Barriers to indigenous enterprise development on communally owned land

This research focuses on understanding barriers to indigenous enterprise development (IED) on inalienable and communal land in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia. A total of 56 face-to-face interviews were conducted with experts or opinion leaders on IED in the region. The barriers identified to IED in this context are: mistrust and conflict, socio-cultural norms and values, lack of human capital, the institutional framework, and economic and social constraints. These findings typically confirm those barriers to IED identified in the literature. However, this study illustrates that these barriers impact communal enterprise and smaller ventures in different ways. This research underscores that the processes and regulations for dealing with communal land, as well as risk averse government IED support programs, are found to limit adaptation and innovation in IED. But, the research illustrates that there are numerous barriers that must be addressed concurrently to improve IED outcomes in the region.