Ep 8: Hiraina Tangiora – Growing kiwi(fruit) connections
In this episode, Hiraina swaps the host seat for the hot seat. Indigenous business is still under-researched, but Hiraina is helping change that.
Hiraina has been your host of From the Ground Up, but in this episode, the roles are reversed, with her research in the spotlight.
She’s worked in the international kiwifruit industry and with the Ministry for Primary Industries. Now she’s back at Lincoln as both a lecturer and a PhD student.
Through the Whanake Ake programme, Hiraina teaches in the Department of Agribusiness and Markets, helping to grow Māori teaching and research capacity at Lincoln. At the same time, she’s completing her PhD on the impact of culture and worldviews on commercial business partnerships.
Her research focuses on the partnership between Māori Kiwifruit Growers (MKGI) and Zespri, as well as their wider export value chains to Hawaii, Dubai and beyond.
Being a bi-cultural person by nature and being able to see the best in both worlds has always been a significant driver for me.
On top of her research and teaching, Hiraina is also involved in projects like the Lincoln food forest, drafting academic papers and a textbook, and of course, hosting this podcast to share the fantastic work of fellow postgrad students.
Read more about Hiraina's research
Listen now
Listen to Hiraina's podcast episode to hear more about her mahi and the impact it could have on cross-cultural partnerships.
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[Hiraina] Kia ora and welcome to From the Ground Up. I'm your host Hiraina Tangiora and I'm a lecturer and a PhD student here at Lincoln University. This week we're doing something a bit different. The mic's gone full circle and one of our first guests, Dan, is going to be leading the korero with me answering the questions. So, over to you, Dan.
[Host – Dan] Thanks very much. Um, I'm sort of excited to be here with you, Hiraina. Um, a few things that listeners might not know about Hiraina. Um, she has come from a background of Zespri and NPI and now she's at Lincoln. She's a passionate teacher and researcher. She is making a real impact so far in her time here. When she's not studying or researching or teaching, you'll find her hiking, running, and lately she has got into making homemade bagels. So, uh, yeah, it's great to be here asking you a few questions.
[Guest - Hiraina] Thanks, Dan.
[Host – Dan] So, firstly, can you tell us a bit about yourself and why you're studying here at Lincoln?
[Guest - Hiraina] Sure thing. So, I'm Hiraina. Um, as mentioned, I'm a PhD student and lecturer here at Lincoln University. And part of what I'm I'm studying and working on is looking at the impact of culture and worldviews on business partnerships. Um, what success looks like in these cases, where we can improve. And I'm specifically using a case of a Māori organization in the horticulture sector, a non-Māori organization and then the partners surrounding their export value chain to Hawaii, Dubai and beyond.
[Host – Dan] Right. What sort of inspired your interest in that area?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, as we said, I did work at Zespri um in a past life before coming to work here at Lincoln. Um I was there for about five years in several roles across uh supply chain graduate, packaging, external relations coordinator and so my time there built up a lot of cool relationships and I'm really lucky to call some of those people still very close friends and colleagues today. Um and part of that later role in external relations was working with Māori stakeholders and Māori kiwi fruit growers who are an increasing part of the overall kiwi fruit pool of producers. Um, back in 2016, they were just getting a collective organization together to look at how they could, I guess, empower and continue to enable those growers. Um, and seeing that and speaking to a lot of people from there, I thought I could have an impact through providing research services um, and adding value that way in in a small startup that doesn't have heaps and heaps of funding for this kind of thing.
[Host – Dan] Right. And was there a specific event or moment that happened that made you think of got you inspired to do that particular project?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, as is often the case uh in the primary sector, there's sort of two degrees of separation max. In this case, it was more like one. Um the current GM of Māori kiwifruit growers, this is the key organization I'm working with, was my old boss at Zespri. And so, her and I remained close close friends um and would just catch up generally to see how each other was going with our respective pieces of work. And it was just from one of those many conversations. I was uh at the time searching for my PhD topic. Not sure if you remember when you were searching for yours, but I found, you know, the world's sort of your oyster. How can you narrow it down? How can you pick just one thing? But it was through very organic discussions with Amy that we were able to come to a place where I thought I could add value um through my specialtities and my interests and she thought I could as well through the problems or the needs that they were seeing.
