PACKAGING INNOVATION ISSUES OF MICRO ENTREPRENEURS BASED ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF GUIDING AGENCIES AND MICRO ENTREPRENEURS

Past studies have discussed a lot on the challenges of micro entrepreneurs which include; management inefficiencies, capital constraints, and human resources. However, there is still a gap in looking into the issue of packaging innovation aspect to enhance product marketability through the role of innovative packaging. Yet, there are a number of issues that micro entrepreneurs face in coming up with packaging innovation. This article is aimed to identify the issues related to packaging innovation in the context of micro entrepreneurs from the perspective of guiding agencies and micro entrepreneurs. Interview technique was used in conducting the data collection process involving four guiding agency officers and five micro entrepreneurs from food companies. The selection of respondents using the sampling method was aimed at focusing on the guiding officers who were directly involved in the development of micro entrepreneurs and micro entrepreneurs that used packaging on their products. For further clarification to enhance understanding, an unstructured interview was selected. The content analysis on interviews used ATLAS.ti 8 to encode and detect specific themes. The findings showed that the micro entrepreneurs had faced a lot of different issues related to packaging such as the lack of knowledge on packaging innovation, modest attitude and awareness on the importance of packaging innovation, financial constraints and low use of technology. Implementing packaging innovation is possible with the support of guiding agencies in terms of financial aid, institutional network services and technology transfer. The discussion in this paper enriches the scientific contribution by raising awareness about micro entrepreneurship issues and the driving factors that influence packaging innovation.