Christine Woods

Social entrepreneurship and innovation: Self-organization in an indigenous context

This article explores some of the theoretical insights emerging from work in the field of social entrepreneurship and complexity theory. It draws on a neo-Schumpeterian understanding of innovation as self-organization, as it arises in the process of social entrepreneurship. Drawing on complexity theory, we use the lens of self-organization and complex adaptive systems to consider entrepreneurial activity in Maori communities where innovation occurs through the interaction of the young opportunity seeking entrepreneur (potiki) and the elder statesperson (rangatira). The interplay between these two actors in the Maori tribal community illustrates the double spiral (takarangi) dance of innovation (creation) that occurs at and between the edges of chaos and stability. Two theoretical insights emerge from this research. First, we are reminded that tradition and heritage can form the path to innovation while opportunity-seeking adventurers are necessary if steps are to be taken along the path. Second, the historical and cultural context in which innovation occurs is an important consideration for understanding both social and economic entrepreneurship.

Governance and indigenous social entrepreneurship: when context counts

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the importance of taking into account contextual factors when building governing mechanisms, so that the subsequent processes and structures are appropriate and sustainable.Design/methodology/approach – The paper utilises the singular case study illustration of Māori Maps, an indigenous social and entrepreneurial venture to illustrate the notion of contextualised governance. Considering this focus centres on notions of context, the case study method is most appropriate as it allows for a fuller explanation of the specific contextual factors relating to the study.Findings – In taking into account the unique contextual factors relating to Māori Maps, the paper shows that they have incorporated culturally appropriate models and processes of governance.Research limitations/implications – This context‐specific case study illustration supports new governance research avenues that assert that context matters, and contributes to the body of evidence that sugges...

Resistance to Social Entrepreneurship: How Context Shapes Innovation

Abstract Social entrepreneurship emerges from social and historical contexts. These contexts also bring the institutional norms, routines, and conventions that challenge and constrain innovation processes. This article contributes to the emerging theoretical discourse of social entrepreneurship by explicating the Schumpeterian notion of resistance. It discusses the context-dependent manifestation of opportunity in, and resistance to, social entrepreneurship. Social entrepreneurship opportunities are the constructed outcomes of entrepreneurial alertness and motivation, and the organizational, societal, institutional, and market contexts in which the entrepreneur is embedded. Likewise, these contextual forces resist and refine social innovations such that they become the products of the financial, social, cultural, and political expectations of stakeholders of social entrepreneurship ventures. A deeper understanding of how context shapes social innovation will give scholars and practitioners a greater appreciation for the ways in which innovations can succeed because of resistance, not in spite of it.

Potikitanga: indigenous entrepreneurship in a Maori context

Purpose - This paper examines the models used to teach and encourage indigenous entrepreneurial activity, with a focus on indigenous entrepreneurship in a Maori context. Design/methodology/approach - In particular, the paper explores the pedagogical challenges from the perspective of indigenous entrepreneurship understood from a Maori context and draws on an historical and cultural analysis of kin accountability within a tribal context to explore the pedagogical challenges faced when working with a new generation of aspiring entrepreneurially-minded Maori. Three short case studies are provided as illustrative examples. Findings - The paper finds that entrepreneurial models focusing on opportunity-seeking Originality/value - Although only one cultural context is examined, this paper demonstrates the potential benefit of a deeper understanding of the cultural genealogical setting when developing models to work with indigenous entrepreneurs.