[Host – Dan] Right. Sounds like a really interesting project. And so what made you choose Lincoln University to do your PhD?
[Guest - Hiraina] I'm a second time returner to Lincoln. I have not gone all the way through like yourself, Dan. Um, but I studied a Bachelor of Commerce in supply chain management and international business here about 10 years ago. Um, and during that time I had an awesome experience of Lincoln. Um, and I knew it was a place that I could easily see myself coming back to because of all the positive student and staff relationships that I was fortunate to make along the way. Um I then moved to the North Island which meant uh my masters was done at a different university. However, a really uniquely uh way of coming into this I suppose um is that I was offered a role of Whanake Ake Māori early career researcher in our faculty agro business and commerce and with that came a provision as well if I if I was successful to do my PhD here. So, while it sort of came with the role, um, based on my experiences at Lincoln thus far, it would have been my preferred choice. Um, anyway, I just I love, you know, the campus, it's very open. Um, and the fact that you were always able to approach your lecturers, you know, with open door policies. That was something that stuck with me for along time. Um, and is something that has transferred into supervisors and colleagues as well.
[Host – Dan] Allright. What What does that Whanake Ake early career role sort of look like?
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah, good question, Dan. Um so basically there's we're we're across all three of our faculties. Um so um the representative for ours when they scoped the role up it was brand new. Um so it was one of those things that they had an idea of what they wanted to achieve. Um but I kind of love these roles where you get to step into it and then build it out from there as well. So they really wanted to grow māori teaching and research capability and capacity at faculty level. Um and we're pretty open to ways of doing that. So built into it were provisions like um you know new course development, doing a relevant PhD, things like that and pursuing research in this area but apart from that it was sort of an open book. Um but yeah it was a pretty special way for me to come back to Lincoln in a way that I could be financially supported to do so and pursue areas of interest for me as well. Win-win.
[Host – Dan] Yeah, sounds good. Um so Lincoln's here in the beautiful Canterbury. Does this particular place have any relevance to your research?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, to be honest, you know, I I study a business um PhD at the end of the day. So, theoretically, I could probably do this anywhere with an internet connection. And given most my participants are in the Bay of Plenty, it would maybe even make a little more sense to be there. However, as I said, um Lincoln's really special place to me ever since I first started here. Um I also spent a lot of time growing up in and around Canterbury as well and have a lot of family um members and friends down here too. So like I said, whilst I probably could do it from other places, I'm really happy to be doing it from Lincoln.
[Host – Dan] Right. Good. Um, and what is the your core research question?
[Guest - Hiraina] So I'm sort of trying to unpick now, you know, in a mostly qualitative PhD. This is hard to answer. Um, but I'm basically trying to look at the impact of culture and worldviews on business partnerships. Yeah. specifically um what some really successful outcomes look like and how those could translate beyond the specific partnership right into other ones around Aotearoa.
[Host – Dan] And when you say successful outcomes that in itself is probably quite takes quite a bit of quantifying or describing?
[Guest - Hiraina] yeah it's very subjective obviously what success looks like so part of my PhD challenge um which is not a bad thing is separating out um partnership characteristics what is universal what could be applied to um the apple industry or the dairy sector, you know, things like that. And what is very unique and very specific to māori and Kiwifruit as well. So, there's sort of a two-parter. Um, I see the latter as being really beneficial to Māori Kiwifruit growers, Zespri and the others involved in their specific one just to know that the value that they are adding to each other, but I see the former one hopefully being relevant toother cross cultural partnerships across Aotearoa and beyond.
[Host – Dan] And this is going to be thesis by publication?
[Guest - Hiraina] It is. It is.
[Host – Dan] So what are the sort of three chapters look like?
