FOKUS EKONOMI

Recently, many countries around the world have been experiencing multidimensional crises, including Indonesia, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The negative impact has paralyzed the business world, shaken the foundations of the wider community's welfare, and narrowed job opportunities, while the number of people seeking employment continues to increase and unemployment rates keep rising. To address this phenomenon, cultivating an entrepreneurial spirit is considered an appropriate solution. This study aims to analyze the variables that influence the success of entrepreneurship. Several variables suspected of having an impact are Entrepreneurial Characteristics, Competitive Advantage, and Emotional Intelligence as Moderating Variables. Population in this study is micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Semarang city, and the sample consists of 154 respondents obtained through purposive sampling technique. The variables include four factors: Entrepreneurial Characteristics, Competitive Advantage (as Independent Variables), Emotional Intelligence (as Moderating Variables), and Entrepreneurial Success (as Dependent Variable). The data analysis method used hypothesis testing (t-test) and moderated regression analysis (MRA) to test moderating variables. Results show that entrepreneurial characteristics have a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial success, with a significance value of 0.044. Competitive advantage does not have a significant negative effect on entrepreneurial success, with a significance value of 0.131. Meanwhile, emotional intelligence does not function as a moderator between the effect of entrepreneurial characteristics on entrepreneurial success, with a significance value of 0.101, but it can moderate


Background
Indonesia has been experiencing a multidimensional crisis since 1996, which hinders the progress of the business sector and damages the overall condition of the society.This situation has worsened with the emergence of the Covid-19 virus pandemic at the end of 2019, during 2020, and early 2021.This has caused a decline in the world economy, including in Indonesia.Job opportunities are decreasing, while the number of people in need of employment continues to increase, leading to an increase in unemployment rates.This phenomenon has become a major problem that needs to be addressed immediately, and one of the solutions is to increase the availability of effective entrepreneurship training for the public.
Indonesia has a very large population, making it a promising market for companies to market their products.Local and international companies are competing to establish businesses and create products that are in demand by potential customers.However, the large number of companies can also create increasingly tight business competition, which also applies to competition among entrepreneurs.
Entrepreneurship is the activity of starting and managing a business venture.An entrepreneur is an individual who is independent and willing to take risks in order to achieve business goals and generate profits (Daryanto, 2012).Entrepreneurship is a discipline that studies the values and abilities of individuals in facing life challenges and taking opportunities with all possible risks that may occur.
The complex business conditions require entrepreneurs to respond to market challenges and see them as opportunities to survive in the future.An entrepreneur must be able to innovate, improve product quality, and create attractive marketing strategies to win the competition in the market.
Every entrepreneur has a goal to achieve success in their business (Riyanti, 2009).
Entrepreneurs play a vital role in achieving business growth and profits by identifying existing opportunities (Zimmerer & Scarborough, 2004).The government also encourages business development in entrepreneurship with the hope that the Indonesian society can create new job opportunities and produce various products that can be marketed abroad.The government conducts seminars, workshops, and creativity training for entrepreneurs, as well (Case Study of SMEs in Semarang City) Fitrie Arianti Sarah Destiana as making entrepreneurship a mandatory course in higher education.
Indonesia faces a significant challenge in overcoming the increasing number of unemployed individuals over time.Data shows that university graduates occupy the top position in the number of unemployed individuals.This happens because most university graduates do not have the non-academic skills needed in the job market.
Mc Clelland (in Gallyn, 2011) stated that a country can be considered prosperous if it has at least 2% of its population as entrepreneurs.Economic growth is always expected by developing countries like Indonesia.Economic growth is also a benchmark for the success of a country's economic development.
Small industries in Indonesia are a very important component in economic growth and national development.The existence of an economic activity that plays an important role in creating economic equality and people's welfare, small industries are highly expected to continue to exist and be continuously improved.Small industries have helped the country overcome the problem of unemployment by providing job opportunities.Currently, small industries in Indonesia are experiencing significant development.In 2012, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of small and medium industries (SMIs) contributed 34% to the overall industry GDP.Small and medium industries consist of 4.02 million business units, 9.4 million workers, 261 trillion investment value, 609 trillion production value, 174 trillion raw material value, 435 trillion added value, and exports worth US$ 16 billion (Ministry of Industry of the Republic of Indonesia, 2012).
Several studies relevant to this research, including Safina and Mulyana (2022), Dahmiri (2020), andBahar (2019), stated that Competitive Advantage has a significant positive effect on Entrepreneurial Success.Balik (2020) and Ramdhan (2016) stated that Emotional Intelligence has a significant positive effect on Entrepreneurial Success.Herawaty, et al. (2019), andMaisaroh (2018) stated that Entrepreneurial Characteristics have a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial success.

