Modernizing the Economic Management of Pesantren Through Secondary Cooperatives: A Study of Hebitren Lampung Province

Ananto Triwibowo (Universitas Islam Negeri Jurai Siwo Lampung)
Muhammad Mujib Baidhowi (Universitas Islam Negeri Jurai Siwo Lampung)
Anggoro Sugeng (Universitas Islam Negeri Jurai Siwo Lampung)
Monther Eldaia (Al-Aqsa University Gaza Palestine)
Dimas Pratomo (Universitas Islam Negeri Raden Intan, Lampung)

Al-Intaj: Jurnal Ekonomi dan Perbankan Syariah
Vol 12, No 2 (2026)

Purpose: This study examines how a secondary cooperative within the Hebitren network mediates the modernization of pesantren economic governance in Lampung Province, focusing on the institutional mechanisms and constraints shaping collective procurement, governance, human-resource development, and inter-pesantren business integration.Design/Methodology: The study employed a qualitative single-case design. Twelve informants were purposively selected, comprising two key institutional actors and ten pesantren-based managers representing horticulture, freshwater aquaculture, food-crop agriculture, livestock, and premium melon cultivation. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, field observations, and documentary analysis during July–October 2025, and analyzed thematically through coding, categorization, and triangulation.Findings: The secondary cooperative functions as a meso-level institutional intermediary between fragmented pesantren business units and a wider economic network, most visibly through collective procurement and inter-pesantren coordination. Governance institutionalization remains incomplete: transparency and accountability are emerging, decision-making remains leadership-driven, human-resource capacity is uneven, and digital systems are underdeveloped. Hebitren is therefore better understood as an enabling mechanism than a proven causal driver of modernization.Practical Implications: Hebitren and the secondary cooperative should strengthen standardized financial reporting, clarify organizational roles, and provide continuous managerial mentoring, while improving collective procurement, cash-flow arrangements, shared logistics, and digital systems for inventory and market coordination. External capacity-building support and stronger, more delegated pesantren management would further consolidate these gains.Originality/Value: The study contributes a meso-level explanation of pesantren economic transformation. Rather than treating governance, human-resource capacity, and business integration as separate outcomes, it positions the secondary cooperative as an institutional intermediary that can connect these previously fragmented dimensions. The contribution is therefore analytical as well as contextual: it explains a mechanism through which collective economic organization may become a vehicle for governance institutionalization in pesantren.