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah. So um you're also doing thesis by publication and I think for us as also staff members it makes good sense to do so. Um I also am not very good with one three year long deadline. Yeah I need I need lots of little ones to break up along the way. Um so I'm trying to split it into three parts around with the first being um a scoping literature review on indigenous partnerships. What's out there? Long story short, not a whole lot. Um so my research gap was justified good as a chasm early on. Um secondly some qualitative interviews. So I've currently undertaken 17 qualitative interviews with people that I mentioned across those partnerships um in roles that meant that they could speak in quite depth um quite a high depth of it. Um, so basically pulling those things together and seeing what are the key things that they really wanted to see when they were partnering either in this partnership or others and what are some of the key things that are missing. Yeah. As well as how they could be better promoted into the future. And even just asking them the simple question of how do you define partnership and asking something as simple as that. I mean there’s there's there's definitions there’s dictionary and literature definitions on partnership. Um but I had a feeling I had a sense going into it that they were going to be a bit like one-dimensional maybe and that when you ask actual people they might add a bit more substance to it. So that has led me to quite a lot of interesting insights around um what do people actually think partnership is and um some of them have said you know it's the gold standard of coming together. They’re cautious about putting the word partnership on something if it's not truly beneficial and win-win. Um whereas the other definitions are sort of just like you know two organizations or more coming together sharing the risks and benefits of work. So that has been great. Um so currently submitted the first paper currently drafting that second paper. Um and then my third paper will be hopefully coming from survey data. Um so using the survey tool uh in conjunction with the interviews to have a mixed methods PhD and just a bit more broadly understand and I guess ask a few more people what they think about those concepts. Good. So the third paper will be related to that. But the survey very much has been built off the results of the first and the second.
[Host – Dan] Yeah. And it sounds like you've been sort of multitasking over the multiple projects at once instead of doing one in isolation then the next. That must be quite challenging.
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah. Yeah. I think it's a case of when we’re balancing your full-time workload as well. You've sort of just got to make things fit um where they can too. Um and obviously when you start when you enroll in a PhD, you got to get your esearch proposal done. And that in itself leads you down about five different rabbit holes until you decide that was my experience anyway exactly which one you're going to go for. Then when you get that tick, you got to start your human ethics. And to start your human ethics, you know, you need to have had an idea of what you wanted to ask people about in the first place. Yeah. Um with with literature also helping to build and feed into your gap. So it kind of felt like while they could be done sequentially um I also thought they could probably be multitask as well. I mean with the with the big thesis obviously eventually coming together at the end.
[Host – Dan] Now who do you think will benefit the most from your research when you finished it and published it or even as you're publishing the individual components?
[Guest - Hiraina] I think first and foremost and primarily I would like the Māori Kiwifruit Growers, Zespri and their partners to be beneficiaries. Um it's pretty special to have such a close research partner organization and it's made doing my research, my PhD journey a lot more smoother because of it. Um so I really want them to be the primary beneficiaries of the work given they entrusted me with their time and their organization's name to do so. Um but going back to this concept of what works in a partnership and what doesn’t and what we could change I would also like to find those un universal transferable partnership metrics as well that we could say hey you know if the Yeah peers sector or if the wine sector or any of the other food and Fiber sectors I haven't obviously taken my research much beyond the primary industries if they could also benefit from it if they were looking to have yeah māori organizations and non-māori organizations working together. I mean fundamentally Aotearoa was built on the aspirations of a partnership right that's what te tiriti o Waitangi or the treaty of Waitangi is um it's still really contentious today needs to be because of mistranslations stuff like that but um I actually think in terms of a global scale we’re really well placed to get this right.
[Host – Dan] And perhaps other indigenous communities globally might get some benefit from your research.
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah that would be awesome too. I mean I don't want to be so you know put it out there and say they will definitely benefit but I would love for it to have that sort of relevance as well. Um in my literature review obviously there wasn't enough in New Zealand. Um so I had to go for the full global scan of available literature and that still didn't turn up heaps and heaps uh and the the domains of general partnerships indigenous knowledge and agri business they were still very limited. So I can see that yeah if if indigenous partners um and researchers overseas were interested yeah I could see us working together or or them hopefully gaining some insights.
[Host – Dan] And as a good researcher you've been going to conferences related to your research and you're probably starting to build some connections that might help you distribute it out to those relevant people when it comes to publishing it.
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah, definitely definitely being a good researcher, you know, means all these hard things that go to conferences, but um yeah, I've been fortunate to go to three um since beginning. Um and to be honest, Dan, what I have found is that indigenous business or māori business is still quite under researched. Um so I often find, you know, three or four um others sort of linked to my area when I go to these sorts of things. Um but several of them I am pursuing longer research um with as well. So yeah, it only takes knowing you know a few really good connections that you get along with to then you know who knows what will happen in the future but yeah wouldn't have met them as fast without things like conferences for sure.
