Indonesia's Small Entrepreneurs: Trading on the Margins

Description

This book explores the socio-economic and cultural relationships that make life for small entrepreneurs in Makassar, Indonesia so distinctive. A new framework to examine small enterprises is investigated. Its application reveals the diversity of labour flexibility, networking and cluster styles amongst the enterprises studied, and the constraints they face for growth. Small enterprise studies in developing countries are still often framed within past informal sector' theoretical approaches or broader industrial paradigms. This book moves beyond such approaches and explores the potential use of the small enterprise integrative framework. This is developed as a tool with which to examine the organization and operations of small enterprises in developing countries, striving for a greater understanding of their micro- level activities, as well as their interactions at a range of scales. Applied in the context of Makassar, on the eastern Indonesian island of Sulawesi, the framework allows us to gain an in- depth understanding of what life is like for the small scale entrepreneurs who operate in the city. The analysis begins with an examination of the internal dynamics of the enterprises studies, concentrating on their history, production processes and labour flexibility. It then moves to explore inter-firm dynamics, focusing upon the networks, trust and clusters that have evolved amongst the enterprises, and also with other local economic actors. These insights give us a clear understanding of the constraints that small scale entrepreneurs face in trying to attain their own versions of success'. Whilst the recent Southeast Asian economic crisis has been heralded by certain commentators as a new era for small enterprises in the region, the book concludes that local realities for the small enterprises in Makassar mean that whilst for some it has been a time of shifting fortunes, other have continued trading on the margins.

"Turner's book is a valuable contribution to the literature. In taking the study of small entrepreneurs to a corner of the world where work is distinctly limited she has broadened the debate. In focusing on the social and cultural facets of business, and not just the business of business, she has also helped deepen the debate. The wealth of local color, moreover, gives this account a human touch absent from many other studies."-Journal of Asian Business