Inspirational parables: ethnic minority Indian women entrepreneurs in New Zealand

This study focuses on inspirational parables as a pathway towards a communication theory of entrepreneurship, particularly for minority ethnic women. The focal point for this study is Indian women entrepreneurs, who form part of the 1.7% of Indians in the New Zealand population of approximately four million. The first Indian men who came to New Zealand in the late 19th century were eventually followed by Indian women. Hence today, Indian women from the early settler families who are second and third generation, as well as the new settlers who have come to New Zealand after changes in the immigration policy from 1987, form the source group for this study. The early settlers primarily came from rural areas of India (Gujarat and Punjab), due to famine and drought, whereas many of the recent migrants hail from the mega cities of Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi who come to New Zealand in search for a better quality of life for themselves and especially for their children. Indian women entrepreneurs in New Zealand have been an understudied group, and this study, which is part of a larger project on Indian women in work and enterprise in New Zealand, is a step towards bringing the experiences of these women into the domain of academic scholarship. New Zealand is a country built on immigration, and there is a rich storehouse of oral and written stories, myths, fables, tales and parables of the Maori, Anglo-Saxon, Pacific Islanders, African, Arab, Chinese and Indian peoples. This study seeks to foreground inspirational parables of Indian women entrepreneurs in New Zealand with the aim of sharing and transferring stories for current women entrepreneurs, other Indian women migrants who may be contemplating entrepreneurship, for use in mentoring ethnic minority women, as well as serving as role models for young Indian women in New Zealand. The theoretical perspective is that of mixed embeddedness where institutional structures and the entrepreneurs play out their parables in the complexity of the political, psychological, social and economic arenas.