[Host – Dan] And do you think that most indigenous businesses face problems that are sort of unique to them or do you think some of those problems are sort of universal
[Guest - Hiraina] like across indigenous contexts?
[Host – Dan] Yeah.
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah, I think there's there's some shared challenges there for sure. I mean, when I look at how um some of our māori organizations organize, it can be often under like a trust structure or something where there's a lot of um trustees or shareholders involved in decision-making at the table and this this concept of collective ownership of assets is seems to be a lot more common across indigenous contexts as well. Um that leads to things like struggling to access capital um sometimes being in more remote parts of countries. So, while I would hesitate to say that, you know, indigenous peoples are homogeneous because of course they're not, I do think there's some shared challenges that can be picked up and then hopefully some shared opportunities that can be realized as a result.
[Host – Dan] Cool. And have you had any interest from any other indigenous researchers around the world and maybe like replicating your research or uh partnering with you in research in any way?
[Guest - Hiraina] Not in such a formal sense, right? Um, and I think getting those publications out there is obviously a good first step in doing so. Um, but I struggle to say no to things often here. Um, so while that is definitely my primary research focus, some of the other research focuses um, or foci that I've got at the moment, they've been more prosperous in sort of Yeah. building those connections and building out future things like um, future papers to work together on, um, drafting a textbook, things like that.
[Host – Dan] Yeah. Has there been um a moment or a finding in your research that sort of stands out as sort of the most surprising or the most rewarding or anything so far?
[Guest - Hiraina] I think for me it's not I mean nothing super profound as of yet, right? I mean I would want to wait until the very end to even um answer sort of the findings or the results part. But um I think what's been cool for me has been the concept of when I look at Māori Kiwifruit Growers, Zespri and their partners um it seems like they've they've been core to each other's beginnings um and now they are building a really strong fishnet of partnerships around them right and I like this concept of a fishnet you know if you cut one of the wires the whole thing still holds but if you just had a fishing line then it would it would break and crumble so I like this idea of that and I've honestly just enjoyed reconnecting um with people that I already know and then meeting new faces along the way too. That's sort of part of the why the reason I like qualitative research is because you actually get to spend time with those people.
[Host – Dan] Yeah. Interesting. What about when you've finished your PhD research? Do you what do you sort of see yourself doing in the research space after that?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, like you, I'm super lucky to have a role here. Um which is obviously a big part of getting a PhD is often to work in academia um if that's your pursuit. Um so but finishing the PhD also sounds like a really daunting goal as well. Soon the other side of that obviously would love the chance to uh engage in further research depending on what I find. Um really getting more and more involved in our faculty work here and then also looking at bringing up other students um as well through the undergraduate and and postgraduate pipelines to hopefully also get interested in this area.
[Host – Dan] I've found that and as I've been through my PhD is you think of dozens of other research projects that you would love to supervise masters or PhD students in the future. So you've probably found even more than me. We probably should keep a list of those. We might need it in the future.
[Guest - Hiraina] I agree. We got pretty big whiteboards so maybe we can jot them down.
[Host – Dan] And do you see your um research actually contributing to change in the sector uh when you're finished?
[Guest - Hiraina] I mean I hope so. I don't think anyone sort of goes into these um without that aspiration that even if it was a small thing that it would um so I think given yeah Māori Kiwifruit Growers very small startup uh not quite 10 years old um I think it can definitely have changed to them and how they organize I mean look I'll put the findings forward and it'll be up to them um but I would like to see lots more of this um positive cross cultural partnerships going on uh across business where we mainly see cross-cultural partnerships is often called public private when it's like government entity and then say an iwi trust or something like that. Um however filling the knowledge space around and just elevating something that is working relatively well and I think more people will hopefully be inspired to give it a crack too and I would love to obviously chat with them and help them out if so. Great. That'd be great to see.
[Host – Dan] What can other people get involved in your research or support you in any way if they listen to this and want to?
