The Māori Marae as a structural attractor: exploring the generative, convergent and unifying dynamics within indigenous entrepreneurship

Indigenous entrepreneurship is an emerging field of study within the broader field of entrepreneurship. While it is acknowledged that indigenous entrepreneurial activity comes from a particular cultural context, what is not so well understood is how it emerges and how historical context and cultural heritage inform the activity (Peredo & Anderson et al 2006). This was addressed briefly within Emergence journal by an article that examined one particular indigenous context: Māori entrepreneurship. In their article, Tapsell & Woods (2008) consider how social innovation arises in the indigenous Māori community through the interaction of tribal leaders and young entrepreneurs. They suggest that Māori entrepreneurship can usefully be thought of as a complex adaptive system and that both opportunity and heritage play a role in the emergence of entrepreneurial activity. Since then, in collaboration with other authors, they have continued to explore the field of Māori entrepreneurship including the area of social innovation (Tapsell & Woods, 2010), governance and entrepreneurship (Overall, Tapsell & Woods, 2010), family entrepreneurship (Nicolson, Hēnare & Woods, 2012), theoretical development (Kawahru, Tapsell & Woods, 2012; Kawharu, Tapsell & Woods 2013) and Māori tribal enterprise teams (Hēnare, Lythberg & Woods, 2014).