1
Study on effective value chain management of
Public and Private Schools; Empirical case
study from South India
Praveen Kumar Perumal
1750401
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Business
Administration (Business Management) from Liverpool John Moores University.
Word Count: 18,481 (Excluding Table of contents, bibliography and appendices)
August 2013
Dublin Business School
2
Declaration
I, Praveen Kumar Perumal, declare that I am the sole author of this dissertation and during
the period of registered study I have not been registered for any other academic award or
qualification, nor has any of the material been submitted wholly or partly for any other
award. I have personally carried out all the work except the references from the articles
which is included in the bibliography.
Signed: Praveen Kumar Perumal Date: 13th August 2013
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
………………………………………………………………………………………………. 5
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 6
1.
Introduction
………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 7
1.1.
Background of the Problem………………………………………………………………………. 7
1.2.
Aim & Objective …………………………………………………………………………………….. 8
1.3.
Suitability of the Researcher …………………………………………………………………….. 9
1.4.
Learning Style ………………………………………………………………………………………… 9
1.5.
Recipients of the Research ……………………………………………………………………… 10
1.6.
Organization of the Dissertation ……………………………………………………………… 10
2.
Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………………… 11
2.1.
Role of Technology in Education…………………………………………………………….. 11
2.2.
Management tools …………………………………………………………………………………. 13
2.3.
Schools in India
…………………………………………………………………………………….. 14
2.3.1.
Current Scenario …………………………………………………………………………….. 14
2.3.2.
Quality of Education ……………………………………………………………………….. 16
2.4.
Value Chain Models
………………………………………………………………………………. 17
2.4.1.
Importance of Value chain
……………………………………………………………….. 17
2.4.2.
Value Chain Models in Education …………………………………………………….. 18
2.5.
Gaps in Literature
………………………………………………………………………………….. 20
2.6.
Research Question
…………………………………………………………………………………. 21
3.
Methodology ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 23
3.1.
Research philosophy
…………………………………………………………………………… 24
3.2.
Research approach
……………………………………………………………………………… 25
3.3.
Research strategy
……………………………………………………………………………….. 25
3.4.
Research Choice ………………………………………………………………………………… 26
3.5.
Time Horizon
…………………………………………………………………………………….. 27
3.6.
Techniques and Procedures …………………………………………………………………. 27
3.7.
Sampling Method ………………………………………………………………………………. 30
4.
Plan …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 31
4.1.
Practical Efforts
…………………………………………………………………………………….. 31
4.2.
Validity and Reliability ………………………………………………………………………….. 31
4.3.
Research Limitations
……………………………………………………………………………… 31
4.4.
Researcher Bias …………………………………………………………………………………….. 32
4.5.
Ethical Implication ………………………………………………………………………………… 32
4.6.
Cost of Primary Research
……………………………………………………………………….. 33
4
4.7.
Time Allocation…………………………………………………………………………………….. 34
5.
Findings and Analysis
………………………………………………………………………………….. 35
5.1.
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 35
5.2.
Cross Case Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………. 46
5.3.
Observational Analysis ………………………………………………………………………….. 50
6.
Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 51
6.1.
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 51
6.2.
Summary and relation to literature
…………………………………………………………… 51
6.3.
Recommendations …………………………………………………………………………………. 53
7.
Self-Reflection ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 54
Bibliography ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 60
Appendices
………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 66
Introductory E-mail
…………………………………………………………………………………………. 66
Interview Guide ……………………………………………………………………………………………… 67
Interview Questions ………………………………………………………………………………………… 68
Consent Form
…………………………………………………………………………………………………. 69
Table 1: Cost of Primary Research………………………………………………………35
Table 2: Time Period…………………………………………………………………….35
Table 3: Types of school and their legend……………………………………………….37
List of Figures
Figure 1: Value Chain Model 1 …………………………………………………………18
Figure 2: Value Chain Model 2 …………………………………………………………19
Figure 3: Value Chain Model 3 …………………………………………………………20
Figure 4: Research Onion………………………………………………………………..23
Figure 5: Data Collection & Analysis Process…………………………………………..28
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Acknowledgements
The researcher would like to thank all the people who are involved in the research and
made this research to be completed on time. A special thanks for the following,
First of all his supervisor Dr. P.J. Paul who has guided him throughout his
research and gave valuable feedback to shape this research into a fine master
piece of dissertation.
