Value-Capture Gaps in Loloh Cemcem Msmes: Intellectual Property, Pricing, and Digitalization in Penglipuran, Bali

Abstract

Background: Research on Penglipuran Village, Bali, has examined community-based tourism mainly at the village level, emphasizing customary governance and socio-cultural sustainability. Little is known about whether the households and micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that make the village's signature products capture enough value to remain commercially viable when products are imitated elsewhere, sold through resellers, and priced without cost records. Loloh cemcem, a traditional herbal drink made from cemcem (Spondias pinnata) leaves, was chosen as the case because it is the village's flagship culinary product and because published cost, price, and legal-potential data exist against which field accounts can be compared.
Purpose: This study explores how intellectual property protection, reseller pricing, cost literacy, and digitalization are associated with producer-level value capture in the loloh cemcem business within the village's governance context.
Design/methodology/approach: An exploratory qualitative case study was conducted during an international community service program in June-July 2026, using field observation and informal discussions with two informants, a village tourism management representative, and a loloh cemcem producer, analyzed thematically. Field accounts were compared with published studies, news reports, and official consumer price index (CPI) data, which were used for an illustrative cost-of-goods-sold (COGS) projection.
Findings/Results: The producer reported selling at IDR5, 000 per bottle, a price unchanged for approximately five years, while distributors and resellers sold at IDR6, 000 and IDR7, 000, respectively. The informants also reported no registered intellectual property protection and no systematic COGS calculation, and news reports documented production outside the village. Indexing a documented 2019 COGS of IDR2.897 per bottle to the official CPI suggests that producers' gross margin would have fallen from 42,1% to about 32% by 2025.
Conclusion: Village-level institutional strength does not automatically secure producer-level commercial resilience. A formal intellectual property assessment and cost-based pricing are immediate priorities, while collective organization and selective digitalization are proposed for further testing.
Originality/value (State of the art): This study extends Penglipuran research from the village level to producer-level value capture by jointly examining intellectual property, pricing, cost literacy, and digitalization in one culinary MSME sector and proposes an analytical pathway for confirmatory research.

Keywords: business digitalization, cost of goods sold, intellectual property, local wisdom, MSME sustainability