Department of Management, Faculty of Business & Economics
Abstract
Economic globalization is a process by which a country's economy will be more integrated with the world economy. The next challenge, is how the public is able to prepare and make the most of market opportunities. Delays in preparing and developing a competitive edge in the global market, will create a golden opportunity was taken over by other countries that are more capable, which in turn will have a negative impact on economic development and welfare of the community. Aware about it, Surabaya City Government since 2009 has prepared a strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of micro, small, and medium enterprises (SMEs). SMEs grow in the community, however, has shown a higher durability and a buffer lives of millions of people. SMEs are an important part of the economy of a country or region, including Indonesia. Strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs strategy in the context of market integration in Asia conducted by the Surabaya City Government is through Tiered SME Training. Tiered SME training aims to train groups of poor people in the city of Surabaya in skills for entrepreneurship. At the next level of skills for entrepreneurship was developed into SMEs through training by SKPD Surabaya City Government. Each level of training conducted, will be given to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs in the context of market integration in Asia. One of the reinforcement given in the tiered training, is how the SMEs can make adjustments across cultures, able to deal with cross-cultural issues, and ultimately can achieve sustainable growth.
The research objective was to determine how the tiered training of SMEs in Surabaya can serve as a strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of SMEs in the context of market integration in Asia, particularly in terms of providing the ability to customize cross-culturally, the ability to deal with cross-cultural issues, and can achieve sustainable growth. The subjects in this study is the Surabaya City Government, namely Bappeko who design strategies and tiered management training programs, SKPD (BAPPEMAS and KB, the Department of Labor, Office of Food Security, Department of Cooperatives and SMEs, Department of Trade & Industry, as well as the Department of Health) that play a role in providing this training to generate self-employment, business groups and SMEs, as well as provide strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs, and the trainees who successfully established SMEs
This type of data is primary and secondary. Primary data were obtained through in- depth interviews and focus group discussions, while the secondary data obtained through the analysis of the documents.
The research found that SMEs tiered training held by the Surabaya City Government plays an important role as a strategy for strengthening the competitiveness of SMEs in the context of market integration in Asia, providing the ability for sustainable growth and addressing cross-cultural issues
Keywords: tiered SME training, strategy to strengthen competitiveness, market integration in Asia, sustainable growth, cross cultural issues
