 |
Branding Laws · Internet Marketing · eMarketing · Internet Advertising · Online Branding |
|
Branding Laws · Internet Marketing · eMarketing · Internet Advertising · Online Branding |
|
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs In The Asia-Pacific Region
Elsie S. K. Chan
Australian Catholic University, Australia
elsie@elsiechan.com
Paula M.C. Swatman
University of South Australia, Australia
1
17th Bled eCommerce Conference
eGlobal
Bled, Slovenia, June 21 - 23, 2004
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market
Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs
In The Asia-Pacific Region
Elsie S. K. Chan
Australian Catholic University, Australia
elsie@elsiechan.com
Paula M.C. Swatman
University of South Australia, Australia
paula.swatman@unisa.edu.au
Abstract
Universities have gradually moved toward a fee-for-service mode of operation over the
last decade. Offering new academic programs which will attract increasing student
numbers is ever more important to universities and this, in turn, requires a greater
awareness of market needs and the positioning of educational offerings. A theory-based
study of the literature on new service products led to the development of the New
Educational Service Product Offerings (NESPO) model for universities offering such
multidisciplinary, niche-focused degree programs, which forms the basis of the research
project reported here. This paper begins by considering the literary foundations of the
model. Using a multiple case study of eBusiness programs in the Asia-Pacific region over
the period 2000-2003, it then analyses the findings of the cases, determining whether the
universities surveyed were making use of the concepts of new service product
development in developing their eBusiness educational programs. Finally, the paper
considers whether (and to what extent) these findings are applicable more widely to a
range of niche-market, multidisciplinary degree programs.
1 Introduction
Tertiary education has undergone a number of major changes over the past few decades,
but one of the most noticeable has been the gradual move by many universities
(particularly in the English-speaking world) toward a fee-for-service mode of operation.
The United States can be considered the original leader in this area – tuition fees there
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
2
account for a significant share of university income1. More recently, however, several
other countries have made even more significant moves in the direction of fee-based
tertiary education. The Australian government, for example, first introduced the
innovative Higher Education Contribution (HECS)2 deferred-payment scheme in 1989
which, collected by the Universities themselves but in fact representing a significant
proportion of the Government’s contribution to those Universities’ income 3 , was a
revolutionary change in approach to government tertiary funding – and an approach
which has since been given serious consideration by the British and German governments
(Shumar 1997; Jarvis 2001; Adams 2002; Hüfner 2003).
This pattern of seeking to limit the rising cost of tertiary education can also be observed
in many parts of the Asia-Pacific region. The government of the Hong Kong Special
Administration Region (Hong Kong SAR) cut its university grants by 1% in 2003-04,
with some reports suggesting a further large reduction of the tertiary education budget
would occur in 2004 (Wenweipo 2003; Government of Hong Kong SAR 2003). Hong
Kong’s Secretary for Education and Manpower has also stated that higher education
would bear the brunt of overall cuts in the education budget (South China Morning Post
2003). While the majority of European governments (with the notable exceptions of
Britain and the Republic of Ireland) continue to provide free education at the tertiary level,
governments in the much of the rest of the world are increasingly placing the
responsibility for funding education on the shoulders of the universities themselves – and
even mainland Europe is beginning to look at the possibilities of charging fees for at least
some tertiary education programs (Altbach 1997; Universities UK 2001).
Universities, under increasing pressure to fund not merely major capital works but now
even day-to-day running expenses, have endeavoured to enrol as many fee-paying
students as possible, to cover costs and permit expansion and development (Göbbels-
Dreyling 2003; Marginson & Considine 2000). This process is complicated by
governments’ growing awareness of the possibilities of educational self-funding (Maslen
2003). The overall effect of fee-for-service education for academic program development
is increasing pressure on university administrations to offer niche-oriented,
multidisciplinary programs which are as attractive as possible to prospective students, and
which promise the best possible outcomes (generally interpreted by students as meaning
the best future employment prospects) in a bid to increase enrolments. This has led to a
switch from the traditional model of pedagogically-oriented new degree program
development towards one which focuses on student numbers as its primary objective
(Maslen 2003a).
