A community empowerment and local enterprise development model for smoked Sardinella microenterprises has been developed to investigate their operation in coastal Southeast Sulawesi, Indonesia. Smoked fish processing is a household livelihood activity that preserves local knowledge and supports coastal income, but producers involved in the industry still face unstable supply of raw materials, traditional equipment, simple packaging, limited chances of certification, restricted market access, weak business organization, and fragmented institutional support. A qualitative case study was conducted from September to December 2025 in Laeya and South Palangga districts, South Konawe Regency. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, participatory observation, document review, and focus group discussions involving 102 informants, including 42 producers and 60 Pentahelix stakeholders from the community, government, academia, business, and media groups. The data were then analyzed using five approaches: the Input-Process-Output-Outcome-Impact framework; Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis; the Internal Factor Analysis Summary (IFAS); the External Factor Analysis Summary (EFAS); and thematic interpretation. The internal score of 2.70 and external score of 2.65 placed the enterprises in a growth-oriented Strength-Opportunity position. The findings revealed that producers had strong traditional skills, local product identity, social trust, and regular local demand. However, their empowerment remained functional rather than transformative because production, market access, and institutional capacity were still weak. The novelty of the study lies in specifying how bonding social capital could be converted into bridging and linking mechanisms through a community-centered Pentahelix arrangement. The model offered policy guidance for shared processing facilities, certification pathways, group-based finance, and digital market linkage. These findings contribute to community development scholarship by clarifying the mechanism through which local enterprise assets could move from functional survival to transformative empowerment.
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