What is Māori entrepreneurship? A Kaupapa Māori-informed entrepreneurial framework

Māori entrepreneurship has increasingly been examined through culturally grounded research, yet definitions remain fragmented across discussions of identity, cultural values, tribal structures, and wider contextual environments. This paper addresses this gap by developing an initial Māori entrepreneurial framework, informed by Māori and Indigenous entrepreneurship literature and situated within a Kaupapa Māori paradigm and Indigenous Literature Review Methodology (ILRM). The framework integrates three interconnected elements consistently identified across the literature: Māori cultural values, culturally grounded systems, and external contextual environments. Māori cultural values, shape how purpose, responsibility, and success are understood; culturally grounded systems provide the structures and practices through which these values are enacted; and external contextual environments shape the conditions within which Māori entrepreneurship develops and operates. This paper contributes conceptual clarity through a Māori-centred lens, and offers a culturally grounded, relational way of understanding entrepreneurial activity. It also positions Māori culture as the primary lens through which entrepreneurship is best understood. Practically, the framework provides a useful lens for Māori entrepreneurs, policymakers, educators, and support organisations seeking to align initiatives with Māori ways of knowing, being, and doing. As an initial conceptualisation, the framework remains open to further collective review, and refinement across Māori and other Indigenous contexts.