The Effect of the Growth of the Number of Culinary Businesses on the Development of the Creative Economy in East Java

Abstract

The growth of the creative economy sector in Indonesia, especially the culinary subsector, plays an important role in strengthening the regional economy, showing significant potential in encouraging regional economic growth, including in East Java Province. However, although the number of culinary businesses has continued to increase in the last five years, there has not been much research that empirically examines the extent to which this growth contributes to the development of the region's creative economy. This study aims to analyze the influence of the growth of the number of culinary businesses on the contribution of the creative economy in East Java for the 2020–2024 period. The research uses a quantitative method with an explanatory research approach and secondary data obtained from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), the East Java Cooperatives and MSMEs Office, and the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf). The analysis was performed using simple linear regression with SPSS software. The results showed that there was a strong positive relationship between the number of culinary businesses and the contribution of the culinary subsector to the creative economy (R = 0.722), with a determination value (R²) of 52.1%. However, the results of the F test and the t-test showed that the effect was not statistically significant (Sig > 0.05). These findings indicate that the increase in the number of culinary businesses has not been able to directly increase the contribution of the creative economy without the support of product innovation, digitalization, and increased competitiveness. This research has implications for the need for creative economy development policies that not only focus on increasing the number of businesses, but also on strengthening the quality, innovation, and capacity of culinary MSME actors in East Java. This research makes an empirical contribution to the development of evidence-based policies in the regional creative economy sector.