<![CDATA[This study focuses on the influence of regional planning and product innovation on regional development, with community empowerment as a mediating variable in Samosir Regency. This explanatory study aims to test and explain the relationship between the main variables. Data collection was conducted through a structured questionnaire administered to 250 respondents consisting of community members and MSME actors using purposive sampling. The data analysis technique used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through SmartPLS 4. The results revealed that product innovation is a more dominant driving factor in directly influencing regional development than regional planning, with a path coefficient value of 0.502 and T-statistics of 9.979 (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, regional planning has a smaller but still significant direct effect of 0.139 with T-statistics of 2.255. Another finding indicates that product innovation can influence regional development independently without requiring community empowerment mediation (p > 0.05). Conversely, regional planning requires community empowerment as a significant mediating bridge (p = 0.043) to achieve optimal impact on regional development. Thus, accelerating progress in Samosir is highly dependent on the integration of participatory infrastructure and the strengthening of local product creativity as strategic assets.]]>
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