The Interpretation of Quality in the Sustainability of Indonesian Traditional Weaving

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Dear Authors, 

This is a well-written paper but needs to be restructured again. The research topic is interesting and the research questions are meaningful. The study integrates the SLR & qualitative approaches to emerging themes related to quality in weaving SMEs. 

A) Introduction: overall this section is well written but authors need to support the study gap mentioned at the end of this section by several references. 

B) Literature Review: (1) Authors need to define the quality concept and illustrate its emerging. In essence, before discussing TQM as concept ( line 133), it is useful to define the concept of quality. The literature revealed that there are various definitions of quality. The concept of quality is diverse. In particular, different scholars consider quality in diverse views. However, at its basic, quality is based on the evaluation of products, service and the satisfaction of the customer. There is no single universal definition of quality, and several authors and experts have defined it in different ways. (2) Authors needs to extend this section. (3) please move point 2.3 from this section and consider it as a separate section. (4) please consider the result section as a separate section after methodology and before the discussion section. (5) in methodology, authors require to explain the systematic review strategy in more efficient way, EX: did they use the PRISMA approach? Also need to extent the E-databases and keywords in searching the literature; To this end, several electronic databases should be searched, example:  the Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO research databases, Elsevier Science, Emerald, JSTOR, the Social Science Citation Index, the Social Science Research Network, and the Web of Knowledge. In order to identify published research papers that were appropriate for this study, a search strategy should be conducted that used a number of expressions and phrases, Example ‘TQM’, ‘TQM implementation’, ‘TQM strategy’, ‘TQM critical success factors’, ‘quality improvement’, ‘quality management’,  ‘quality management system and practices’. (5) more explanation  about the FG technique is required. (6) overall, the qualitative study suffers from a lack of its reliability and validity, how authors assure the study reliability and validity?.

(C) Discussion and conclusion: both section are good, but authors need to support their findings by several studies and link back their findings to the current literature. 

Thank you and best wishes 

Author Response

Reviewer 1:

A) Introduction: overall this section is well written but authors need to support the study gap mentioned at the end of this section by several references.

--> It has been revised in the introduction part.

This research provides novelty by proposing the concept of SME quality based on a systematic approach through literature research and supported by the practical experience of weavers running the weaving industry. The simplicity of the weavers in developing strategies and running a business in the midst of the complexity of the modern business environment can be captured with the right methodology. The method used to build the concept of quality understood by weavers in Eastern Indonesia involves data collection such as interviews and group discussion forums [10].

B) Literature Review:

(1) Authors need to define the quality concept and illustrate its emerging. In essence, before discussing TQM as concept ( line 133), it is useful to define the concept of quality. The literature revealed that there are various definitions of quality. The concept of quality is diverse. In particular, different scholars consider quality in diverse views. However, at its basic, quality is based on the evaluation of products, service and the satisfaction of the customer. There is no single universal definition of quality, and several authors and experts have defined it in different ways.

--> It has been improved in the section 2

It is not easy to find a definition of quality from the perspective of SMEs through previous studies. Therefore, to support the theory of quality, this study includes the concept of quality in several industries. The idea of quality in the healthcare industry focuses on two things: health standards and patient satisfaction. Safe standards and care and patient satisfaction are critical to the meaning generated in the study [26]. The concept of quality based on the user's perspective is associated with the feasibility of a product and the positive impression that arises after using the product [27]. The definition of quality is also expanded by [28]. Initially, quality was only based on the final product. Slowly, when the production process is carried out on a mass scale, the quality of production judged on the final product becomes irrelevant and causes high production costs. Therefore, [28] developed the concept that quality is conformance to requirements, conformity to usefulness, subjective, and intersubjective. In the education service industry, quality is associated with the commitment of higher education leaders to managing facilities, finances, and human resources that ensure the implementation of an educational process that maximizes value for stakeholders [29]. The research indirectly explains that quality management is the responsibility of top management even though it is part of all levels of management in the company. The concept of customer-oriented quality from a different perspective was also introduced by [30]. In e-commerce companies, the quality of service for returning goods by customers is associated with six aspects, namely: owning of responsibility, return convenience, return remedies, service team support, site return friendliness, and returns diligence.

