Managing Māori Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: Features, Characteristics and Capabilities

Within entrepreneurship research the concept of ecosystems is relatively recent. Central to this emerging research is consideration of the political, economic and social elements that support sustainable communities of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial activity. The focus of this research to date has remained centred on the ‘Silicon Valley norm’ with little consideration of contexts that do not strive to fit this norm. Going outside of ‘the norm’, we explore entrepreneurial ecosystems of an Indigenous-Māori community. We follow Welter’s (2011) suggestion for an interdisciplinary perspective to develop the tools and concepts ‘to explore the variety, depths and richness of contexts’ (p. 177). We offer a number of contributions to activate ideas about managing Māori entrepreneurial ecosystems in post-colony environments. We give descriptive accounts of the historical trajectory to identify how management adapts over time (kin-based organising and pan-tribal organising). We identify the cultural values underpinning the system and the nature of the actors involved. We then describe elasticity and ambidexterity as novel capabilities unique to Māori entrepreneurial ecosystems. We explore each of these and consider how they have enabled Māori to constantly adapt to exogenous disruptions.