Indigenous entrepreneurship in Samoa in the face of neo‐colonialism and globalization

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe an in‐depth study of indigenous Samoan economic systems, to ascertain what aspects of the systems enable community values and innovation; what are the effects of neo‐colonial globalisation on the functionality of the systems, and what can be deduced about the best ways to ensure sustainable economic development of Samoan villages in face of globalisation. Design/methodology/approach – Participatory action research has been carried out continuously within two Samoan villages between 1995 and 2006. Grounded theoretical approaches have been critically utilised, based on primary data from within the villages, local Samoan literature and academic literature from multiple disciplines, including human ecology, postcolonial literature; indigenous knowledge (IK); entrepreneurship, and post‐Keynesian and development economics. Ethnographic detail is included in the presentation of grounded theoretical constructs. Findings – Community values are incorporated into business activities within the Samoan villages researched. Community values operate at two levels: that of an extended family and of the village comprising of extended families. Different sets of resources are available and managed by extended families and villages. The chief of each extended family is an entrepreneur as well as manager to ensure the economic viability and independence of their family, and that their capital base is enhanced. The chiefs of extended families form a village council which determines how village resources are utilised. The systems, based on IK, are functional to fulfil community values of equity and lack of poverty. Samoan indigenous entrepreneurship operates to ensure the independence of all extended families, including their capacity to be innovative. This appears to be possible because of the customary land tenure system that does not allow alienation of natural capital. Such a conclusion contradicts the commonly expressed view that economic development requires the creation of tradable property rights. Research limitations/implications – Only two Samoan villages were researched in depth. They are both traditional and from the same district. Even though this enables high‐quality data to be obtained about indigenous economic systems in Samoan village, it did into provide data about what may be more generally occurring among Samoan villages. Notwithstanding this, data were gained about what are the deep cultural pressures and challenges as Samoan indigenous economic systems face neo‐colonial globalisation. Practical implications – In contradiction to what is commonly argued in development economics literature, the research has found that the instituting of tradable property rights is likely to degrade economic development. The reason is because the IK constituting the Samoan indigenous economic systems implicates inalienable property rights for extended families and villages. Even though access to development capital through the opportunity to mortgage property may bring initial increase in economic development, community values to ensure equity and lack of poverty are likely to be compromised. The research concludes that the best option for the sustainable development of Samoan rural villages is to maintain customary land tenure, but to ensure there remains an ongoing emphasis on education, comprising of both IK and all knowledge pertaining to the new global economy and the opportunities it provides. Originality/value – All aspects of the research are original. All data were collected by the author, and all grounded theoretical development was carried out by the author.