APA Citation:
Dori, M., Nadi, M.A., Yarmohammadian, M.H. (2012). A Review on Value Chain in Higher Education.
Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, 46, 3842-3846.
The area of inquiry I would like to examine is the application of Supply Chain principles to graduate business education within universities. Supply Chain, or Value Chain as it is now more commonly called, has primarily been focused on manufacturing environments in which a set product is being produced through a series of processes. Examples of this could be within the auto industry and the production of a vehicle. In recent years, the application of Value Chain principles has begun evolving its application to other industries that are not producing a tangible product such as car but may be impacting a service or the development of some specific outcome. Value Chain has begun its application to areas such as digital services, customer service supply chains and other areas. With this idea in mind, there are application possibilities within the educational Value Chain in the series of processes and actions that lead from the admission of a graduate business student through graduation of that same student. Along this progressive chain, there are a series of activities and interactions that a student will go through. Actions could be everything from enrollment in courses to purchase of materials to course completion to filing for graduation.
Much of the processes along this chain are often disconnected from each other due to silos within departments and administrative units, mismanaged for various reasons or are impacted based on different factors, perhaps even the student themselves. Much like any industry, universities must examine their process chains to ensure that the continued progress of the learner is not impacted by the processes themselves.
The article by Dori, M., Nadi, M.A., Yarmohammadian, M.H. (2012) examines the application of Value Chain, within the higher education context. Dori et al (2012) examine the competitive factors within higher education that require new ideas to creative competitive advantage (p. 3842). Factors impacting education can be competition with other universities, decreased funding from Government sources and even management challenges within the institution itself (p. 3842). Much of the research examines the different scholars who are completing research in these areas and the different application models that can be applied. Primarily, the article focused on the Porter Value Chain Model which looks at the process from a primary activity and support activity model while considering the factors associated with those activities. Factors in this model include infrastructure, internal and external influences, financial composition and the production piece (Dori, et al., 2012, p. 3843). The Porter Model primarily looks at the business enterprise and less of the social service enterprise such as an institution so the research also look to those scholars who posit a value chain model designed specifically for higher education.
One model examined is that of researchers van der Merwe and Cronje (2004) that looks at the process chain from a higher level perspective as it relates to desired outcomes (p. 3844). Less focused on the micro level, this model is represented by a 4 step process that includes: defining the outcome or scope on which the value chain will focus, identify a requirements elicitation methodology that focuses on the identification of the high-level processes within the application domain, identify the high-level processes within the application domain and use the high-level process model developed to derive the sequence of processes needed, to achieve a predefined outcome (Dori et al, 2012, p. 3845).
Overall, the article was well put together and provided a good analytical consideration of the arguments around the application of value chain for higher education but did lack some deeper insights. Great from an analysis perspective of the examination of the research landscape but little suggestion in the way of what other ways this methodology could be applied or what model made more sense (Porter versus the Educational model). This would have added some value to the piece that I felt was missing. In some ways, though, that was valuable as I had to draw more of my own conclusions about the value of the different models. The various perspectives were valuable but I found myself leaning more towards the Porter Model due to a bit more inclusion of the micro factors that inhibit success within the chain.
From a critical perspective around organization and other key areas, the article was well organized but did suffer from a few minor grammatical errors. The lack of argument did somewhat inhibit the flow although the article as more of a review, per the title, may have been the authors intentions. Perhaps a follow up piece could include examination of the models to draw some of their own conclusions and add value to the field of research.
Despite the authors’ lack of argument or suggested model, the reading did give me ideas to assist in my own analysis, specifically around some of the factors mentioned in the Porter Model (Dori et al, 2012, p. 3843). What stood out for me was some of the business enterprise ideas that could apply, particularly the financial structure and the organizational infrastructure. Although business focused, much of business school is often designed like an enterprise yet lacks some of the organizational infrastructure needed to make that successful. Organizational infrastructure is significant in that success cannot happen until the structure is in place to support the efforts and ideas being developed and used. Individuals supporting those structures will continue to suffer. The model is relevant but the human factor has to be considered in how they can make the model successful.
Further research studies here would be relevant around application in a real-world model. Using a graduate business program as an example, a further study could develop more key insights on not only how the model could be applied but in what way improvements or enhancements could be added taking into account a forum of individuals (students, professors, administrators) who contribute to some of those processes and outcomes.
This has further implications also for taking on a more humanizing approach to application of the model. In my personal opinion, I feel some of the supply chain models may take on too much of a process oriented approach, forgetting the individuals who may make up that process both at the process driver level and the process outcome level. By adding some of those perspectives more readily into the research, I feel it offers up a more humanizing approach that may be more effective in the end for consideration of the stakeholders involved. Further research on my part will need to be done to see what other researchers are examining in this area.