The entire participant’s for their time and involvement in participating in the
interview process.
His friends, colleagues and other staffs of DBS for helping him and providing
valuable suggestions throughout the course for his development.
His family members and wife who showed immense care and love and supported
him to complete this dissertation.
Finally God for the blessings to complete his dissertation successfully.
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Abstract
This research will study the effective management of several attributes in value chain like
resource utilization, quality of education, infrastructure, administration, marketing etc. It
is a qualitative study and interviewing the management personnel’s like principals and
correspondent of private and public schools in India will outline the competitive
advantage of their schools through strategies in management system and also lack of
management system within the organization. The literature review finds the advantage of
private schools over public schools and will make this research more valuable by further
conducting this cross study evaluation. This study will help the schools to identify their
need and drawback of current management practice and also examines the competitive
advantage of private schools over public schools. It also differentiates the system of
practice within the management by analyzing the value chain of public and private
schools. This research will outline the existing system of value chain in schools in
Chennai (India) and will also provide information for future researchers who are
interested in detailed analysis of competitive strategies in value chain management of
schools.
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1. Introduction
Indian education system consists of primary, secondary and higher level of education.
Primary and secondary education includes students with the age group up to 18 and
higher education involves college level education. About 140 million students are left out
from schools every year without enrollment and 200,000 more schools are needed in
India (ASER, 2006). There was a huge demand for primary and secondary level of
education in 2009 (Parker, 2010). World Bank report (2009) also states that the Gross
Enrollment Rate (GER) in secondary schools in India is 40% compared to 70% in East
Asia and 82% in Latin America. All these factors made the Indian government to pass an
act for compulsory primary education called as Right of Children to free and Compulsory
Education in 2009. According to a survey conducted by District Information system for
Education (DISE) across 633 districts in India, there was an increase in schools from 8,
53,601 in 2002 to 13, 03, 812 in 2009 due to the initiative taken by the government. Out
of 13, 03,812 schools, 10, 48,046 were government owned public schools and remaining
were privately owned schools (Jain, 2012). There was further growth in total number of
schools from 13, 03,812 to 13, 96,331 out of which 54.8% were government owned
primary schools (Ministry of Human Resource Development, 2010). In spite of all these
developments, India is the one of the largest illiterate population in the world with an
average literacy rate of 74.04% (Ministry of Statistics report, 2013).
1.1.
Background of the Problem
Though the percentage of private schools is less in India, it shows better result than
public schools (Goodman and Moore, 2001). A study on private schools in one of the
state of India shows 23% of higher score than public schools (Tooley and Dixon, 2003).
Various factors like family income, access to information and parent’s educational level
plays a major role in the selection of schools (Bulman, 2004). According to McKinsey &
Company, about 250 million people who fall in middle class segment in India prefers the
private aided school even though the tuition fee is more compared to public schools. The
private schools in major cities like Delhi, Bombay, Chennai in India places a major
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competition to the public schools in terms of quality of education and management
standards. According to the Annual State of Education Report (2011), private enrolment
is as high as 60 per cent in India. The Poor infrastructure, lack of management and
teaching quality of public schools made the parents to choose private schools in most
places. Fowler (2002) also states that if public schools cannot keep the pace with private
schools in terms of quality, then it can be seen as a dumping ground for people who
cannot offer to pay. The number of public schools is more but the students enrolling
every year is reduced drastically leading to the decline of country’s literacy rate. About
93% of schools in India are government owned public schools and it is evident that these
schools are of poor quality from the data that 40% of school going students attends
private schools which constitute only 7% of the overall schools in India. On the other
hand, over 80 % of children’s attend public schools run by the government in USA, UK
and Canada which is a result of effective management practice. Majority of population
who study in government primary and secondary schools in India are in great depressed
educational standards (IndiaToday.in, 2012). These impose a challenge to Indian
government to improve the management practice and quality of secondary education in
public schools.
1.2.
