Indigenous Entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia

Indigenous entrepreneurship is a largely overlooked research field. Notable studies mainly stem from the Americas, Australia and New Zealand, therefore leaving many places around the world overlooked. One of these overlooked places is Southeast Asia, a rapidly emerging and highly populated region that is rich of diverse cultures. The region is home to hundreds of indigenous communities, accumulating millions of people. Southeast Asia’s bustling entrepreneurial environment is driven by many creative and risk-taking indigenous entrepreneurs who deserve a place in spotlight. For that reason, this edited volume contains a collection of showcases and illustrations of indigenous entrepreneurial activities across Southeast Asia, hereby providing inspiration for scholars and practitioners. In this introductory chapter, key definitions associated with indigenous entrepreneurship are addressed, followed by a discussion on the need for and relevance of indigenous entrepreneurship research in Southeast Asia. The chapter closes with a summarized overview of the contributions to this book.

The topic of Indigenous entrepreneurship (IE) has been gaining attention among scholars, especially in the last decade. It is vital to understand the prominent topics researched in this critical area of research. This research used the systematic review of literature methodology to identify several studies conducted for IE from 2006 to 2022. A total of 171 papers were identified around the globe on IE; specifically, 75% of the studies (N = 128) have been conducted in the last decade since 2013. Most of the studies are qualitative (N = 139), and the rest 32 studies are either quantitative or mixed. With a particular focus on Southeast Asia (SEA), 41 studies have been conducted, with maximum studies conducted in Malaysia and Indonesia with N = 23 and N = 12, respectively. We offer further specific findings from the systematic literature review on the SEA region and propose directions for future research.

Poverty among the indigenous population is higher than national poverty figures. Their low literacy rate and lack of employable skills have prevented them from attaining sustainable livelihoods. Despite adverse circumstances, indigenous people manage to subsist independently by utilising scarce resources. This chapter offers an overview of the main inhibitors preventing indigenous groups from embarking on entrepreneurship to improve their livelihood. Using secondary data supplemented by field research conducted in the Mah Meri indigenous village in Malaysia, we explore the critical factors that serve as barriers to adopting indigenous entrepreneurship practices among the Mah Meri community. Three significant barriers that prevent the Mah Meri indigenous people from venturing into new entrepreneurial activities have been identified: their way of life, a lack of formal education, and a lack of skills and collateral for financing. The findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of indigenous entrepreneurship among vulnerable societies.

A majority segment of Malaysia’s population comprises indigenous Muslim Malay-Bumiputera, many of whom are involved in traditional industries, such as halal herbs. In the past, numerous economic programmes and packages have been implemented by the government to improve the industry’s supply chain management and strengthen its participation in international business. Unfortunately, most of these programmes have been disrupted by the recent COVID-19 outbreak and the Russia–Ukraine war, followed by consecutive changes in the country’s political leadership. To enhance the internationalisation process and firm performance of Malay-Bumiputera halal herbs SMEs, the current government must introduce new plans or packages which can stimulate the economy and address the above-mentioned issues in the post-pandemic environment. Based on the Resource-Based View theory, the arguments forwarded in this chapter connect economic stimulus packages, supply chain management, internationalisation, and firm performance of halal herbs Malay-Bumiputera SMEs in a single theoretical framework.

This chapter examines the adoption of neo-liberal, assimilation practices, and the impact these have on the Lumad indigenous people of Mindanao facing marginalization and impoverishment. Assimilation happens when people who have power over indigenous people want them to look, live, and act like them without due consideration for indigenous culture, values, and practices. As multinational corporations (MNCs) play an increasingly significant role in international business in the neo-liberal world order, it is paramount to consider the neo-colonial aspects that negatively affect the livelihood and entrepreneurship of indigenous people. Using qualitative research, the study uncovers that violent assimilative policies have been exercised on the Lumad people by the government and its stakeholders including the non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There is a lack of cultural pluralism to embrace the values and practices of indigenous people and the lack of support by the government and the NGOs to enable them to succeed in their lives.

This chapter argues that Indigenous entrepreneurship can be viewed as a decolonial practice undertaken by Indigenous peoples to contest discrimination and other forms of oppression. This proposition is grounded in this research that concerns the activism of the Southeast Asian Indigenous group of the Iu Mien or Yao, who utilise their family-owned silver crafts businesses as a gentle form of struggle against official Thai hegemonic discourses, as well as to support their livelihoods. These Indigenous entrepreneurs are not merely economic agents accumulating wealth, but also “craftivist” entrepreneurs who combine their traditional craftsmanship expertise with capitalist objectives such as capital accumulation, market competition, and private property to empower themselves and reshape their collective identity to contest the state’s hegemonic discourse that continues to marginalise them today. The study draws on extensive fieldwork conducted between 2020 and 2023, which involved semi-structured interviews and participant observation throughout the course of the fieldwork.

