International Journal of Computer Science Issues

More than a traditional journal...

The Small and Medium Enterprise (SMEs) has a strategic role that could have a significant contribution in improving the prosperity of the society. The government has tried to empower SMEs through forming a forum in which those SMEs stakeholders could communicate to grow their businesses for economic community development. Whether the forum serves as it is supposed to be depends on several aspects. One of them is the network and how the network function to greatly contribute to development of the local economic. This study tries to map the SMEs network in Borobudur Cluster to know how they build the relation. Besides, it investigates the most influential actor in the network along with the media used for communication within the network. Finally, it tries to seek recommendation and strategies for strengthening Local Economic Development platform, which indirectly affects the economic development in a broader sense. This qualitative study employs survey and interview to actors in the network in order to collect the data needed. The network is mapped using NETDRAW and UCINET 6.0. The result of the study shows that the most influential actor in the network plays an important role in disseminating any information needed for the forum in order to develop. After the most influential actor and most frequently media-used are identified, some recommendations and strategies are suggested for further consideration of the stakeholders in the network.