The Role of National Brand “Bangga Buatan Indonesia” to Support MSME Resilience in COVID-19 Crisis

Abstract

Abstract The weakening of economic activity in Indonesia caused by the spread of the COVID outbreak impacted MSME activities in Indonesia negatively. The Indonesian government has implemented various preventive policies to support local MSME resilience to overcome this issue. One of which is a policy related to the brand nation, “Gerakan Bangga Buatan Indonesia” (BBI). This study aims to determine the role of BBI policies on the resilience of Indonesian MSMEs in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data used in this study were sourced from social media “Twitter” which contains the hashtag #banggabuatanindonesia from March 2020 – March 2021. This study examines tweets related to BBI with matters that affect the resilience of local MSMEs, such as business regulation, financial reform, tax reform, and economic stimulus qualitatively. The results showed that the most affected category to MSME resilience in the COVID-19 pandemic era was digitalization, followed by trade activities, economic stimulus, business regulation, financial reform, and tax reform. The magnitude of the influence of digitalization on MSME resilience was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, which forces MSME actors to digitize their activities to maintain their business. In addition, this study also found two unique phenomena, which are: (1) digitalization is indirectly integrated into other categories such as trade activities, economic stimulus, and financial reform to support local MSME resilience; (2) The high participation of netizens consisting of the Indonesian people to support BBI policies through the use of the hashtag #banggabuatanindonesia. Overall, BBI policies have a positive impact on the resilience of MSMEs in Indonesia in the new normal era and the post-COVID-19 era. JEL Code: I15, J18, O14, Z19