Toward a cultural model of Indigenous entrepreneurial attitude

Abstract

Over the past decade, there have been various culture-related entrepreneurship studies. With limited exception, little culture-related research has been undertaken into entrepreneurial attitude. Most entrepreneurial attitude research has focused on western oriented, non-Indigenous entrepreneurs though at least one study investigated the entrepreneurial attitudes of Indigenous entrepreneurs. Culture is important to Indigenous people and they have strong feelings toward their self-determination, their land, and their heritage. Given the deep-rooted nature of Indigenous culture, culture must feature as a contextual variable in Indigenous entrepreneurial attitude theory. This research, therefore, approaches the question of the nature of Indigenous entrepreneurship from two perspectives: cultural dimensions and entrepreneurial attitude. These constructs are used to develop a cultural entrepreneurial attitude model to explain how culture influences Indigenous entrepreneur attitude toward new venture creation and development and associated entrepreneurial behavior.