Interfirm Networks in the Indonesian Garment Industry: Trust and Other Factors in their Formation and Duration and their Marketing Consequences

Reports on and analyses the results from a survey (conducted by Latif Adam) of 210 small or medium-sized garment enterprises in the Municipality of Bandung and the District of Bandung, Indonesia. This survey was intended to identify factors that led SMEs to engage in cooperative interfirm agreements; to identify the influences affecting the duration of such cooperative agreements and to determine the elements which respondents considered to be important for the long-term success of such agreements. In addition; the survey enabled the potential benefits of such agreements to be ranked. Trust was found to be an important consideration in the formation and duration of such agreements and most SMEs saw as the major benefits of such agreements the greater access this enabled them to have to markets. The implications of such cooperation for expanding the involvement of Indonesia’s garment industry in global trade are considered.