Changing the Present and Creating the Future Through Indigenous Knowledge and Entrepreneurship

The importance of entrepreneurship has become the major topic of discussion at all levels. However, little has been written about indigenous entrepreneurs, who apply indigenous knowledge in their entrepreneurial process. This paper highlights how this indigenous knowledge can be used to impact the present and influence the future, while achieving sustainable development. A review of relevant literature reveals that the position of entrepreneurship as a panacea for socio-economic problems falls within the purview of sustainable entrepreneurship. Within this growing body of knowledge, the question of how the role of entrepreneurship in solving socio-economic problems may unfold calls for answers. This paper fills this gap by providing empirical evidence of how entrepreneurship, in the form of indigenous entrepreneurship can contribute to solving socio-economic problems in society. Ideational bricolage and resource based view theories are applied to support the key arguments in the paper. The results of this study contribute to extant literature on indigenous and sustainable entrepreneurship. The paper also provides implications for practice as it reveals alternative cost-effective and environmentally friendly indigenous solutions that are relevant to contemporary society. Given that several indigenous knowledge solutions have been found to be valuable, this study encourages research into indigenous knowledge entrepreneurship as a means to leverage on successful indigenous practices, to inform mainstream practices and solutions and create a new generation of enhanced, cost-effective solutions