A story of social entrepreneurship through the creation of the Hopeboots project
Publication date: 18 June 2024
Abstract
Research methodology
This case was developed by using primary data collected from two separate one on one interviews, a panel interview in which Josee was featured and secondary data collected from news articles and publications featuring Josee. Information specific to Atikuss’ offerings was found through the Atikuss website. A translation software was used to understand many of the articles about Josee, as many were in French.
Case overview/synopsis
Atikuss (meaning young caribou in Innu) is the sustainable business founded by Josee LeBlanc, an Indigenous woman from Northern Quebec. As a workshop-boutique, Attikuss offers a diverse selection of hand-made traditional Indigenous items from her own Indigenous culture. Hopeboots is a project run through Atikuss which allows customers to create their own Mukluks while learning about Indigenous culture and the story behind every design. When starting her business, Josee learned that the women making mukluk boots were not earning a livable wage for their work. Her dilemma when creating a sustainable business was whether to increase the beaders wages to a fair wage, costing her and the consumer more, or maintaining the status quo by continuing to pay the beaders less then five dollars an hour. Josee’s decision to increase wages generated opportunities and increased well being through social investments in her community. This decision considers the cost to many stakeholders and offers an Indigenized perspective to entrepreneurship. This case is relevant to Indigenous entrepreneurship, sustainability, social innovation, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility.
Complexity academic level
This case is targeted toward university-level students and can be relevant to graduate-level students as well.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Government of Canada under the Future Skills Program in partnership with the Diversity Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Disclaimer: This case is written solely for educational purposes and is not intended to represent successful or unsuccessful managerial decision making. The author/s may have disguised names; financial and other recognizable information to protect confidentiality.
Citation
Graci, S., Rasmussen, Y. and Washbrook, K. (2024), "A story of social entrepreneurship through the creation of the Hopeboots project", , Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/TCJ-05-2023-0124
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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