Entrepreneur Characteristics
An entrepreneur is someone who creates a new business by taking risks to achieve desired goals (Zimmerer et al., 2008).Character is defined as one's nature, character traits, ethics or morals that distinguish one person from another (Suryana, 2015).Therefore, it can be concluded that Entrepreneur Characteristics are the behavior of someone who is able to use available resources and is willing to take risks to find business opportunities, resulting in the creation of a new business (Apriliani, 2018).
Entrepreneurial characteristics generally describe a unique personality consisting of attitude and needs dimensions (Sari et al., 2016).Demographic characteristics of an entrepreneur are usually associated with age, gender, and experience of the business actor.Some studies explain that the age of 25 to 45 years is the most active age in entrepreneurship (Miftakhuljannah et al., 2016).
Based on the above explanation, it can be concluded that Entrepreneur Characteristics play an important role in the success of someone in entrepreneurship.The better someone's characteristics, the better their business performance, which in turn impacts the success of an

Competitive Advantage
Competitive advantage is a technique or strategy used to become better than competitors.Competitive advantage is a performance capacity that is superior to other similar companies owned by a company through the designation of characteristics and company resource assets (Hajar and Sukaatmaja, 2016).Competitive advantage grows fundamentally by producing added value from a company so that the company can create more buyers/customers at relatively lower costs (Pritandhari, 2015).Competitive advantage is a profit strategy for companies that collaborate to compete more effectively in the market with the aim of leading market share (Prakosa, 2005).
Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded that Competitive Advantage has an important role in the success of entrepreneurship.The more unique the strategy used, the higher the interest of consumers in buying a product, so an entrepreneur can win the market

Emotional Intelligence
Emotional intelligence, commonly known as Emotional Quotients (EQ), is a person's ability to recognize, evaluate, manage, and control their emotions in relation to their environment (Sunar, 2010).Reuven Baron in Uno (2007) explains that emotional intelligence is a set of non-cognitive abilities, competencies, and skills that affect a person's ability to successfully cope with environmental demands and pressures.A person with emotional intelligence has relatively unique behavioral characteristics.Emotional intelligence can be interpreted as the level of brilliance of a person in using their feelings to respond to their own and environmental situations (Balik, 2020).Chandra (2001) stated that entrepreneurs need to develop emotional intelligence to be able to see business opportunities around them.
Entrepreneurs with emotional intelligence are usually also very intuitive.They can capture something that others do not see, and entrepreneurs with high emotional intelligence can usually make the right conclusions.
Based on the explanation, emotional intelligence is a very important factor for entrepreneurs.Someone with good emotional intelligence will have characteristics that encourage them to be more competitive in winning market competition.Bitsch ( 2008

Entrepreneurial Success
Success is an achievement of the desired goal.Noor (2007) suggests that business success is essentially the achievement of a business that is able to reach its goals.A business is said to be successful if it experiences improvements in capital, business scale, results or profits, business type or management (Erliah, 2007).
Based on research results (Mirnawati, 2019), business success is influenced by the ability of the business which is reflected through the knowledge, attitude, and skills of the entrepreneur.Someone who wants to be a successful entrepreneur must have ideas, courage to face risks, and be able to develop relationships with customers and distributors.

