First Nations communities weave their own paths: new study redefines Indigenous entrepreneurship

A newly published University of Alberta School of Business study is challenging conventional ideas of entrepreneurship by spotlighting how First Nations communities across Canada are reshaping their futures on their own terms.

The research — led by business PhD candidate Maggie Cascadden, a descendant of settlers to Turtle Island, Frank Bastien, associate dean, Indigenous at the University of Victoria, and business professors Emily Block and P. Devereaux Jennings — explores how Indigenous communities are resurging: reclaiming agency to shape their own futures and deciding which pieces of their history, culture and current realities to take along their path.

They find that how communities pick up and sew together the threads of their culture and history, including pieces of Western structures like property rights, affects their entrepreneurial choices. These choices ultimately influence daily life and opportunity in their communities.

Beyond the usual business mold

For decades, most business research has focused on Western, profit-driven companies — the ones that tend to make headlines for growth and big profits. But this study asks a different question: What does entrepreneurial activity look like when the money is not an end in itself but rather a means to a larger goal: building a better life for a community?

“In many communities, business isn’t just a way to get rich,” says Cascadden. “It’s about bringing the community together, providing a service that the community needs, supporting community values, and ensuring the well-being of everyone. We have so much to learn from First Nations communities about how to do this well.”

Building scaffolds with metal frame and grass basket elements

The paper’s starting point is that each First Nations community is unique, and that this distinctiveness matters: each community’s history, culture and current state are like pieces of coloured glass that can be picked up and assembled into an array of stained glass windows. The range of colours and sizes that each community has is different, so the picture they build of their future will be different too.

Still, there are some similarities in the way communities scaffold resources to innovate, such as via entrepreneurial exchanges with others.

To capture the ways they scaffold materials, the researchers use a vivid metaphor in the paper:

1. Some materials are like metal frames — think Western institutions like laws, property rights or formal legal agreements.
2. Others are like grass threads in woven baskets — each customized and deeply rooted in tradition, language and shared culture that is idiosyncratic to a community’s history, culture and relationship with colonization.

The study found that some communities rely more on Western “metal frame” aspects, others on traditional “grass basket” elements, and many skillfully combine both. When Indigenous communities resurge — that is, regain their sovereignty and reconnect with cultural elements, land, and people — the decisions about which institutional aspects to rely on are not primarily business-driven.

Rather, the specific blend of Indigenous and Western institutional elements the community engages with ultimately determines if, and how, they choose to partner with non-Indigenous companies, such as mining firms interested in local resources.

“Some may choose to strike partnership deals, weaving together legal rights and cultural traditions to secure benefits for their people,” says Block. “Others realize that rebuilding their language or community bonds means resisting the potentially lucrative but also impactful development of resources on their traditional territories.”

Different paths, different outcomes

By analyzing data from 240 First Nations communities in Canada, researchers identified three patterns within these communities, each with a different focus: 

• Cultural visibility and enterprise: Some communities share their culture publicly and have community-based businesses, like museums or Indigenous-run companies. 
• Community life and language: Other communities foster community strength from their close proximity to each other and speaking their local language. 
• Relationships built with other communities: A third group of communities lean on their longstanding relationships with other communities and governance structures.

Communities that fit the first two patterns were most likely to partner with outside companies. Those in the third group found strength from their relationships and governance networks, so were less likely to seek external partnerships.

The takeaway: there are different routes to engagement.

Entrepreneurship — through a decolonized lens

The researchers argue that acts like rebuilding culture and language and asserting connections to land and self-determination are forms of entrepreneurship.

“We need to move away from seeing entrepreneurship as just launching new businesses,” explains Jennings.

“It can be about any organized effort that transforms a community — in our case, we identified that unexpected kinds of activities can be entrepreneurial by learning from Indigenous communities about what factors are important for choosing different paths toward community resurgence.”

Rethinking what's valuable

What does all this mean for how Canada, and the world, understands entrepreneurship? For one, it invites a broader, national conversation about what counts as ‘success’ and what is valuable for all our communities, beyond only First Nations.

“Traditional business thinking often ignores the diversity and complexity of Indigenous communities,” notes Cascadden. “And if we want reconciliation and real partnership, we need to recognize — and respect — all the different ways communities choose to thrive. We have so much to learn from walking alongside each other and engaging in meaningful conversation about what wealth really means.”

Looking ahead

The researchers hope their work will open new conversations among academics, policymakers, companies and Indigenous Peoples about the purpose of resource development and how to foster community wealth. By understanding the different elements community weaves together, there is greater potential to build more respectful, effective, and equitable partnerships.

In other words, sometimes the strongest scaffolds are those that blend the best of different worlds — just like a basket woven with a metal frame, or a community improving what was imposed on them by weaving in new cultural elements.

Read the full research article at DOI:10.1111/joms.13255

U of A research. Real-World impact.

Lasting change happens when we work together. The U of A is fostering global partnerships, building deeper networks and uniting communities to shape a sustainable future.

Let's Make Change