Shifting realities: entrepreneurship, social enterprise and ‘work’ in Samoa
Using a case study of a social enterprise in the South Pacific, this paper describes
the way in which the context of cultural norms can affect the growth of a [social]
enterprise. ‘Women in Business Development Inc (WIBDI)’ is a social enterprise
in Samoa that facilitates development through supporting small-scale addedvalue farm operations. Over 21 years it has grown to work with approximately
350 farms and to develop international export contracts – including it’s most
famous virgin coconut oil (VCO) contract with The Body Shop. Despite it being
successful in many ways the enterprise is largely supported through aid from
New Zealand. The volumes of sales are not sufficient at this stage to support the
intensive and somewhat far-reaching work of the enterprise. The goal, therefore,
is to raise the levels of production to enable WIBDI to be sustainable but this
means increasing production levels and recruiting more farmers to be part of the
WIBDI network. Such a task is not easy and fraught with cultural tensions.
Traditional Samoa (Fa’a Samoa) is laid back with economies at a subsistence
level. Food is plentiful and people are able to live off the land. Modern Samoa
retains many elements of this but also includes a cash economy, high reliance on
remittances, urban drift and land ownership.
“The WIBDI way” is about retaining cultural norms and traditional ways of
farming – yet it is also about recognizing that Samoa has moved into the cash
economy and developing ways for people in Samoa to be self-sufficient again but in a different way. That is, being self-sufficient through families being able to
create income from the traditional crops – through adding value using some
relatively simple processes. However, WIBDI sometime struggle to fill the order
and have begun to develop partnerships with other NGOs and social enterprises
in the Pacific to increase volumes. Thus, one of the biggest challenges with this
has been encouraging farmers to join up to the VCO process and develop their
holdings in this way. As such it has been about ‘shifting realities,’ that is; moving
farmers to produce coconuts and then add-value to produce VCO that can be sold
at a premium to the Body Shop in “whatever quantity we can produce1.”
Social enterprises
Social enterprises are becoming increasingly important change agents in
disadvantaged and/or climate-threatened communities. Because institutional
infrastructure is often weak or missing, social enterprises help fill gaps in areas
such as education and training, finance, environmental protection and/or health
services. Therefore, organisations like WIBDI could also be referred to as
institutional entrepreneurs (Johannisson, Rezpallisas & Karlsson 2002),
community entrepreneurs (Johannisson & Nilsson 1989, Johannisson 1990,
Peredo & Chrisman 2006) or collective entrepreneurs (Johannisson 2000,
Johannisson, Rezpallisas & Karlsson 2002). For ease of discussion we will
include these concepts under the broad term of social enterprise, and refer to the
innovators who drive community initiatives as social entrepreneurs.
1
Personal communication with Adi Tafuna’i (Director WIBDI)
While all commercial enterprises generate some social value (e.g. jobs, training,
taxes), social entrepreneurs use their enterprises to help solve particular social
problems (Dacin, Dacin & Matear, 2010). They create value by "recognizing and
relentlessly pursuing new opportunities" (Dees, 2001: 4) and act as change
agents in their communities. It is worth noting that WIBDI’s executive director,
Adi Maimalaga Tafuna’i, was honoured at the Vital Voices Global Leadership
Awards in Washington, D.C., in June 2012 for her social change leadership2.
Elkington and Hartigan (2009: xi) use a quote from George Bernard Shaw to
depict social entrepreneurs as ‘unreasonable’ people who do not accept things as
they are and strive to create a better world:
"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; an unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."
A social enterprise can be defined as "an organisation that achieves large scale,
systematic and sustainable social change through a new innovation, a different
approach, a more rigorous application of known technologies or strategies, or a
combination of these" (Schwab quoted in Dacin, Dacin & Matear, 2010: 39).
Elkington and Hartigan (2009: 43) suggest that the key characteristics of a social
enterprise include a desire to drive social transformation, generate economic
and social benefits, attract investors with financial and social aims, and to grow
their operation.