SME family business innovation: exploring new combinations

– Continued research around innovation within small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) family businesses is needed to better understand the influence of specific resources and capabilities that might promote and/or constrain entrepreneurial activities. The purpose of this paper is to develop an organising framework investigating SME family business innovation drawing on a Schumpeterian understanding of innovation as the introduction of new combinations. , – Four guiding principles are developed and applied to an illustrative case study of an entrepreneurial family business that highlights the usefulness of complexity thinking for understanding innovation. , – NZ Sock provides a rich illustrative case study to highlight how principles of complexity thinking along with Schumpeterian notions of innovation can usefully inform the authors’ understanding of entrepreneurial SME family businesses. The proposed guiding principles offered are borne out in application to the illustrative case example. , – The findings suggest that complexity thinking and a Schumpeterian lens can usefully inform and extend the authors’ understanding of innovation within entrepreneurial SME family businesses. Further research would benefit from exploring the guiding principles proposed in other entrepreneurial SME family businesses to further substantiate this field of inquiry. , – Principles of complexity thinking may provide additional understanding and insight for SME family business members needing to innovate and adapt to ever-changing operating environments. , – Innovation is critical to the long-term survival and success of such firms; yet, to date little theoretical contribution and research has been offered in the field of innovation within the context of SME family businesses. Complex adaptive systems provide a lens from which to understand such businesses and that that a complexity framework helpfully allows attention to be given to such phenomena as emergence, adaptability and combinations through which innovation outcomes and processes may be understood. This paper offers four guiding principles that can be further tested and refined.

Stakeholder Engagement in the Social Entrepreneurship Process: Identity, Governance and Legitimacy

Abstract This paper explores how stakeholder expectations are managed through the social entrepreneurship process of opportunity construction, evaluation and pursuit. Building on an in-depth case study, a model of stakeholder engagement through identity, governance and legitimacy is presented. Stakeholders are managed by an identity constructed through an integration of the organizations multiple identities to form a meta-identity. Governance is important in the management of stakeholders in order to be entrepreneurial while being accountable. Stakeholders support the organization based on legitimacy that is gained through creating stakeholder value and by conforming to existing social structures as well as creating new operating models, practices and ideas.

Reflections on Pedagogy: A Journey of Collaboration:

One of the goals of autoethnography is to “offer lessons for further conversation”. In this article, the author reflects on several lessons that were learnt along a journey in management education in the area of indigenous entrepreneurship. In particular, the author outlines her pedagogical practice as an academic engaged in teaching entrepreneurship to Māori students in a university setting. In developing the pedagogical approach for the course, the author has drawn on the metaphor of spiral; this approach involves the teacher and students forming a collaborative double spiral of learning through a process of acknowledgment, adaptation, and advancement. It is hoped that this discussion stimulates conversation and reflection for the reader in much the same manner that writing this article has enabled the author to examine, question, and develop her own pedagogical practice.

Indigenous entrepreneurship in Aotearoa New Zealand: The takarangi framework of resilience and innovation

Purpose 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. Design/methodology/approach 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. Findings 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. Research limitations/implications 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. Originality/value 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.

Appreciating Entrepreneurship: A New Approach for Field Research

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore the advantages and disadvantages of utilizing an appreciative inquiry approach for entrepreneurship research within the family business context. We argue that there is an opportunity to shift the focus of family business studies from a“deficit oriented approach” toward adopting a positive organizational lens through“appreciative inquiry” principles. We review the background to appreciative inquiry including from its inception in the 1980s; the definitions, principles, models for appreciative inquiry; and the theoretical foundations of the appreciative inquiry approach. We will draw on examples from a recent study that applied appreciative inquiry principles to investigate what worked well in entrepreneurial family businesses. By exploring the generative characteristics, we are better placed to understand the strengths of a family firm. This leads to research that presents what works well, and can be built on in family businesses, rather than objectifying the problems to be solved. Our contribution lies in how, as a positive organizational lens, appreciative inquiry principles inform research in the entrepreneurial family business context. In practice, finding the advantages and disadvantages of using an appreciative protocol could lead to future studies adopting this lens, and possibly past studies being reinvigorated with a shift of focus.

Inquiring into learning as system

Possibly the most fundamental skill that is required in the emerging Knowledge Age is the ability to learn. This capability resides not only with individuals, but also at every other systemic level from dyads, groups and teams, to organisations, institutions and society at large. Indeed, learning is a veritable haystack of complex, interacting and inter-related elements that span the levels of the social system. Thus, research into learning that focuses on one or another level of analysis is necessarily limited in its explanatory capacity. It cannot be said that any element or isolated set of elements enables learning; to take this view is to err on the side of naivete.