Making the Indonesian batik industry more sustainable

Wednesday 24 May 2023, 12:30 pm
PhD student
A.A. Gunawan
Promotor(s)
prof. dr. A.C.R. van Riel, prof. dr. J.M.M. Bloemer
Co-promotor(s)
dr. C. Essers
Location
Aula

Indonesian batik is the representation of the Indonesian cultural diversity in a form of art. The industry is tightly associated with family business, inherited skills, and feminine qualities. Despite its contribution to the Indonesian economic and cultural sustainability, the production process is unsustainable. This research unfolds the personal drivers, as well as the institutional barriers and facilitators that could encourage and discourage batik entrepreneurs to become more sustainable by taking into account the intersections of the entrepreneur’s identity. The findings suggest that women and men differ in motivations to become more sustainable. For example, a male entrepreneur can be motivated by feminine values i.e., living in harmony with people and the environment, while a female entrepreneur can be motivated by economic profit to improve her personal wealth. In addition, the institutional barriers that hinders the batik entrepreneurs to become more sustainable are mainly due to lacking of regulations such as inconsistency in supporting sustainable batik SMEs and different cultural perspectives among younger and older generations in the batik industry such as mindset shift towards sustainability. Finally, this study enhances the repertoire of knowledge in the ecopreneurship and craft industry studies. 
 

Currently, I am a full-time lecturer at Telkom University in Bandung, Indonesia. I teach bachelor students in entrepreneurship and other related subjects such as creative thinking in business, design thinking, entrepreneurship projects, etc. I obtained a bachelor degree from Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia in 2011, a master degree from Institut Teknologi Bandung (School of Business and Management), Indonesia in 2013, and another master degree from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands in 2016. My research interests are entrepreneurship, ecopreneurship, sustainable entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship, creative industry, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs). I have published eleven academic articles and three academic books.