Te Ara Hihiri: An Indigenous Framework Exploring Entrepreneurial Potential

The concept of the Entrepreneurial University and its place within entrepreneurial ecosystems has received significant attention since it emerged as a construct in the latter part of the twentieth century (Etzkowitz, Res Policy 34:823–833, 2003; Rothaermelet al., Ind Corp Chang 16:691–791, 2007; Graham, Creating University-based Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Evidence fromEmerging World Leaders, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014.). While the University of Auckland has built a strong entrepreneurial ecosystem that is ‘robust and well balanced’, establishing itself as ‘an emerging centre of excellence in entrepreneurship and innovation’ (Graham, Creating University-based Entrepreneurial Ecosystems Evidence from EmergingWorld Leaders, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2014: 129), a number of challenges still remain. Specific to the purpose of this book series and this chapter, is the challenge of engaging Māori students and staff in the entrepreneurial activities of the University of Auckland. In this chapter, we present Te Ara Hihiri—a pedagogical framework that emerges from the practical challenge of connecting entrepreneurial activity and the Indigenous community within the University. We suggest this provides one illustrative example of what Bartlett (J Environ Stud Sci 2(4):331–340, 2021) call ‘Two-eyed Seeing’ where the strengths of Indigenous understanding can be combined with Western business practice to provide relevant insight for building the entrepreneurial university.