THE ROLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN AMPLIFYING THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP WITHIN THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN SUMBAWA

Abstract

In the last decades, entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries has briskly grown
contributing to the prosperity and sustainable development of communities. Due to the positive impact,
higher education institutions have progressively started introducing entrepreneurial activities. This
emerging phenomenon has not yet taken off in rural Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. The
purpose of this ethnographic research is to examine the role of higher education in fostering the
development of entrepreneurship in the cultural and creative industries in the region by examining the
ecosystem in one of the most relevant universities, namely: the Sumbawa University of Technology.
The results indicate that the ecosystem is an initial phase, enhancing the dynamics leading the
institution to become the catalyzer of entrepreneurship in the Cultural and Creative Industries based on
the local talents and local potentials.