Corporate Aboriginal alliances: a case study of the Osoyoos Indian band

In Canada and elsewhere around the world Indigenous Peoples are struggling to rebuild their ‘nations’ and improve the socio-economic circumstances of their people. Many see economic development as the key to success. This is certainly true for the Aboriginal Peoples of Canada (the First Nations, Metis and Inuit). Through entrepreneurship and business development they believe they can attain their economic and ‘nation-building’ objectives. Many Aboriginal groups in Canada believe they can achieve these purposes through participation in the global economy and have adopted processes that reflect this belief. They recognize the success of this approach depends on the long-term profitability of the businesses they create. In order to improve the viability of their businesses, Aboriginal people are forming partnerships of all types among themselves and with non-Aboriginal enterprises. Based of regulation theory, Anderson with others has developed a theoretical perspective on Indigenous development in the “new flexible economy”. In order to test the validity of the theoretical model and especially to explore the way that the interplay between the state, supranational bodies, the civil sector, corporations, and community gives rise particular modes of development, we are doing a series of case studies based on the approach of Yin (2004). We have developed the case study protocol based on the theoretical model and are testing it by doing this initial case study on the Osoyoos First Nation. However, the ultimate quest is for an understanding of the conditions that need to be present for a successful entrepreneurial venture.