A community service team from Universitas Dian Nuswantoro (Udinus) conducted a service to study the global strategies for managing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries. The International Collaborative Community Service (PkM-KI) also involved Lincoln University College (LUC), Malaysia.
The project was supported by the Research and Community Service Agency (LPPM) at Udinus. It served as a tangible action in expanding the benefits of applied knowledge to the international level.
The service was mainly conducted by three faculty members from the Economics and Business Faculty and the Health Science Faculty at Udinus. The team was led by Wikan Isthika, S.E., M.Ec., Ak., and two other members, including Handy Nur Cahya, S.E., MBA, and Ratih Pramitasari, S.K.M., M.P.H. In the community service, they were also helped by an academician from LUC, Dayangku Azriani binti Awang Ismail, who was also an Assistant Pro-Dean.
The team leader, Wikan, explained that the service took place in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. It was mainly targeted at Management students at LUC. The purpose was to teach them practical knowledge about product marketing strategies, as well as pricing in a pioneering business, which would later be compared to a similar approach in Indonesia.
“Through this educative approach, we want to see the gaps in their curricula, especially related to practice-based marketing strategies. For that reason, we aim to give them ideas about Indonesian marketing strategies as a way to constructively compare it with Malaysian marketing strategies,” he explained.
The program also involved three students from the Accounting, Management, and Public Health Departments at Udinus to also implement the Independent Campus Program.
Textbook and Article Outputs
Furthermore, Ratih explained that the service produced various outputs, which benefitted both institutions. One of these outputs was a textbook about Strategies, Challenges, and Cultural Influences on Marketing for SMEs in Indonesia and Malaysia.
“The other output is an article about this community service that will serve as a guideline for students. We also made a number of educational videos uploaded on the YouTube channel, Abdimasku,” she uttered.
In addition, Handy added that LUC students also learned much about Indonesian SME's marketing strategies through a presentation. It would later be continued with a discussion about some case studies.
“Students from LUC were involved in pricing simulation about product prices, as well as comparing marketing strategies between marketing strategies in Indonesian and Malaysian SMEs. This service also served as a learning process between two different cultural backgrounds,” Handy explained.
To measure student’s understanding, the program was also equipped with a pre-test and post-test session. The results of this evaluation showed that there had been a significant increase in their understanding. This indicates that the educational approach was a success.
“Meanwhile, to ensure the sustainability of this community service program, we also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Implementation Agreement (IA) as a foundation of partnership continuation between both institutions,” Handy concluded. (Humas Udinus/Penulis: Haris. Foto: Humas Udinus)
