo 8, a powerful qualitative analytical tool. There has beensome criticism of kaupapa Māori research (Rata, 2006), in particular because of a perceived lack ofrigour in the analytical methods and consequent theoretical frameworks that are generated from thequalitative data that is collected. It is hoped that this research project will provide kaupapa Māoriresearchers with another research tool that meets both scientific and cultural requirements in terms ofrigour and validity.Thus, the findings from this study will be used to generate a set of framework conditions for betterunderstanding Kaupapa Māori Entrepreneurship, a Māori approach to entrepreneurship that mostclosely parallels social entrepreneurship and that draws on distinctly Māori cultural concepts. It isassumed that a Kaupapa Māori Entrepreneurship framework can inform policy and programmedevelopment and entrepreneurship education and training with a specific Māori focus because these arefactors that underpin sustainable Māori social, economic and business development (Fleischmann,2006). This paper outlines progress to date on this research project.The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM)To understand the significance of the secondary analysis of GEM data one needs to know more aboutthe GEM research project. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the largest research project focusingon entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. There are 42 countries around the world that monitorentrepreneurial activity as part of this project. The GEM research brings together policy makers,business leaders and academics in a global network that was founded in 1999 under the leadership ofBabson College in the United States and the London Business School in the United Kingdom. GEM hasdeveloped into one of the leading research consortia concerned with improving understanding of therelationships between entrepreneurial activity and national economic growth. According to the GEMConsortium (2007):No other research exists that can provide consistent cross-country information and measures ofentrepreneurial activity in a global context. GEM focuses on three main objectives:to measure differences in the level of entrepreneurial activity among countries;to uncover factors determining the levels of entrepreneurial activity; andto identify policies that may enhance the level of entrepreneurial activity.185