Indigenous Business Studies (INBU) 201

Overview

This course is designed to teach students the structure of Indigenous businesses in Canada and the community environment in which they operate.

The course will introduce fundamental business topics (or functions), including accounting, finance, management, and marketing. INBU 201 also covers economic, cultural, political, and legal (all from a Canadian perspective) business environments, as well as ethics, social responsibility, business types, and entrepreneurship. Students will develop a relevant vocabulary and understand fundamental concepts from disciplines such as economics.

INBU 201 exposes students to all the primary business topics in just one course. Thus, students will obtain an overview of the study of business, specifically from an Indigenous perspective, and will be introduced to management and marketing. The course also introduces many additional business topics, such as entrepreneurship, corporate responsibility, and Indigenous economic development.

This knowledge can be used to inform the selection of subsequent business courses or simply to understand modern Canadian business and business-related articles from newspapers, magazines, and other media.

Outline

Part 1: Introducing the Contemporary Indigenous Business World

• Lesson 1: Pre-Contact Economies and the Fur Trade
• Lesson 2: Land and Indigenous Business Development Canada
• Lesson 3: Leadership and Management
• Lesson 4: Entrepreneurship
• Lesson 5: Strategic Alliances, Partnerships, and Joint Ventures

Part 2: Navigating Indigenous Business

• Lesson 6: Governance, Law, and Policy
• Lesson 7: An Introduction to Taxation
• Lesson 8: Finance and Banking
• Lesson 9: Demographics

Part 3: Principles of Marketing

• Lesson 10: Marketing—Creating and Capturing Customer Value
• Lesson 11: Marketing Indigenous Contexts
• Lesson 12: Pricing—Understanding and Capturing Customer Value
• Lesson 13: Communicating Customer Value—Advertising and Public Relations

Part 4: Managing Operations and Information

• Lesson 14: Overcoming Barriers to Entry in Commercial Fisheries
• Lesson 15: Aboriginal Communities and Mining

Part 5: Managing Indigenous Issues

• Lesson 16: Treaties and Land Claims in Canada

Learning outcomes

After completing this course, students should be able to do the following:

• explain what makes an Indigenous business unique in terms of its economic roles, constraints, and opportunities
• identify the ways in which cultural values and social responsibility shape the behaviour of businesses in an Indigenous context
• analyze governance as an Indigenous business issue
• describe the contributions Indigenous businesses and Indigenous entrepreneurs make to building self-sufficiency
• discuss the four primary business functions: accounting, finance, management, and marketing
• explore the concepts of leadership and management in an Indigenous context
• discuss the supply chain and production of goods

Evaluation

Your final grade in INBU 201 is determined by a weighted average of the grades you receive on four written assignments and a final exam. To receive credit for INBU 201, you must achieve a minimum grade of 50 percent on the final exam and an overall grade of D (50 percent) or better for the entire course.

The weightings for each assignment and the exam are as follows:

The final examination for this course must be requested in advance and written under the supervision of an AU-approved exam invigilator. Invigilators include either ProctorU or an approved in-person invigilation centre that can accommodate online exams. Students are responsible for payment of any invigilation fees. Information on exam request deadlines, invigilators, and other exam-related questions, can be found at the Exams and grades section of the Calendar.

To learn more about assignments and examinations, please refer to Athabasca University’s online Calendar.

Materials

This course either does not have a course package or the textbooks are open-source material and available to students at no cost. This course has a Course Administration and Technology Fee, but students are not charged the Course Materials Fee.

Digital course materials

Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:

Brown, K. G., Doucette, M. B., & Tulk, J. E. (Eds.). (2016). Indigenous business in Canada: Principles and practices. Cape Breton University Press.

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.

Challenge for credit

Overview

The challenge for credit process allows you to demonstrate that you have acquired a command of the general subject matter, knowledge, intellectual and/or other skills that would normally be found in a university-level course.

Full information about challenge for credit can be found in the Undergraduate Calendar.

Evaluation

To receive credit for the INBU 201 challenge registration, you must achieve a grade of at least D (50 percent)on the examination.

• Online Exam

Important links

• Academic advising
• Program planning
• Request assistance
• Support services