Innovation Roadblocks: Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises in Indonesian Batik Design Collaborations

The handicraft industry in Indonesia is one of the three subsectors that contribute significantly to the country’s GDP. Among other creative industry subsectors, handicrafts (particularly the Batik industry in this case) have the highest labor force multiplier. Despite MSMEs contributing 60% to the national GDP, the productivity of micro enterprises is still much lower than that of small and medium enterprises. This issue of low micro-scale productivity may be attributed to the lack of skills and human resource development, as well as ineffective management of government assistance for MSMEs. The batik craft industry, which has received recognition from UNESCO, is predominantly composed of micro-scale enterprises. Therefore, it is crucial to identify the factors that hinder the development of designs among micro-scale batik MSMEs. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that hinder collaboration in the development of micro-scale batik MSME designs. The study uses an interview method with snowball sampling techniques, focusing on East Java, the Special Region (Daerah Istimewa, DI) of Yogyakarta, and East Kalimantan Provinces in Indonesia. The results reveal several factors that hinder design innovation in micro-scale batik MSMEs in these regions. The most influential factors are strategic, structural, human resources, market-related, government-related, and community-related issues. Internal factors include limited capital, minimal design knowledge, education, and work experience, while external factors include insufficient government training facilities, a lack of understanding of consumer preferences, and competition with other batik artists due to similarities in motif designs.