Social Enterprise

Core Innovations

  • How do Village-Owned Enterprises (VOE / BUMDes) leverage external knowledge sources for open innovation?
  • How can rural enterprises achieve both economic and social missions to enhance sustainability?

Overview

This research space can be described as an opportunity to explore trust, governance, and reciprocal relationships between civil society, the private sector, and local communities in Indonesia. This study aims to understand community empowerment based on open innovation through Village-Owned Enterprises (VOE) to enhance sustainability.

Future research directions will focus on how these unique social enterprises balance their dual objectives. To achieve both economic and social missions, VOE must develop their open innovation by leveraging external knowledge sources, both inbound and outbound. By analyzing organizations situated at the intersection of public mandate and private enterprise logic, we seek to understand the mechanisms that allow these hybrid structures to thrive.

Our working definition: Social enterprises are unique, hybrid organizational models continually informed by the application of business logic to promote the resurgence of community welfare, utilizing open resources and cooperative networks.

Research questions

  • How can open innovation be utilized as a sustainable strategy for Village-Owned Enterprises (VOE/BUMDes) in Indonesia?
  • How do social enterprises effectively integrate inbound external knowledge to optimize the production of goods and services?
  • What are the primary limitations in human resources and technology that hinder bound open innovation in rural enterprises?
  • How can business entities evaluate their operations, particularly in the commercialization process, to ensure long-term sustainability?

Recent activities

SoCI National Symposium: Exploring Open Innovation Methodologies in Village-Owned Enterprises

This two-day symposium brought together leading academics, VOE directors, policymakers, and local community leaders to explore the concept of open innovation as a sustainable strategy. Held at the Faculty of Administrative Science, Universitas Indonesia, the symposium was attended by graduate and undergraduate students, faculty, and administrators with the intent to open a long-term dialogue on the opportunities and barriers to advancing local enterprise research.

Key questions discussed at the event include:

  1. What is the appropriate research paradigm for studying open innovation in VOEs?
  2. How can VOEs balance economic viability with social community empowerment?
  3. Does social innovation have useful tools and strategies for fostering rapid change in traditional rural ecosystems?
  4. What are the opportunities and barriers to advancing change-oriented social enterprise research at Universitas Indonesia?

Projects

Community Empowerment Utilizing Open Innovation as a Sustainable Village-Owned Enterprise Strategy: This research analyzes how open innovation, which utilizes inbound external knowledge markets, knowledge, open resources, and cooperative networks, has a positive impact. It also recommends that business entities evaluate their operations, particularly in commercialization, to ensure sustainability.

Publications

Harinurdin, E., Laksmono, B.S., Kusumastuti, R., & Safitri, K.A. (2025). Community Empowerment Utilizing Open Innovation as a Sustainable Village-Owned Enterprise Strategy in Indonesia: A Systematic Literature Review. Sustainability, 17(8), 3394.
Kusumastuti, R., Silalahi, M., Asmara, A.Y., Hardiyati, R., & Juwono, V. (2022). Finding the context indigenous innovation in village enterprise knowledge structure: a topic modeling. Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 11(1), 19.