The first Entrepreneurial Research on the Kalash Indigenous Community presented at an International Conference on Entrepreneurship in Sweden
Mr. Iqbal M. Khan, on Alumni of UMT, who is currently, involved with Research and writing papers on Indigenous Entrepreneurship led a delegation of research associates to Sweden to present their papers. Sweden was the host to one of the leading and largest conference on Entrepreneurship known as “ICSB-2011 Back to the Future.” This was a delegation of 9 members representing Pakistan. It consisted of two Alumnie from UMT including Mr. Iqbal M. Khan.
Research in Pakistan does not have a favorable position mainly because of lack of funding, but this was proved wrong when a delegation of students under the supervision of Iqbal M. Khan who is an Entrepreneurship Expert, got together to raise funds and to present their research papers at the 56th Annual Conference of International Council for Small Business (ICSB) at Stockholm Sweden.
Founded in 1955, the International Council for Small Business (ICSB) was the first international membership organization to promote the growth and development of small businesses worldwide. The organization brings together educators, researchers, policy makers and practitioners from around the world to share knowledge and expertise in their respective fields.
The research was conducted by visiting the three valleys in Hindu Kush twice. In these two visits Kalash homes were visited, their business ventures were visited, schools and museums were visited, and their processing plants (primitive) were examined. Non-Kalash people were interviewed case studies of numerous Kalasha families were recorded, bankers were interviewed and those Kalash who have left the valleys for jobs in Peshawar and Chitral which are the major cities near Kalash were interviewed. Finally extensive literature review was done on Indigenous entrepreneurship, besides consulting books on Indigenous communities and interviews with authors of books (Maureen Lines). The motive behind the first paper was to determine sustainability of the Kalash Indigenous community through empowering them as Entrepreneurs. This had gathered enough data to create more research papers. Hence three papers were planned.
In order to determine the entrepreneurial intensions the assembled Research Group adopted the Ajzen’s model of Theory of Planned Behavior, Perceived Behavioral Control and the survey team covered the community with questionnaires based on this model for quantitative analysis.
The third paper was to determine the vocational skills to be developed and to convert the tradesmen into micro entrepreneurs.
You may be aware that though a lot of literature is available on Kalash community and their culture and their anthropology, but this was the first research on the entrepreneurship of this Indigenous community. It also happens to be the ‘second wave’ of support by multilateral agencies such as World Bank, United Nations, IFAD and the UNESCO etc. These research papers were published in the book of abstracts of the ICSB 56th conference.
The Subjects on which the research papers were written were as follows:
• Kalash Indigenous Entrepreneurship and the Question of Sustainable Economic Development.
• A Photo Presentation on the Indigenous Society of Kalash and its Entrepreneurial Perspective.
• Determining the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Kalash Indigenous Community of Pakistan.
• Identifying and Developing Vocational Skills for Adopting Indigenous Entrepreneurship Ventures by the Kalash Community.
The travel to Sweden was a great exposure for the students to the international community which included Experts on the subject of Entrepreneurship from all over the world, Doctoral students, Think Tanks, Swedish Ministers, HRH Prince Daniel, experts in the field of Entrepreneurship such as David Storey, Steven Klepper, Hans J. Pichlir, Norris Kruger, Pola Kyro and Nobel Laureate Prof. Muhammad Younus who is a Social Entrepreneur
The confidence level of the students and the team leader was further enhanced when they started being called the ‘Kalash team’ and not to forget that the Pakistani Delegation was the largest delegation representing any country, being 9 in number. On top of that people attending the conference got so much attracted to this research that they are even willing to travel to Pakistan to work with this research group to carry this research to the next step. Hence Prof. Dr. Liisa Remes of Finland undertook to work in alliance with Iqbal M. Khan.
The biggest achievement of attending this conference was the invitation of the ICSB Board of Governors inviting Iqbal M. Khan to make his presentation in order to bring ICSB to Pakistan and to establish a Chapter in Pakistan. This is in process and Inshallah Pakistan will be the 12th member country of ICSB with a secretariat in Pakistan.