Aim & Objective
The effectiveness of management system of private schools in India and the
ineffectiveness of public schools in large number made the researcher to study the system
of practice in value chain management of these public and private schools in terms of
marketing, service, effective resource utilization etc. Also the major difference on the
perception of public and private schools in India strengthened the researcher to focus on
this area. Education is the basic need of country’s development and the difference in
educational standard was also the key reason for the researcher to choose this topic. This
research will study the effective system of value chain in the secondary private and public
education sector which forms the basis of their competitive advantage. This research
helps to outline the important management factors influencing the competitive growth of
private schools which is lagging in most government schools in south India. The analysis
can help to draw a benchmark for effective management practice to an extent (due to
sample limitations of this research) for the state government of Tamilnadu (India) to
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improve their management efficiency and provide quality education in government
schools. There are approximately 1221 schools in Chennai (India) following different
teaching patterns like matriculation board of education, Anglo-Indian board, State board
(Chennai.tn.nic.in, 2012). Two most competitive state board private schools and two
public schools are selected from Chennai (India) based on maximum number of students
enrolled every year and top management personnel’s like principal or correspondent are
interviewed for this research. The time taken to complete this project was 10 weeks and
scheduled to complete before 16th of August 2013. The overall cost incurred for the
researcher to conduct this research including domestic travel, food, printing, binding and
international courier is €.111 (approx.).
1.3.
Suitability of the Researcher
The researcher has an engineering degree with few years of experience in management
profile in India. The researcher owns a small private school which has been started in
1992 and has a close connection in working with direct management. This has been a
primary reason for undertaking this research topic. The skills gained through his past
experience and from master’s curriculum will help him to attain a master’s degree by
applying his knowledge and required amount of time and work in performing this
dissertation. This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for
Master level degree.
1.4.
Learning Style
David Kolb (1971) developed the learning style Inventory (LST) to evaluate the
individual’s different learning style. From his research, he proposes four different styles
which are diverging, assimilating, converging and accommodating. Each learning styles
have different characteristics and the learning style identified from the researcher is
accommodating. According to Kolb (1971), “individual with accommodating learning
style rely on people for information rather than technical analysis”. This research is
primarily based on participant’s own experience rather than logical analysis and cannot
be performed without the involvement of individual participation. As Kolb stated, the
researcher style of methodology and data collection shows that this dissertation is
performed by adopting accommodating as the learning style.
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1.5.
Recipients of the Research
The recipients for this research are Dublin Business School where the researcher is doing
his master’s program, Liver Pool John Moore’s University where the researcher will be
awarded the master’s degree on successful completion of his research, his supervisor and
mentor Dr. P.J. Paul who has guided him throughout his research and finally the
management and employees of public and private schools. This research finding will help
the schools to identify their need and evaluate their management system.
1.6.
Organization of the Dissertation
This dissertation is organized into number of chapters starting from Chapter 1 consisting
of abstract and introduction which outlines the aim and scope, rationale for study,
background and suitability of the researcher. Chapter 2 explains the use of theories and
models in the research supporting the aim and objective. Chapter 3 explains the
methodology to pursue this dissertation and discusses the rationale for choosing
particular methods in this research. It also includes the sample selection, data collection
and analysis, ethical issues etc. Chapter 4 will illustrate the findings of each case
separately along with various themes. Chapter 5 will analyze different cases and perform
cross case analysis with different perspectives. Chapter 6 will summarize and draw
general conclusions and compares and relates the theories in literature. It also gives result
of this research and provides recommendation for future studies. Chapter 7 explains the
self-reflections on own learning and performance of a researcher throughout the research.
There will also be a reference section along with appendix which includes references
used throughout this research and documents such as Introductory mail, Interview Guide,
Interview Questions and Consent form.
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2. Literature Review
2.1.
Role of Technology in Education
According to Michael Porter, strategy is defined as “being different and deliberately
choosing a different set of activities to deliver a unique mix of value”. Although porter’s
analysis is related to industrial development, it can also be related to service sector
(Teisberg et al, 1998). Educational institutions have entered into commercial competition
like other businesses due to the increasing environmental forces and growing demand.
