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Alifiya Inas Rasyida
Journal of Business Management and Entrepreneurship (2026)
Purpose: This review examines what the empirical literature published between 2019 and 2026 establishes about the response of Indonesian micro and small enterprises (MSEs) to mandatory halal certification: their awareness and intention, the costs of compliance, the working of the self-declare scheme, and the effects on marketing and business performance.Design/methodology/approach: A structured narrative review was conducted. Eighteen queries of the Directory of Open Access Journals on 8 October 2026 returned 208 hits; 193 displayed records were screened, 124 were unique and 43 enterprise-side empirical studies were retained and coded from their abstracts by theme, design, sample and finding. The evidence is read against Law 33/2014, the Job Creation Law amendments, Government Regulation 42/2024 and official certification figures reported in September and October 2026.Findings: Owners widely accept the obligation, yet awareness converts poorly into compliance, and knowledge of the rules is not a reliable predictor. With the fee removed, the binding costs are time, digital procedure, input traceability and post-certification upkeep. Self-declaration has delivered volume, 4.44 million certificates and more than 14.9 million products, but through a facilitator-dependent channel whose oversight is questioned. Performance studies are few, small and cross-sectional; only one compares certified with uncertified firms, and none observes sales before and after certification.Originality/value: The review distinguishes the certificate as a licence from the certificate as a signal, argues that universal free certification erodes the signalling premium that earlier studies report, and derives five propositions and managerial implications for owners, facilitators, lenders and regulators.