[Guest - Hiraina] Definitely. Definitely. Um if anyone is interested in this area at all, I would love to chat. Um there's not heaps and heaps and heaps of māori academics in business schools. Um I mean I'm lucky to know of several of them. Um but definitely um academia or industry either way if you're Yeah. primary sector is obviously our specialty but outside as well. Definitely pretty easy to find me on the likes of LinkedIn and our researcher profiles as well and I would really welcome it.
[Host – Dan] Great. Um, so moving on from the research, is there anything else you would like to add sort of in this sphere or anything we've talked about or important thing about Hiraina and her research that we haven’t picked up on?
[Guest - Hiraina] Big questions. I think um, and I I know the script quite well. Um, but in terms of if others are wanting to or considering studying postgraduate here at Lincoln, um, and what are some of the things that I've learned along the way so far in my sort of two years that I would share with them? Um, so I think one big thing for me has been your supervisors. And so I was quite fortunate to pick my supervisors. When I say pick, I mean, you know, speaking with people, working out um what their interests were, if they align with my interests, things like that. And for me, I was able to, I guess, design a team of really cool researchers who have complimentary skill sets.
[Host – Dan] Cool.
[Guest - Hiraina] So since I wanted to do mixed methods um you know I have someone who's quite done a lot of qualitative research someone who's done a lot of quantitative research and since it's in the field of um māori knowledge I also have someone who's Mātauranga Māori and māori is really strong as well and what's been awesome for me is that in our meetings you know I've heard horror stories from other students around New Zealand and beyond um that their supervisors don't always get on for whatever reason but I've really loved seeing my supervisor the main supervisor relative to the topic being discussed sort of takes that lead role and the other's actively learning good from each other.
[Host – Dan] Yeah, it must be good.
[Guest - Hiraina] Yeah. So, that's been really cool. Um, and as hard as it is to just pick one thing and stay the course, it is critical. Yeah. I've had more than a few times when I've said to my supervisors, what about if we also did this? And they've said, if you're still really interested about this topic when you finish, go for it. However, you know, be realistic in what you can achieve with your PhD.
[Host – Dan] That's good advice. Yeah. And what is your favourite food and fiber product?
[Guest - Hiraina] I don't think this is going to come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, you can probably guess it from our discussion this far, but I am and have always been a long fan of kiwi fruit, specifically gold.
[Host – Dan] Skin on or skin off?
[Guest - Hiraina] Skin off.
[Host – Dan] If you had $1 million of research funding, how would you use that?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, that's a tough one. I mean, I mentioned to you there's there's not heaps of māori business research uh in academia and stuff like that, but I do know on the outside that there's heaps of māori and indigenous business occurring. So, I reckon I'll just host like a massive global summit um on indigenous business for industry and and academia to be able to come and share their insights as well. I think that would be awesome. And I think that money would go quite a long way to getting everyone here.
[Host – Dan] How would you attract people to that?
[Guest - Hiraina] Well, I mean, I guess if you could say that it was funded, um, then that would probably be quite attractive. We don't usually have an issue getting people to want to come down to Aotearoa. Um, bottom of the world, beautiful country, obviously. Um, but yeah, having had the fortunate opportunity to travel to North America a couple of times in particular. Um, working with uh, First Nations and Native Americans over there. Um, probably just disseminating through I mean, this is very much indigenous way of connections, right? And whanaungatanga. Yeah. Um, so yeah, probably just snowballing it out from there.
[Host – Dan] Cool.
[Guest - Hiraina] Happy for you to post it on your socials too if you like.
[Host – Dan] Thank you, Hiraina. It's sort of been really interesting chat. I know we've worked together for quite a while and I've always sort of wanted to understand your research a bit more. So, um, it's been quite insightful and it's also been nice to sit in your chair and my hats off to, you know, you doing this podcast regularly is actually quite tough. Um, so yeah, I'll just hand back over to you. It is your podcast and you can wrap this up.
[Hiraina] Thanks so much, Dan. Funny though, I always thought I had the easier job sitting in that chair than this one. So, I'm happy to give this one to someone else as well. A big thank you to Dan for flipping the script and interviewing me today. This has been from the ground up. Thank you so much for listening. This is the final episode for the time being, but keep an eye out for our future korero. If you enjoyed today's episode and you want to hear more about postgraduate research and the people behind it, don't forget to rate, subscribe, and share this podcast with your friends.
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