Hence Continuous development is needed for long term sustainability. Technology plays
a major role in identifying a problem in a management, structuring the system and
identifying alternative solutions. These technological tools help the management in the
strategic development of problem solving, monitoring human resources, maintaining staff
and student profile, online marketing, media promotions etc. Technology is also related
to education and it is an important criterion for growth and development of a country
(Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007). Technology in education enhances the human resource
capital for economic upliftment. It increases the skilled professionals which in turn
increases the country’s economy. Thierry and Deborah (2000) also explains the
importance of technology in education by analyzing factors like teaching effectiveness,
interaction, students attitudes etc. The result shows that the students were not frustrated to
use the technology and wish to spend more time in interactive learning. This
technological enhancement improves the relationship between students and teachers by
modifying traditional class room interaction and black board teaching and made the
teachers available more time for mentoring. According to the author, technology plays a
major role in developing interaction and also easing the way of learning. In 1968, Mexico
launched its first television based learning called Telesecundaria to help people get
education in rural areas and distant communities. Kless, McAnanys, and Mayo (1975)
stated that even though Telesecundaria enabled schools had untrained and fewer
classrooms than conventional schools, this system was more cost efficient for the
management in enhancing the knowledge of student’s community. According to Perraton
(2000) although the cost for students is high in using technology compared to
conventional schools, it provides a better model for alternative learning. Within few
years this model reached many people and was successful to advance with satellite
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broadcast. Likewise, Philippine universities have used a combination of radio, audio and
video recording for distance education. It also introduced mobile learning by providing
mobile material for teaching local population. But the country faced challenges to
synchronize the urban and rural population through technological learning (Bandalaria,
2007). Rao (2006) explains the similar technological improvements in Indian education
scenario. In 2002, there were 10 universities in India providing distance education
through radio and TV broadcasts. This was similar to Mexican case where the technology
was used to help unemployed population in rural areas who are unable to attend classes
and uneducated housewives. This was advanced by few universities to provide third level
learning through Internet. This increased the number of people enrolling in higher
education from remote places. Later this technology was adapted by many other
educational institutions in the recent years. This success made the Government to take
several initiatives to enable IT learning in schools and colleges and as a result $104
million was sanctioned by Ministry of Human Resource Development for further
improvements. The traditional library system was replaced by online library and this led
to the launch of Indian Training and Education Network for Development (INTEND).
INTEND focuses on providing internet and e-mail services, downloading lectures from
online, E-library, video conferencing etc. These advancements made the students to use
the library resources at its best and provided quality education and improved results in
India. With these innovations, Indian educational sector has made a joint venture with
foreign universities and started providing classes from remote places using EDUSAT
(satellite developed by Indian government for education). The first Indo-US class started
in 2006 with lectures provided by University of Illinois and Buffalo. Sorensen and Vidal
(2002) states that these improvements in technology have a great demand in teaching
curriculum of secondary schools through virtual classrooms, interactive hub and online
sessions. The traditional learning system which includes class room teaching doesn’t
provide continuous learning. With the advancement of E-learning, students have access
to material 24/7 and can make effective learning. It improves student’s ability to
communicate and develops thinking skills (Jenkins, 2009). It provides flexibility in
learning and better outcome. For strategic positioning, E-learning is an important tool for
improving creativity and increasing the competition among the students. E-learning has
been adapted by many institutions and community service centers are started all over
India to reach the remote places to improve the quality of education. As an initiative of
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Indian government, 50 online libraries have been set up in all primary and secondary
schools in India. Several such initiatives have been taken by the government to improve
the quality of teaching in India. But still it is not effectively utilized by the public schools
and in some states the students are not aware of this technology. This is a result of lack of
management practice which is continued for several decades in public schools in India.
At the institutional level, many private sectors have launched their virtual class rooms
and E-learning centers much beyond the government schools and produced better results.
These literatures show the importance of technology in higher educational institutions for
long term growth and competitive advantage. There is also a great need of technological
advancement in the public schools to improve their standard of teaching.
2.2.
