Weaving Regenerative Value Through Nature-Inclusive Stakeholder Engagement: Insights From Indigenous Businesses in the Sierra Nevada

2026/02/02 by Silvan Oberholzer
Engineering · Social Sciences · Business, Management and Accounting · #Mining and Resource Management #Indigenous Cultures and Socio-Education #Innovation and Socioeconomic Development

paper · doi:10.1177/00076503251407454

Abstract

Nature-inclusive stakeholder engagement, grounded in Western epistemologies and ontologies, embraces organizational relationships with nature entities considered as stakeholders. Although this construct has conceptual links to regenerative value creation, how it unfolds in an organizational setting remains unclear. This qualitative study informs nature-inclusive stakeholder engagement from a managerial perspective by exploring how Indigenous businesses of the Arhuaco ( Wíntukua ), Kogui ( Kággaba ), Wiwa ( Arzario ), and Kankuamo ( Kaku’chukwa ) peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia, consider nature relationships. The article relies on 27 semi-structured interviews with Indigenous business representatives, secondary literature (co-)authored by the Indigenous peoples of the Sierra Nevada, and observation data. The empirical findings provide insight into a nature-inclusive stakeholder engagement mindset, related interactions, and resulting regenerative value. Adopting Two-Eyed Seeing, the article proposes multidimensional nature-inclusive stakeholder engagement that embraces nature relationships through a relational stakeholder approach, wherein nature informs regenerative value creation as a guide.

Citations

• Beyond Anthropocentrism: A Call to Action for Multispecies Inclusivity
• For What It’s Earth: Transcending the Human–Nature Dualism Through “Deep Nature Connection”
• Stakeholder Engagement: Past, Present, and Future
• Indigenous Development and the Cultural Captivity of Entrepreneurship

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