Enhancing the Competitive Advantage of the Germinated Parboiled Rice

Objective - This research aims to; 1) study the competitive advantage and firm performance of the geminated parboiled rice community enterprise group, 2) investigate the differences in competitive advantage and firm performance when classified by organizational factors, 3) study the difference in the influence of competitive advantage on firm performance, and 4) determine proposals to enhance competitive advantage.Methodology – This research uses mixed research methods. The quantitative method was used to study the influence of competitive advantage on firm performance of community enterprises, and a qualitative method was used to determine proposals to enhance competitive advantage. In Step 1, a quantitative research method was used to identify the population which includes management groups of 36 geminated parboiled rice community enterprises consisting of a chairperson, a vice-chairperson and a supervisor of 208 people, and 137 samples. Proportional sampling and simple random sampling were used in this process. Data was collected using questionnaires. The statistics used for data analysis was frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, F-test (one way ANOVA), Pearson's correlation coefficient, and hierarchical regression analysis. In step 2, data was collected from in-depth interviews with key informants, using a purposive sampling method. Data analysis from the interviews using the information obtained from the interview into categories and using content analysis to determine proposals.Findings - The research results found that competitive advantage and firm performance was high. The hypothesis testing results show that only the age of the community enterprise has an effect on the image of the community enterprise with the statistical significance of 0.05. All 3 independent variables composed of cost leadership, differentiation, and market focus had an influence on firm performance, by standardized coefficients (β) was .398, .426, .654 respectively.Novelty – The proposals from this research include the establishment of newly geminated parboiled rice community enterprises to accelerate the creation of the organization image to be known and accepted by consumers. Further, community enterprises should focus on developing a competitive advantage that comes from a market focus strategy. This will have a positive impact on firm performance.Type of Paper: Empirical