Management tools
Beard (2009) states that due to increased competition, emerging technologies and
resource constraints, management tool like balanced scorecard (BSC) are being used in
educational institutions. According to Kaplan and Norton (1996), “BSC translates an
organization’s mission and strategy into a comprehensive set of performance measures
that provide the framework for a strategic measurement and management system”. It is a
management tool which measures performance on financial, customers, internal business
process and learning and growth. In educational institutions, students and stakeholders
are the customers. Students and teachers performance are continuously monitored and
reported to higher management which helps to identify the root cause of a problem. BSC
helps the management to follow the mission and vision and translates the organizational
strategy into operational objectives. These tools have been implemented in many private
schools to monitor their performance and improve their efficiency. Similarly Total
Quality Management (TQM) which has been used in business and industry sector has
been introduced in educational institutions to deliver high quality standards. According to
Sallis (2002), TQM is defined as the “philosophy and methodology that assist institutions
to manage change and set their own agendas for dealing with external pressures”.
Countries like USA, UK and Japan have adapted and implemented the TQM concept in
their educational system. In India, it has been recently implemented and resulted in great
improvements. Educationalists see this concept more effective and believe that improving
the quality of student’s education can result in high success rates. According to Agarwal
14
et al., (2011), strict implementation of system like 100% attendance, using innovative
class rooms like virtual teaching, PowerPoint presentation, video conferencing and
feedback system between students and teachers and vice versa are the key factors for
quality improvements in schools. In addition to this, availability of skilled professionals,
encouraging extra-curricular activities like sports, soft skills are the part of TQM in
educational institutions. Success of an organization also depends on effective utilization
of available resources and retention of skilled employees by providing performance
incentives, medical and holiday assistance, in house training etc. For improving
management capabilities, TQM also works on standardizing the procedures, periodic
reports analysis, appropriate benchmarks etc. (Agarwal et al., 2011). Ramaiah Institute
of Management studies (RIMS) in India is an example for using TQM as a management
tools for strategic growth. It is a private college and was selected as the finalist in
National Quality Education Conference held in Rosemont, US on November 2010 for
implementing quality tools like Ishikawa diagram, Pareto analysis, affinity diagram,
scatter diagram etc. in their management practice (Walters, 2011). This shows that the
continuous development is achieved through implementation of these management tools
in practices. These tools are effectively used only in few private higher secondary
institutions and there is a lack of management tools in public owned institutions
especially in the primary and secondary schools in India. This is one of the major reasons
for the downturn of public schools in India.
2.3.
Schools in India
2.3.1. Current Scenario
According to Parasuraman et al (1988), service quality is defined as “the degree and
direction of discrepancy between customer’s perception and expectation”. The
competitive advantage of an organization can be achieved by increasing the service
quality. Muralidharan and Michael (2006) states that there is nearly 50% growth in the
number of private schools every year in rural India due to the poor performance of public
schools. Most of the population in rural areas prefers private schools due to high level of
quality offered by them. Though the pay for private school teachers are less compared to
public schools, the private school teachers engage in teaching activities 6 to 9 % more
than public schools. The attendance rates and test score rates of children’s are higher than
15
public schools. One of the major advantages of private schools is that they start teaching
English in early age. The disciplinary actions like dismissals are carried out in private
schools when a teacher undergoes repeated absenteeism. On the other hand, a survey
states that out of 3000 public schools, only 1 school reported the dismissal of teacher
because of regular absenteeism. The author compares the competitive advantage of
various private schools with public schools in terms of teacher characteristics, student
characteristics and infrastructure. 20 states in India were selected and 10 districts for each
state were selected using geographically stratified random sampling. Various tests were
conducted on students and teachers to analyze their performance and characteristics. The
result shows that the service quality provided by the private schools is high compared to
public schools in all the factors taken in to account.
Another study conducted by Nandamuri and Rao (2012) on teachers performance at
secondary level in Andhra Pradesh (India) indicates that around 62% of public schools
and 32% of private aided schools were providing training to their teachers. The result
shows that 84% of teachers from private schools who attended the training were able to
improve their teaching performance whereas only 30% were able to improve their skills
in public schools. The finding shows that the planning framework is non-existent or
inactive in many public schools. This outlines the effective management of private
schools and lack of management efficiency and ineffectiveness of training in public
schools even though they have been fully funded by the state government. This in turn
resulted in the poor performance level and increasing failure rate among the students in
public schools. Michael, Nandamuri and Rao have analyzed the quality of private schools
and all the results shows that they are better over public schools in management system
and in house training. Moreover the above literature explains the quantitative analysis of
different management system in few states of India. This shows the existence of
contextual and methodological gap in secondary schools of Chennai (India) and this helps
the researcher to pursue his further research.