Context
The Independent State of Samoa is a small developing country in the South
Pacific. There are two main islands: Upolu, where the urban centre of Apia
(36,000 inhabitants) is situated; and Savai'i, which is larger but less densely
populated. Indigenous Samoans make up about 93% of the population of more
than 190,000 (Samoa Bureau of Statistics, July 2012). The country is largely
rural, with its main industries related to subsistence agriculture, fishing, tourism
and low-level services. Agricultural products include coconut, banana, taro, yam,
bread fruit, coffee and cocoa, while tourism is increasing in importance and
makes up 25% of GDP3. Samoa still relies heavily on remittances from families
who have emigrated abroad (primarily to New Zealand and Australia), while
2 “As at January 2012, Adi had enabled more than 1,500 families to access economic opportunities to
support themselves - effectively strengthening Samoa's economy and offering its youth an alternative to
emigration. Adi is widely recognised for her wisdom and leadership and people from across the Pacific and
beyond speak of her extremely highly.” [http://www.aid.govt.nz/media-and-publications/developmentstories/june-2012/]
3
Although Samoa has relatively good soils, rainfall and fishing grounds, and could be selfsufficient in food production, it imports large quantities of fresh and processed food and
beverage products which worsen the country’s financial deficit problems
(http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/samoa/samoa_brief.html).
foreign aid is another large contributor. The country faces a worsening balance
of payments deficit due to high imports, declining income from indigenous
exports, and the effects of natural disasters.4 These disasters include devastating
cyclones in 1990, 1991 and 2012, the taro leaf blight in 1993 which threatened
the country’s susbsistence economy, and an earthquake and tsunami in 2009.
Women in Business Development Inc is a non-governmental organisation that
was formally registered in 1991. WIBDI works with women and families to
create organic products (e.g. virgin coconut oil, fine mats, dried bananas) for sale
in local and international markets. It has also been actively involved in disaster
recovery and mitigation activities following the 2009 tsunami. Adimaimalaga
Tafuna'i is one of the original 12 founders and has been executive director for 22
years. She is a visionary leader who has built the organisation from a small,
inwardly-focused group of aspiring female entrepreneurs to an outwardly
focused organisation that helps women and families in disadvantaged
communities to become more financially self-sufficient through the development
of sustainable micro-enterprises. WIBDI now employs approximately 60
advisors and administrative staff (half in enterprise development and half in
disaster recovery and mitigation). The organisation exports 75% of the goods
that its clients produce.
Approach
This study aims to understand WIBDI’s value creation model and to assess the
potential self-sufficiency of such a model, given the current business
environment. The research methods were largely participatory; spending time
understanding how WIBDI operates and functions. This included talking to
employees and participating in farm visits to gain insights into day-to-day
operations. This enabled a holistic view of the organisation to be developed.
As well as contacting WIBDI’s executive director Adi Tafuna’i to see if she would
agree to further research, we contacted Oxfam NZ, which is a significant
supporter of WIBDI. NZ Aid is also a significant donor, and earlier in the project
(i.e. during the first, historical research phase) we talked to NZ Aid officials in
Wellington and Apia about WIBDI’s achievements.
In total 18 days in Samoa in August/September 2012 observing operations in
WIBDI’s head office and conducting semi-structured interviews. Important
insights were also gained from field trips with WIBDI advisors. The first trip was
to Saleapaga, an area on the main island of Upolu that was devastated by the
2009 tsunami, to visit a farmer who had relocated as a result of the disaster The
second field trip was to the larger but less populous island of Savai'i for four days
visiting farmers and looking at organic production. During this time interviews
were conducted with the farmers visited and ethnographic methods were
employed.
4
Source: Australian Government Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
(http://www.dfat.gov.au/geo/samoa/samoa_brief.html)
Findings
As a result of the fieldwork a sustainable value chain model was developed that
encompassed the key activities of WIBDI. The following illustration depicts the
model which intertwines social, environmental and economic aspects into what
we’ve termed the sustainable value chain.
Model 1: Sustainable value chain
This paper will describe and analyse the chain to look at the operations of a
community / family / social enterprise operating in the Pacific. The key question
of how this enterprise is able to maintain strong links to Samoan culture and yet
export internationally will be examined. This will be particularly in light of how
community/social enterprises are able to add value – social and environmental
as well as economic, along the complete value chain. How this is able to occur has
important implications for having businesses that operate for society rather than
for an objective economic system.
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