Multiple Linear Regression Analysis and Interaction Test
In

The Influence of Entrepreneurial Characteristics on Entrepreneurial Success (H 1 )
Based on the data analysis, the regression coefficient value of entrepreneurial characteristics (X 1 ) is 1.390 and positive, meaning that the entrepreneurial characteristics variable has a positive effect on the success of SMEs entrepreneurship in Semarang City.The t-value of the entrepreneurial characteristic variable is 2.007 > t-table 1.975, and the significance value is 0.044 < 0.05, indicating that entrepreneurial characteristics significantly influence the success of entrepreneurship.Therefore, the H 1 hypothesis, which states that entrepreneurial characteristics have a positive and significant effect on the success of SMEs entrepreneurship in Semarang City, is accepted.
If SME entrepreneurs are willing and able to apply moral attitudes, including being realistic, detail-oriented, confident, loyal, dedicated, resilient, creative, willing to take risks, and have leadership qualities, they will give positive value, which is dominant in entrepreneurial success.Business success is influenced by entrepreneurial characteristics, such as personal and social abilities.Personal ability is related to how entrepreneurs manage themselves (self-awareness, self-regulation, and motivation), while social ability is related to how entrepreneurs handle relationships, such as empathy and social skills (Harefa, 2007).Entrepreneurial characteristics are internal factors that determine the success of a business.The intended characteristics are having high enthusiasm, a desire to always innovate, accepting responsibility to the best of their abilities, a strong desire to achieve and (Case Study of SMEs in Semarang City) Fitrie Arianti Sarah Destiana willingness to take risks.This means that an entrepreneur is required to be optimistic, think positively, and be creative in facing all situations in a highly dynamic business environment (Essel, 2019).
The results of this study are in line with the research by Netty Herawaty et al. ( 2019), Jumaedi on small entrepreneurs in Pekalongan (2012), and Wijayanto (2016) on small businesses in smoked fish in Krobokan Semarang, which concluded that entrepreneurial characteristics have a positive and significant effect on entrepreneurial success.However, in contrast to the results of the research Ependi (2019) which resulted in entrepreneurial characteristics having no effect on entrepreneurial success.

The Influence of Competitive Advantage on Entrepreneurial Success (H 2 )
Based on data analysis, the regression coefficient value of competitive advantage (X 2 ) is -1.239, which is negative.This means that the variable of competitive advantage does not have a negative effect on the success of MSME entrepreneurship in Semarang City.The tvalue of the competitive advantage variable is -1.518 < t-table 1.975, and the significance value of 0.131 > 0.05, which means that competitive advantage does not have a significant effect on entrepreneurial success.Therefore, the hypothesis H 2 , which states that competitive advantage has a positive and significant effect on the success of MSME entrepreneurship in Semarang City, is rejected.
Competitive advantage is one marketing strategy to achieve maximum profits for an entity by collaborating to compete more effectively in the market with the aim of leading the market share (Prakosa, 2005).Competitive advantage is an important factor in entrepreneurial success.The more unique the strategy used, the higher the consumer interest in buying a product/service, so an entrepreneur can win the market competition.
However, this study concludes that competitive advantage does not have an effect on entrepreneurial success, even though the existing indicators have been applied such as unique services, competitive prices, difficult to imitate, quality service guarantees, networking, qualified workforce, strong marketing, and up-to-date technology.This can be assumed that consumers are becoming more creative and intelligent in making purchasing decisions for products or services, so the marketing strategies that have been applied by entrepreneurs are considered normal.As an illustration, determining prices plays an important role in the success of a business because prices impact market share dominance.
However, if consumers prioritize product or service quality, then competitive prices may not be their choice.Likewise, other indicators such as service quality and competent workforce still may not be considered by consumers in making purchasing decisions.
However, in its dynamics related to the competitive advantage variable, it is still necessary for entrepreneurs to apply it to achieve business success.Entrepreneurs can combine indicators such as price and product/service quality to achieve maximum results compared to their competitors.If this is applied, it will encourage entrepreneurs to increase the value offered to consumers.The results of this study contradict the results of Frans A's research, et al in 2020, which stated that competitive advantage has a significant positive effect on entrepreneurial success.