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2.3.2. Quality of Education
A research conducted on performance of public and private schools in Orissa by Goyal
(2009) states that the quality of learning in public schools are very low compared to
private schools. For the study, 6 public and 2 private schools in urban and rural areas are
chosen and evaluated in the form of comprehensive testing. The result shows that about
90% of parents sending their children to private schools are literate who knows the
ground reality where the quality of education delivered in private schools is better than
public schools. Most of the students who study in private schools have wealthier
background and most studying in public school is from rural background. It emphasizes
on the greater outcome of learning from private schools and dominates the public school
in most of the states in India. The quality of education is related to the management
practice of these schools and involvement of the staffs. Dorathi (2011) states that service
orientation of the teachers are directly related to quality of teaching and overall
performance of the school. Hence the attitudes of teachers towards the organization are
analyzed in this research. 240 teachers from 10 government and private schools were
selected as samples and factors like scope of advancement, Grievance handling, monetary
benefits and welfare facilities were tested. Among all these factors, private schools
provide more benefits to the teachers than public schools. Dorathi has analyzed the single
criteria (teacher’s attitude) for determining the performance of schools which again
confirms the result of Michael, Nandamuri and Rao emphasizing on the high quality
output from private schools. Another research by Dwivedi and Trigunait (2011) have
analyzed the efficiency of government and government aided secondary schools in
Jharkhand state in India. For this research, 37 nationalized schools have been chosen in
different districts and factors like number of classes, teachers-student ratio, facilities;
number of students passed is considered and evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis
Tool. The result shows that out of 37 schools, 7 schools were efficient, 10 were likely to
be efficient. This research shows a large percentage of government and government aided
schools in Jharkhand have inability to produce quality education which again strengthens
the research output shown by other authors.
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2.4.
Value Chain Models
2.4.1. Importance of Value chain
According to Porter (1985), the value chain is defined as the chain of interdependent
activities. It is the series of activities which convert input into output in an effective way
to gain competitive advantage (Walters and Lancaster, 2000 and Hines and Rich, 1997).
Every product passes through these chains of activities and gains some value at every
activity. It is the base tool to analyze organization’s activities. A firm or an organization
gains the competitive advantage by implementing strategies in these activities to attain
differentiation from its competitors. Value chain can be categorized into two types. One
involves series of activities within the firm to manufacture a product or render a service.
An organization gets an input, processes it and produces the output. Other type involves
series of activities across the firm where the output of one firm becomes the input of
other. Value chain is being perceived as effective cost cutting measures for many firms.
Resources are utilized with maximum efficiency and raw material waste is reduced
drastically (Acharyulu and Shekhar, 2012). According to Balsmeier and Voisin (1996),
Value chain helps the organization to formulate strategies and plans to take market
benefits and sustainable position. Another research by Cinquini and Tenucci (2010)
explains the use of variety of strategic management accounting practices, including value
chain analysis which helps to increase the profit and reduces the wastage. Bardy (2006)
from his research identified that there is new challenges for management accountants. He
also suggests that inter relationship between value chain activities and customer/supplier
in a management should be improved. Cadez and Guilding (2007) conducted a research
which also evaluated the importance of value chain costing in Slovenia. Among various
strategic management accounting techniques, the author found that the value chain
costing ranked second. All these shows that value chain plays a major role in attaining
competitive advantage in the external environment.
