Enhancing Indonesian creative economy through entrepreneurship and locality : Case studies by young entrepreneurs in West Java

Abstract

The role of young people in entrepreneurship proved to be increasing; they join in creating new jobs and boost the local economy. This research that was conducted from 2014 until present aimed to explore the challenges that became the factors, which both drive and inhibit creative young entrepreneurs. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods and study four major cities in West Java Indonesia. By using survey and statistics, quantitative method was conducted in the first year. The results in the first year showed that the entrepreneurs in Garut, Cirebon, and Tasikmalaya possessed all of the unique characteristics, except networks—which was owned by Bandung entrepreneurs. In addition, it was also known that the enthusiasm in the attitude of entrepreneurial ventures had different effects. Even though on average, the creative young entrepreneurs in the four cities had good business attitude, there were differences in their characteristics based on their locality or local culture. Entrepreneurship in the creative industries was indicated by unique characteristics in the materials and/or technologies, the right time to produce a product, social environment that supports the industry, aesthetics, funding sufficiency, conducive city climate, and the suitable networking. Furthermore, to obtain a comprehensive picture of the creative industries, especially the young entrepreneurs in West Java, the research is now conducted to further explore the barriers and boosters in industrial context qualitatively, through interviews and focus group discussion on several case studies.