Abstract
Innovation is a key lever for sustainable, economic, and social development. However, for centuries, colonial practices have restricted the entrepreneurial activities of Indigenous peoples, and devalued their ancestral knowledges and lived experiences. By democratizing innovation, digital technologies provide opportunities for Indigenous entrepreneurs to develop new products and solutions to benefit their communities and society. Many hurdles still exist, as digital innovation is a complex undertaking, requiring knowledge of diverse technical aspects, as well as the social, organizational, and cultural contexts in which digital artefacts are designed and used. Drawing theoretically from the perspective of Cultural Interfaces, this research uses conversational inquiry to explore how Indigenous entrepreneurs infuse their lived experiences and traditional knowledges into the innovation process and the digital artefacts they create. Our first conversation reveals how relational knowledge, Indigenous ingenuity required for living on the land, and storytelling shaped the development of a novel smoking cessation mobile application.
Recommended Citation
Corbett, Jacqueline; Bastien, Francois; Chung, Alexander; and Harrison, Hazel, "Infusing Lived Experiences into Digital Innovation: A Conversational Inquiry with Indigenous Entrepreneurs" (2023). ACIS 2023 Proceedings. 38.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2023/38