18
Figure 1: Value Chain Model 1, Adapted from Porter, M.E. (1985) Competitive
advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance
2.4.2. Value Chain Models in Education
Value chain analysis in the context of various universities has been researched by
Elloumi (2004). The author follows Porter’s model and groups university activities with
porter’s model. But however, a general model for value chain analysis in the universities
was not developed by him. Lee and Zhang (2001) have researched on the value chain of a
non-profit organization. They have analyzed the importance of internet within the
organization by considering the activities in value chain. Various advantages have been
outlined in administration, procurement, logistics, human resource, teaching, marketing
etc. The result shows that the use of Management Information Systems (MIS) framework
in value chain operations helps to achieve competitive advantage in public sectors. It is
evident that the effective strategy in value chain leads to the competitive advantage of
any firm. In order to sustain in the competitive environment, modern concepts of
management in value chain is necessary. The research of Lee and Zhang in analyzing
internet in value chain management have been advanced by Makkar et al (2008) who has
implemented the value chain concept in higher education by comparing cases of higher
education sector of Tanzania and India. He proposed a new model which has been
modified from porter’s value chain model which incorporates the management functions
of educational institutions.
19
Figure 2: Value Chain Model 2, Adapted from Makkar et al (2008, p.188)
The secondary attributes are similar to porter’s model but the primary attributes include
competition, regulatory terms and various programs which differ from Porter’s model.
These attributes along with effective management strategies were used in education
sector to attain competitive advantage. It also helps the organization to understand the
customer requirements, improve the process and provide harmony in the process to
achieve the strategy (Popescu & Dascălu, 2011). Groves et al. (1997) also proposed a
model for higher education where the primary activities/attributes refers to teaching,
secondary activities refers to what the university offers to their customers. In his model
he proposed an intermediate dimensions for the activities which generate income for the
firm. Von Alberti (2003) made several changes on the Groves model. Firstly staff was not
taken into account in Von model as the demand is less in education fields. Secondly
groves considered quality as a choice but Von Alberti (2003) suggest that quality is an
underlying notion in the value chain. Both the models were amended into one model by
Hutaibat where the attributes are tested and formulated from the research conducted in
higher education sector in Jordan (Hutaibat, 2011). According to the author, value chain
in higher education sector is a useful tool for identifying core competences and acts as a
success factor to develop competitive advantage. This is a generalized model proposed by
the author and it can be adapted to any scenario in public or private schools. Likewise all
the models proposed earlier, this model also highlights the strategic and financial context
of an institution.
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Figure 3: Value Chain Model 3, Adapted from Hutaibat (2011, p.218)
It is understood that the strategic implementation in the primary and secondary attributes
is the basis for organizational growth and this has been adapted by few private schools in
India leading to increased performance. On the other hand, public schools are not in the
game as the management system is not effective to monitor and improve attributes in the
value chain. The above models can help the researcher to further study and analyze the
value chain of secondary schools in India.
2.5.
Gaps in Literature
From these literature reviews, it is evident that the past researches have been done in
emphasizing importance of technology, management tools used in schools, quality of
education, value chain in private schools etc. There is no comparative study on the
overall value chain of public and private schools which incorporates all these tools,
technologies and strategies to attain competitive advantage. There is also a need of study
on current management system followed by different public and private schools in India.
Thus a proper benchmark needed to be in place to follow and enhance the management
system of some schools which lack the strategy in action. Secondly there is also a
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contextual gap where the study is not done in a city called Chennai in India. Thirdly the
past researches in analyzing the systems in value chain have been done in quantitative
approach.
This
research
will
address
these
methodological(qualitative)
and
contextual(Chennai, India) gaps by interpreting data from perception of top management
of 4 different private and public schools about their effective value chain management
and conducting cross case analysis to study their system in value chain. Hence this
research will study the value chain management of these schools and propose the existing
system by comparing the findings to draw generalized conclusion of effective and
ineffective management practice among the public and private schools in India.
2.6.
Research Question
The main research question taken into consideration is the effectiveness of value chain
management among public and private schools. The research questions are formulated in
such a way to address all the key areas and conclude with practical observations. This
study will include the following sub-questions.
1. Explain the available infrastructure and facilities in the school and also
different ways of managing the resources?
The objective of this question is to know various infrastructure facilities and to evaluate
the efficiency of schools to manage these resources.
2. Discuss the role of technology and innovation in various stages (Resource
management, infrastructure, staffs etc.) of value chain management?
This question answers the use of technology in different systems within the organization
for quality improvements.
