Innovation as translation in Indigenous entrepreneurship: lessons from Mapuche entrepreneurs in Chile

Abstract

ABSTRACT Discourses of innovation are prone to homogenisation, and as such, their effects in the development of Indigenous enterprises are highly ambivalent. The elusiveness of innovation can also work as a flexible set of ideas through which Indigenous entrepreneurs reconfigure existing commercial practices. Focussing on two Mapuche enterprises, this article explores how innovation in the context of Indigenous entrepreneurship is performed as a process of cultural translation. We advance a definition of innovation focused on the transformation of Indigenous daily practices into valuable products within a market dominated by non-Indigenous clients and mediators.