Local Knowledge, Indigenous Entrepreneurship, and Tourism Business Resilience: An Indonesian Micro-Case Study

This chapter highlights the role of indigenous wisdom (“local knowledge”) in contributing to small-scale entrepreneurial businesses’ resilience in unpredictable times. Local or indigenous knowledge entails both a methodological and a philosophical position that recognizes the existence of asymmetrical power relations. Via our qualitative micro-case study of a tourist-oriented restaurant-hotel in South Sulawesi (Indonesia) that has thrived despite tourism’s decline, we argue that indigenous entrepreneurs’ context-specific use of local knowledge to ensure business success deserves greater attention: locally honed knowledge offers insights into valuable non-western business strategies. We offer (1) a model for uncovering local knowledge via ethnographic research methodologies and international, intercultural collaborative work (to avoid what we term “indigenous washing”) (2) an example of the value of drawing on local wisdom to identify typically overlooked foundations for business resilience. This chapter also speaks to recent calls for the decolonization of business and tourism studies.