Title: A comparison of indigenous and non-indigenous enterprise in the Canadian sub-Arctic

Authors: Leo-Paul Dana

Addresses: University of Canterbury, Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand

Abstract: Entrepreneurship has conventionally been thought of as a function of opportunity. The problem with such an ethnocentric approach, however, is that it assumes a uniform response to opportunity across cultures. In contrast, this article makes use of ethnographic means in a cross-cultural setting to illustrate that aboriginal and non-aboriginal persons in Churchill expressed fundamentally different concepts of self-employment. The study took place in the Canadian sub-Arctic town of Churchill, in Northern Manitoba, over a period of two years. Rather than base himself on a random sample, the researcher immersed himself in the field and contacted each entrepreneur in town. Findings suggest that the causal variable behind enterprise is not an opportunity, but rather one|s cultural perception of opportunity.

Keywords: aboriginal business; Canada; management; cultural perception; opportunity; culture; entrepreneurship; Keynesian stabilisation policy; comparative study; informal enterprises; self-employment; indigenous firms; ethnography.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBPM.2007.013308

International Journal of Business Performance Management, 2007 Vol.9 No.3, pp.278 - 286

Published online: 20 Apr 2007 *

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