Different definitions of quality based on the studies above state that the meaning of quality is a process of company life. The conventional definition of quality in the description arises from the product's characteristics, for example, ease of use or reliability. From the strategic aspect, the definition of quality above is stated through conformity with consumer desires, or it can be said that there is an added value obtained by consumers for using products or services. Quality can also mean all aspects of providing customer satisfaction. In large-scale companies, quality is part of quality management that involves the active participation of all employees. However, in small companies, implementing quality structured in the concept of Total Quality Management meets its challenges [31]. For example, in terms of structure, SME is straightforward, so the control of production is the responsibility of the owner of the company. Education and training to improve organizational performance relies more on government programs. Reluctance to change because the production process is influenced by cultural standards, as local wisdom is sometimes not compatible with modern management. Apart from that, the lack of external resources and support, especially from the local government, are some weaknesses in implementing TQM in SMEs.

(2) Authors needs to extend this section.

--> It has been extended. Thank you

(3) please move point 2.3 from this section and consider it as a separate section.

--> It has been separated as part 3. Thank you

(4) please consider the result section as a separate section after methodology and before the discussion section.

(5) in methodology, authors require to explain the systematic review strategy in more efficient way, EX: did they use the PRISMA approach? Also need to extent the E-databases and keywords in searching the literature; To this end, several electronic databases should be searched, example:  the Directory of Open Access Journals, EBSCO research databases, Elsevier Science, Emerald, JSTOR, the Social Science Citation Index, the Social Science Research Network, and the Web of Knowledge. In order to identify published research papers that were appropriate for this study, a search strategy should be conducted that used a number of expressions and phrases, Example ‘TQM’, ‘TQM implementation’, ‘TQM strategy’, ‘TQM critical success factors’, ‘quality improvement’, ‘quality management’,  ‘quality management system and practices’.

--> It has been extended in part Methodology

This study compiles a set of literature reviews, as seen in Table 1. The articles were collected from the DOAJ database, Indonesia’s accredited journals, and the Google Scholar database. The keywords to perform queries in the title are organizational culture, quality of SMEs weaving, interpretive weaving SMEs, and the qualitative approach of SMEs in Indonesia. In order to analyse the FGD, this study deploys NVIVO to count the words related to the quality definition proposed by the SLR and capture the sentence mentioned by the informants.

The unit of analysis in this study is the individual, focused on the analysis based on the weaver's perspective or point of view on the meaning of quality based on experience. Therefore, the selection of informants as data sources is based on the fulfilment of conformity requirements so that the weavers can explain the conditions, facts, or phenomena that will be explored to answer the formulation of the problem. Informants in this study were groups of weaving craftsmen who were members of the Production Cooperative from Singaraja, Klungkung, Gianyar, and Denpasar; weavers in Bali; and the Women's Weaving Association in Sangala. In addition, the informant from NTT was a personal weaving entrepreneur who ran her businesses independently. The selected woven craftsmen are those who know technically and in detail about the manufacturing process and management of the weaving business. The validity and reliability of the results in this study are proven by the integrity and adoption of the methods undertaken and the clarity with which the findings authentically depict the data [10].   

[36] explained that using various strategies to collect data, such as participant observation or focus groups and interviews, can help improve the accuracy and quality of the research. Therefore, this study refined the data through interviews and focus group discussions with stakeholders to make the results valid and more accurate. Focus Group Discussion (FGD) is a commonly used approach to collect data in qualitative research. [37] stated that FGD helps gain an in-depth understanding of social issues. Data analysis in FGDs has no different from other qualitative research, based on coding and categorizing themes. The data were obtained from a group of individuals who were deliberately selected. FGDs usually produce qualitative and observational data that require analysis. The analysis in this study was carried out by elaborating data between the development of themes resulting from the categorization process based on the SLR, as shown in Table 1, and FGD analysis which was also based on categorization involving keywords that the respondents repeatedly mentioned. FGD was conducted for 120 minutes. In this study, FGD is also a tool to carry out triangulation activities to find more perspectives related to the data. In addition, data triangulation through FGD in this study was carried out on several groups of weavers and independent weavers to improve the quality and reliability of the data obtained for analysis purposes [38].

In this study, some questions for triangulation of data are as follows: 1) how is the position of the woven products produced as part of the national culture, 2) why should the organization be directed to the challenge of innovation, and 3) how are the guidelines for understanding the sustainability of the weaving business with the existence of woven cloths or synthetics?

(5) more explanation about the FG technique is required.

It has been added. As shown in review no.4.

(6) overall, the qualitative study suffers from a lack of its reliability and validity, how authors assure the study reliability and validity?.

--> It has been explained in part methodology. Thank you

(C) Discussion and conclusion: both section are good, but authors need to support their findings by several studies and link back their findings to the current literature. 

