Study finds whānau businesses offer path to economic success for Māori
Photo:
Supplied/William Chea/University of Auckland
A new study has found that whānau-led businesses could be one of the most immediate ways to improve livelihoods within Māori communities.
Published in the book
Te Ahunga atu ki ngā Ōhanga Oranga Māori: Towards Māori Economies of Wellbeing
, the study on whānau enterprise is co-authored by Professor Jason Mika and PhD candidate Xiaoliang Niu of He Manga Tauhokohoko, University of Auckland's Business School.
Mika said for the purposes of the study a Māori-led business is a business that was owned and operated by Māori for the benefit of whānau, hapū or community.
"These are the businesses that are formed by Mum and Dad teams, but actually end up roping in the extended whānau as either co-owners or employees."
Mika (Tūhoe, Whakatōhea, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa) said what distinguishes these from other Māori-led businesses such as iwi authorities and large pan-tribal entities such as Sealord is first scale, they tend to be small- to medium-sized, and second they tend to be formed around using business to serve the needs of the whānau.
These whānau enterprises offer a promising path towards economic success for Māori, he said.
"One of the most immediate ways to improve livelihoods and wellbeing for whānau is what the whānau can do for themselves, through enterprise."
The Māori Economies of Wellbeing research draws on case studies, interviews, and long-term engagement with Māori-led businesses. The investigation found that whānau enterprises demonstrate:
One case study was Whangārei based company North Drill, whose work includes utility instillation, renewable energy instillation and drainage.
But Mika said their mission was intergenerational wealth and wellbeing for their whānau and that extends to te Tai Tokerau in general. It also reinvested profits into collective goals like housing, education, and leadership development.
"What they're really concerned about is providing opportunities particularly for rangatahi... you know school is not where they want to be or they've got abilities, they've got good values, they've got good ethics but are just looking for an opportunity," he said.
Mika said North Drill was providing more than just employment to rangatahi but also education on financial literacy.
"And in that way they are really concerned about how do they give back to their community."
Mika said the goal was that young Māori could see a pathway in business once they left school, a path that ended not just with a job but with business ownership.
He is calling for investors to recognise the potential of whānau businesses and said there were various organisations which were currently working to raise the investor profile of whānau businesses, so investors knew what they were looking at and what the opportunities were.
"I think there's still a bit of a disconnect, I think the access to capital problem for whānau enterprise and Māori enterprise in general is still a challenge to be solved."
Mika said whānau businesses had a point of difference, they could draw on mātauranga and Māori values to do business in a different manner.
"One of the major things that sets the whānau enterprise apart is our identity as Māori, our values, our reo, our tikanga, kaupapa, mātauranga Māori. All of those are assets, they are cultural assets which whānau have available to them."
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