The Influence of Entrepreneurial Characteristics on Entrepreneurial Success with Emotional Intelligence as a Moderating Variable (H 3 )
Based on data analysis using Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) method, the regression coefficient value of entrepreneurial characteristics (X 1 ) is -2.449 and negative, which means that the entrepreneurial characteristics variable that interacts with emotional intelligence does not have a negative effect on the success of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Semarang City.The t-value of the entrepreneurial characteristic variable is -1.652 < t-table 1.975 and the significance value of 0.101 > 0.05, which means that emotional intelligence does not strengthen its influence between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success.Therefore, it can be concluded that hypothesis H 3 , which states that entrepreneurial characteristics influence entrepreneurial success with emotional intelligence as a moderating variable for MSMEs in Semarang City, is rejected.Entrepreneurial characteristics are the behavior of a person who can use existing resources and dare to take risks to find business opportunities, thus creating new businesses.
The entrepreneurial characteristics variable focuses more on aspects of moral application such as being realistic, detail-oriented, confident, loyal, dedicated, resilient, creative, ready to face risks, and having leadership skills, which will provide positive values and dominantly contribute to entrepreneurial success.
Meanwhile, emotional intelligence is the mood that is at the core of good social relationships.Emotional intelligence is possessed by someone in motivating oneself, resilience in facing failures, controlling emotions and delaying gratification, and regulating (Case Study of SMEs in Semarang City) Fitrie Arianti Sarah Destiana the state of mind so that someone can place their emotions in the right proportion, sort out satisfactions, and regulate moods.Emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intellectual intelligence, but both interact dynamically.In reality, it is acknowledged that emotional intelligence has a very important role in achieving entrepreneurial success, in the workplace, and in communicating in the community.Emotional intelligence is also an ability to use emotions effectively to achieve goals, build productive relationships, and achieve success.Therefore, it is highly relevant if emotional intelligence does not strengthen the relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success, as both variables have some similar indicators, which both emphasize moral aspects, thus it can be categorized that both variables can strengthen entrepreneurial success.The partial relationship between entrepreneurial characteristics and entrepreneurial success is highly significant, so the emotional intelligence variable is not maximized if it is used as a moderating variable.

Intelligence as a Moderating Variable (H 4 )
Based on data analysis using Moderated Regression Analysis (MRA) method, the regression coefficient value of competitive advantage (X 2 ) is 3.133, which is positively significant.This means that the variable of competitive advantage, when interacting with emotional intelligence, has a positive effect on the success of small and medium enterprises (UMKM) in Semarang City.The t-value of the competitive advantage variable is 2.063 > ttable 1.975, and the significance value of 0.041 < 0.05, indicating that emotional intelligence strengthens the influence of competitive advantage on entrepreneurial success.Therefore, it can be concluded that the hypothesis H4, which states that competitive advantage has an impact on entrepreneurial success with emotional intelligence as a moderating variable in UMKM in Semarang City, is accepted.
Competitive advantage partially has no significant effect on entrepreneurial success in this study.This can be assumed that consumers are becoming more creative and intelligent in making purchasing decisions towards products or services, even though entrepreneurs have implemented appropriate marketing strategies.For example, the strategy of determining a competitive price is assumed to be relevant to boost the decision of buyers by customers, with the expectation of increasing sales revenue.However, in reality, if consumers prioritize the (Case Study of SMEs in Semarang City) entrepreneur.Entrepreneurial characteristics are measured by indicators according to the research conducted by Kamarul (2019), including: (1) Realistic; (2) Detail-oriented; (3) Confident; (4) Loyal; (5) Dedicated; (6) Resilient; (7) Creative; (8) Willing to take risks; and (9) Leadership skills.
Figure 1: Research Model The influence of entrepreneurial characteristics, competitive advantages on entrepreneurial success with emotional intelligence as a moderating variable.The results of the calculations using the SPSS program are obtained as shown in table 1: accordance with the research problem statement, research objectives, and hypotheses in this study have a dependent variable of entrepreneurial success and independent variables namely entrepreneurial characteristics, competitive advantages, and moderating variable; emotional intelligence, then a multiple linear regression equation with an interaction test can be formulated as follows: