APPLICATION OF THE TRIPLE HELIX CONCEPT FOR SME NETWORK DEVELOPMENT AS AN EFFORT TO BUILD COMMUNITY ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE

Abstract

SMEs or small and medium enterprises are a type of business on a small scale that does not have branches. SMEs are a type of business that is resilient to the storm of economic downturn. This can be seen from the decline in economic growth some time ago until now this type of business has the most stable growth. With the large number of SMEs at the village, sub-district, district, city and even provincial levels, it is very significant to help the sluggish economy. If likened to a network, the network members are in the form of sub-systems whose units are small in number and very productive. However, if SMEs are not assisted by regulations from the government and universities as centers of thought in various fields, especially regarding business management, these small and medium enterprises will be difficult to develop. Study-based research on the application of the triple helix concept for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) networks as an effort to build community economic independence is based on the Triple helix theory which is an interaction between academia, industry or business and government which was developed in the 1990s by Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff This concept has become a general strategy used by the government in developing policy innovations. The purpose of this study-based research is to describe the development of a network of SMEs to build economic independence. With data sources obtained from various documents related to the application of the triple helix, it is found that the Triple Helix needs to be applied as an effort to develop SMEs which can ultimately help economic independence in the community.