--> It has been added. Thank you

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

Thank you for this interesting research. This study aims to identify emerging themes in order to build the quality concept through the integration of various qualitative research results regarding quality from the perspective of weaving SMEs. Hereby are some comments that may help you improve on it:

(1) Method

a)    Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach should include high-quality articles from academic databases such as WOS.

b)   The interview outline of FGD should be given with some examples, and the informant coding should be added.

c)    The authors mentioned “Focusing on a particular database but relying on Google search engine to collect data”, when the data are collected? how do they filter? what are the criteria for choosing the analyzed documents? how many articles are reviewed?

(2) Results and Discussions:

a)   The result of this paper addressed six concepts of quality for weavers. Using a systematic literature review and FGD approach, the six concept of quality were: 1) quality is a commitment to Continual Process Improvement, 2) quality is honesty and respect for traditional culture and nature, 3) quality is reputation, 4) quality is conformity with Standard Operating Procedure, 5) quality is empowering education and training, and 6) quality is synergy. How the authors conclude the last six concepts should be explained.

b)   The discussions of the results in connection to the theoretical background are weak, the authors should link among the theory and the empirical results.

c)    In line 434, the authors highlighted “Building Organizational Culture through Quality in Weaving SMEs”, I suggest that this point could be moved into a separate paragraph, i.e. results and discussions separately. Also the authors could enrich the discussion content and contributions of this article.

d)     I recommend the authors could highlight more solidly about these points in the conclusion section. What are the contributions? Where does this work go from here?

(3) Conclusion:

At the end of the paper, the research limitations or sampling bias should be pointed out.

(4) Others

Please clarify whether the unit of analysis is product-based or organization-based. In introduction emphasized the importance of quality and culture of products, but the data analysis and discussion focus on the organization's culture.

Author Response

Dear Reviewer 2

Thank you for the valuable reviews. We tried to address the comments. Hope it meets the requirement.

Best regards

Authors

(1) Method

a)   Systematic Literature Review (SLR) approach should include high-quality articles from academic databases such as WOS.

--> It has been extended in part Methodology

This study compiles a set of literature reviews, as seen in Table 1. The articles were collected from the DOAJ database and Indonesia’s accredited journals. The keywords to perform queries in the title are organizational culture, quality of SMEs weaving, interpretive weaving SMEs, and the qualitative approach of SMEs in Indonesia. In order to analyse the FGD, this study deploys NVIVO to count the words related to the quality definition proposed by the SLR and also to capture the sentence mentioned by the informants.

b)  The interview outline of FGD should be given with some examples, and the informant coding should be added.

--> The informant coding has been added

c)   The authors mentioned “Focusing on a particular database but relying on Google search engine to collect data”, when the data are collected? how do they filter? what are the criteria for choosing the analyzed documents? how many articles are reviewed?

(2) Results and Discussions:

a)  The result of this paper addressed six concepts of quality for weavers. Using a systematic literature review and FGD approach, the six concept of quality were: 1) quality is a commitment to Continual Process Improvement, 2) quality is honestyand respect for traditional culture and nature, 3) quality is reputation, 4) quality is conformity with Standard Operating Procedure, 5) quality is empowering education and training, and 6) quality is synergy. How the authors conclude the last six concepts should be explained.

--> It has been added in the methodology and discussion parts

b)  The discussions of the results in connection to the theoretical background are weak, the authors should link among the theory and the empirical results.

--> Some references have been added

c)   In line 434, the authors highlighted “Building Organizational Culture through Quality in Weaving SMEs”, I suggest that this point could be moved into a separate paragraph, i.e. results and discussions separately. Also the authors could enrich the discussion content and contributions of this article.

---> It has been edited. Thank you

(d) I recommend the authors could highlight more solidly about these points in the conclusion section. What are the contributions? Where does this work go from here?.

The contribution has been discussed in the implication and summary parts

(3) Conclusion:

At the end of the paper, the research limitations or sampling bias should be pointed out.

--> It has been added at the conclusion part

Potential bias and limitations are related to several things. First is the availability of articles in international journal databases on the topic of Indonesian weaving culture. Finding articles on Indonesian weaving culture in international journal databases is pretty challenging. Hence, references to cultural articles rely more on the Google Scholar database by entering relevant keywords. Second is the time limit of the articles. This study does expand the publication periods of the articles to be the last 20 years. Future studies may eliminate these limitations by expanding the keywords and topics.

(4) Others

Please clarify whether the unit of analysis is product-based or organization-based. In introduction emphasized the importance of quality and culture of products, but the data analysis and discussion focus on the organization's culture.

--> It has been added in the methodology part

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

 Thanks for the revision report and best wishes 

Reviewer 2 Report

Overall, the comments have been addressed. I have no further comment.