ANALYSIS OF PRODUCER BEHAVIOR IN THE CREATIVE HAIR CRAFT INDUSTRY IN PURBALINGGA DUE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Abstract

The creative hair craft industry is a famous product in Purbalingga Regency. Its performance has already declined during the Covid-19 pandemic, like other businesses in general. The aim of this research was to analyze the microeconomic field of this creative industry, namely the perspective of producer behavior. The method used in this research was profitability and efficiency analysis. Based on purposive random sampling, 96 respondents from hair craft entrepreneurs were taken as samples. The research found that: (1) Under normal conditions, on average a hair craft entrepreneur could earn IDR 5 million per month, in fact, one of them was able to achieve the highest profit of IDR 25 million, and the lowest was IDR 500 thousand. Conversely, when the pandemic, on average each entrepreneur dropped to a loss of IDR300 thousand per month, whereas there were entrepreneurs who could still earn a profit of IDR 4.5 million but had a loss of IDR 400 thousand; (2) Under normal conditions, the average R/C ratio showed 1.6, meaning that the revenues could cover the costs. Contrarily, during the pandemic, the average R/C ratio showed 0.96, lower than 1, meaning that there were not enough revenues to cover the costs (inefficiency). Therefore, this research found that the pandemic had an impact on disrupting the behavior of hair craft entrepreneurs, especially on the production side. Hence, it needs full support to restore its performance from various parties, namely local government, investors, banking, social media, local communities, etc. Thus, this local industry continues to exist as a leading one.