3. Explain the operations in practice to deliver good results among students?
The aim of this question is to identify the key reason behind the success rate of schools in
producing better results.
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4. Explain how the overall performance and quality of your schools are
evaluated and improved? Discuss any model if used?
This question outlines the effective management strategies and tools to evaluate and
monitor the performance of the school.
5. Explain the different marketing strategies used to attract consumers (students
and parents)?
This question outlines the different modes of marketing strategies employed by the
schools to attract their target market.
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3. Methodology
The main objective of this research is to study the different value chain attributes of the
private and public school in South India in terms of factors like marketing, service,
effective resource utilization etc. This section explains the proposed methodology to
analyze and interpret the data, types of data sampling, data collection and also outlines
the personal bias and ethical implication while doing this research. It also explains the
rationale for choosing a particular research methodology to collect and analyze the
primary data in this research. It also helps to narrow down the research findings with
effective methods and approaches. Considering each layer of research Onion will help to
outline the reason for particular methods used in this research.
Figure 4: Research Onion, Adapted from Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2009, p.108)
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3.1.
Research philosophy
The way of thinking the research philosophy can be categorized into 3 types:
epistemology, ontology and axiology. The research philosophy revolves around these
types and this research needs to find the suitable philosophy to conduct further research.
Epistemology
The epistemology chosen for this research is Interpretivism. According to Hansen
(2004), Interpretivism or constructivist is a type of epistemology philosophy which
believes that the “reality is constructed in the mind of the individual rather than being a
single entity”. The subjective understanding of an individual is dependent on their
experience, social environment and interactions (Creswell, 2009, p.8). This differentiates
the people from object. This research deals with the top management perception which is
related to their experience, belief and expectation rather than object. The data is first
interpreted by the researcher and then interpreted by the reader from the final report. This
research involves multiple interpretations and hence the research philosophy used here is
Interpretivism. This philosophy is also chosen because of the fact that this research can
be studied only from top management perception and gives an understanding of how they
interpret their value chain management. This philosophy also helps to analyze this study
in detail by observing the participants during the interview process.
Ontology
The ontology philosophy chosen for this study is subjectivism. Ponterotto (2005) states
“ontology is concerned with nature of reality and being”. By analyzing four different
cases, there will be four different interpretations resulting in multiple realities depending
on individual perception rather than object. There will be different realities of value chain
from different participants depending on the system they manage and experience in their
schools. Thus the ontology for this research is subjectivism. Positivism and realism was
not considered in this research because the researcher feels that it does not have any
impact on this study.
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3.2.
Research approach
The next layer of research onion is the type of approaches used in this research.
According to Maxwell (2012), Deductive research deals with the method of testing the
core theory and Inductive research deals with building theory. This research starts with
inductive approach because the patterns for research will be generated from bottom up
method with the context where the researcher can establish comprehensive set of themes
for analysis. By observation from the participants, theories are generated. It also allows
the participants (top management) to shape the theme that emerge from the process. It
also supports the philosophy chosen and the method of study undertaken. Magnani
(2001) states that there exists another approach called abductive which forms a
hypothesis from the collected data and seeks to explain it from relevant evidence. This
research starts by analyzing the literature to frame interview questions from researcher
understanding of past research. As the questions are framed from existing literature rather
than researcher perception and studies the participant’s data to generate a new theory, this
research ends in abductive approach. As participants are major parts of this research and
less need to generalize findings, this research will be abductive which is between
inductive and deductive.
3.3.
Research strategy
The third layer of research onion consists of different strategies that can be used in a
research. This research incorporates case study strategy as the study is conducted to
understand the management process from individual perception of four different schools.
Stake (1995) states that case study is a type of research strategy which is used to explore
in depth analysis of a program, event, activity, process or one or more individuals.
Researcher chose case study as a strategy because of in depth understanding of value
chain system needed in this research. Case study approach studies the existent scenario
and analyzes the real patterns which helps the researcher to understand the in depth
system of practice in private and public schools. According to Yin (2002), single case
study designs are vulnerable and the result will be more powerful in multiple case studies
than single case. Since four different schools are studied, this research will use multiple
