This study examines how entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial networking, and entrepreneurial culture contribute to sustainable business among culinary micro-enterprises in Bandung City, Indonesia. This study fills a gap in the literature by highlighting that micro-enterprises’ sustainability, from economic, social, and environmental aspects, is not always underpinned by formal institutional support. Using a qualitative approach and semi-structured interviews with 10 culinary micro-enterprise owners whose businesses have been able to survive across generations, this study found that business owners manage their finances adaptively, build trust-based social networks, and apply local cultural values to sustainable business practices. The findings show that trust and flexibility in informal funding play a crucial role in entrepreneurial finance, while challenging the view that access to formal financing is the main prerequisite for sustainability. Entrepreneurial culture proves to be a strategic internal resource in strengthening environmentally friendly practices. The originality of this study offers an alternative perspective that is more contextualized and grounded in understanding the sustainability strategies of micro-enterprises in developing countries.

This study analyzes the effect of knowledge managemet capability on entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial finance, entrepreneurial marketing, and business resilience in culinary micro-enterprises in Bandung during the COVID-19 pandemic, proposing that knowledge management capability influences entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial finance, and entrepreneurial marketing, which in turn enhance business resilience. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from 125 culinary micro-enterprises. The findings show that entrepreneurial finance has a stronger effect on business resilience compared to other factors, indicating that financial agility and resource allocation are more important for business resilience in crisis conditions. This challenges the conventional view that innovation is the main driver of business resilience. This study redefines the strategic entrepreneurship model by highlighting the role of knowledge management capability as a key resource input in the resource orchestration process to build business resilience. The results offer practical insights, including policy recommendations for improving digital infrastructure and financial inclusion to support culinary micro-enterprises in adapting to future disruptions.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely impacted micro-enterprises, key drivers of developing economies, by causing financial instability, market uncertainty, and operational disruptions. These challenges highlight the urgent need for strategic adaptability and resilience. This study explores Strategic Entrepreneurship by integrating environmental, organizational, and individual dimensions into a framework that captures opportunity-seeking and profit-seeking behaviors. Specifically, this research examines the effects of Knowledge Management Capability (KMC) on Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO), Entrepreneurial Finance (EF), Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM), and Business Resilience (BR), as well as the impact of EO, EF, and EM on BR. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 125 culinary micro-enterprises in Bandung, and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The study findings revealed that KMC significantly influences EO, EF, EM, and BR. Furthermore, EO, EF, and EM contribute to strengthening BR, with EF emerging as the most influential factor, underscoring the critical role of financial strategy in sustaining micro-enterprises during the crisis. This study refines the Strategic Entrepreneurship model, bridging entrepreneurship and strategic management, and providing empirical insights from an emerging economy. From a policy perspective, the findings advocate for inclusive financial policies, digital knowledge-sharing infrastructures, and capacity-building initiatives to support micro-enterprises in navigating future disruptions.