This chapter highlights the role of indigenous wisdom (“local knowledge”) in contributing to small-scale entrepreneurial businesses’ resilience in unpredictable times. Local or indigenous knowledge entails both a methodological and a philosophical position that recognizes the existence of asymmetrical power relations. Via our qualitative micro-case study of a tourist-oriented restaurant-hotel in South Sulawesi (Indonesia) that has thrived despite tourism’s decline, we argue that indigenous entrepreneurs’ context-specific use of local knowledge to ensure business success deserves greater attention: locally honed knowledge offers insights into valuable non-western business strategies. We offer (1) a model for uncovering local knowledge via ethnographic research methodologies and international, intercultural collaborative work (to avoid what we term “indigenous washing”) (2) an example of the value of drawing on local wisdom to identify typically overlooked foundations for business resilience. This chapter also speaks to recent calls for the decolonization of business and tourism studies.

This chapter presents the journeys of two Indigenous entrepreneurs based in Thailand. Findings illustrate how the act of entrepreneurship and “being entrepreneuring” support aspirations for community self-determination and sustainable development. Influencing factors include access to transformational educational opportunities, being embedded in local culture, and embracing an Indigenous Innovative approach to project design and implementation. The ventures of these Indigenous entrepreneurs weave together the social capital found in community, respect for their natural ecosystem, and are grounded in an Indigenous worldview.

The country of Myanmar (Burma) is home to 54 million people across eight major ethnic races and 135 ethnic groups. In post-colonial Myanmar, there is a long history of violent and oppressive military rule recently punctuated by a 2021 military coup and subsequent junta that has led to the increased persecution of Myanmar’s ethnic minorities. The lack of government support for health, education, and business in ethnic minority areas as well as ongoing conflict has necessitated the increase and importance of community-based indigenous enterprises. The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the role of these community-based enterprises and social enterprises as forms of indigenous entrepreneurship in promoting human development in Myanmar. It includes a description and analysis of examples of community-based entrepreneurial endeavours in Myanmar and concludes with implications for research as well as a discussion on the challenges of conducting research on indigenous entrepreneurship in Myanmar.

Indigenous entrepreneurship offers pathways for improving the quality of life while preserving traditional cultures. This study investigates gender-based discrimination in financial access for rural household entrepreneurs in Vietnam and Thailand. Quantitative techniques like statistical tests, instrumental variables, and Heckman selection models are applied rigorously to analyse a large panel dataset. Surprisingly, the results do not find clear evidence of discrimination against women in loan approval, interest rates, maturity, or collateral. However, female-owned enterprises exhibit slightly higher loan approval likelihoods than male-owned firms in Thailand. Thai women entrepreneurs leveraging political connections are more successful when applying for formal loans. The success of microfinance programs serving women and men entrepreneurs equally in both countries provides models for financial inclusion. Nonetheless, persistent colonial attitudes marginalizing indigenous women must still be dismantled through gender norm awareness initiatives. This study helps decolonize literature by examining indigenous entrepreneurship in Vietnam and Thailand through localized lenses.

This study explores the relationship between perceived employee-centric and selfless leadership by business owners, commonly known as servant leadership, and work engagement among Indonesian SME employees. The research also investigates whether “diuwongke” (a Javanese-Indonesian term representing employees’ perception of being treated with dignity and respect at work) mediates the connection between perceived employee-centric leadership and work engagement. Employing an online self-administered questionnaire, this study incorporates measures associated with servant leadership, “diuwongke,” and work engagement. The sample comprises 147 respondents employed in various SMEs in Jakarta and surrounding cities, with all business owners identified as Javanese. The study employs a mediation model in the Hayes Process to analyze the data. The findings indicate a positive relationship between servant leadership and work engagement, with “diuwongke” mediating this connection. SME leaders are encouraged to adopt a servant leadership style to foster a sense of “diuwongke” among employees, consequently enhancing workplace engagement.

In this chapter, we study the importance of digital technology in the growth of indigenous entrepreneurship in emerging nations in Southeast Asia. We examine how family, community, and business partners can support one another to fill institutional gaps and promote indigenous entrepreneurship in enterprises. A systematic review of the literature was conducted using relevant keywords and academic databases. A thorough search of the extant literature was done in Scopus and Google Scholar using a combination of keywords such as indigenous entrepreneurship, digital transformation, business model innovation, value creation, and business development. Digital technologies have facilitated the creation and development of new businesses by indigenous people, as well as distribution systems that can increase the number of transactions that companies can complete within a given period, leading to increased sales and profit. A conceptual framework illustrates the role of digital technologies in launching new indigenous entrepreneurs and ventures.

Shouldered by strong industrializing nations, Southeast Asia is a fast-evolving region that is culturally rich with countless aspirational indigenous entrepreneurs. The aim of this book is to unearth indigenous entrepreneurship in Southeast Asia, which is largely an unexplored research domain. By showcasing examples of mundane and indigenous entrepreneurial activities in several Southeast Asian countries (from the mediating role of “Diuwongke” in Indonesia to traditional industries of the Muslim Malay-Bumiputera in Malaysia), we hope to enlighten scholars and provide managerial and policy-forming directions to practitioners. Conventional understanding of management and entrepreneurship originating from the Western context, is challenged and enriched by the value of traditional wisdom, narratives, relationships and communities, social and decolonial activism, and indigenous ways of entrepreneurial resilience. We conclude in this chapter with brief reflections on the contributions made and offer an outlook on future research geared at geographic scope with suggested research themes.