Building a Competitive Advantage for Apparel SMEs in Indonesia

Abstract

The Indonesian fashion sector offers a potential opportunity for new entrants due to the vast size of the market. The fashion industry must always cater to the growing number of mass consumers. Because of the wide range of styles and customer preferences, the fashion industry is a fast-paced sector with a high level of demand unpredictability. This research is a qualitative research, data collected using in-depth interview with fashion apparel retailers in indonesia. This study aims to explore competitive advantage that experienced by SMEs in order to guide SMEs to know what method to implement. From here this research takes part as being a planning and preparation stage for a business, a business that have develop planning and preparation will have tendency to overcome issues occurred. Analyzing data using business system gap, position gap, regulatory gap, regulatory/legal gap, organizational gap, cultural gap and which derived from capability gap. SMEs participate in this study are proven to achieve competitive advantage and using organizational/managerial gap and position gap as frequent used categories. As SMEs needed to have unique value, and relational perks for achieving competitive advantage.