Many of the original fee systems were aimed at students from offshore locations
(‘international’ students), but these fee-for-service principles are now being extended into
the domestic education market. As universities target local students, they find themselves
increasingly forced to provide educational programs which meet the needs and desires of
students focusing on vocationally-oriented degrees which will assist them to find new
jobs, or will help them to gain promotion (DETYA 1998). Clearly, such programs are
likely to be more market-oriented than those of the past, which were designed from a
1 Tuition fees, even as early as the late 1990s, already accounted for approximately 41% of private and 18%
of public universities’ income (NCIHE 1997).
2 HECS provides a loan to students, indexed to maintain its real value but otherwise interest-free, with
deferred income contingent repayment (Williams 2000).
3 “From 2005, universities will have flexibility in setting fees for Commonwealth-support places. They can
cut fees. Except for teaching and nursing, they can increase fees to a maximum of 30% above HECS. It is
up to the institution whether it wants to attract students, and up to the student as to whether the course
offers value. Universities will be able to specialise in their areas of strength.” (The Age, 14 May 2003,
Budget2003 p.7).
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
3
purely pedagogic point of view; and must consequently have more than a single,
academic focus.
In this paper we make use of the findings from a four-year study of tertiary eBusiness
programs in the Asia-Pacific region, undertaken between 1999-2003 during the height of
the dot.com boom and its subsequent crash, to identify key strategies for the development
and marketing of industry-focused, multi-disciplinary tertiary programs designed to
attract fee-paying students. It became increasingly obvious to us during the course of the
research project that universities wishing to successfully target this market need to take a
‘new service product’ approach (Johne & Storey 1998, p.185; 195) eBusiness 4
educational programs, with their multi-disciplinary nature, are particularly subject to
market perception and thus provided an especially good example of this trend – but we
believe that our findings are equally applicable to similar programs in areas as diverse as
communication and new media at one end of the Humanities/Science spectrum, through
to biotechnology or sustainable environmentalism at the other extreme.
The paper begins with a discussion of the theoretical underpinning of this work – in
particular, with the theory of new service products and its adaptation into the NESPO
model of ‘new educational service products’. We then briefly review the case study
approach used to gather and analyse the empirical data on which our findings were based,
and then summarise and discuss the findings of the interviews themselves, as they relate
to the core of the NESPO model. Finally, we answer the question of whether (and how)
universities in the Asia-Pacific region have been approaching the task of creating
effective market-oriented niche degree programs and consider the extent to which our
findings in the eBusiness arena are applicable across a wider range of educational service
product offerings.
2 Theoretical Background
In a longitudinal study of eBusiness degree programs in the AP region, we discovered a
common phenomenon: universities were offering degree programs which were developed
on an ad hoc basis and which lacked a systematic model in terms of either structure or
motivation. Our face-to-face interviews with program developers in four Asia-Pacific
countries confirmed that, although these programs were developed as quickly as possible
to take advantage of the market attractiveness of eBusiness, the programs were not seen
by their developers as service products and were not designed to take maximum
advantage of the specific environment in which the universities found themselves.
4 The term eBusiness is used throughout this paper to represent both eBusiness and eCommerce, which we
define as its transaction-based subset.
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
4
Figure 1: The New Educational Service Product Offering (NESPO) Model
The project started with a review of marketing theory – we were seeking models of new
product development which could be applied to the creation of educational programs.
Several researchers (see, for example, Grönroos 1990; Grönroos et al. 2000; Kotler &
Fox 1995; Shostack 1982; or Storey & Easingwood 1998) have created models to clarify
the structure of service products; and a broad distinction can be made between goods and
core services (which define the type of business) and the supplementary services needed
for that environment. ‘Service products’, ‘service offers’ or ‘service offerings’ are
interchangeable terms, usually described as a package consisting of a core service plus
additional, peripheral services or secondary-level services (Grönroos 1990; Gabbott and
Hogg 1996; Storey and Easingwood 1998). This description of ‘service products’,
‘service offers’ or ‘service offerings’ is also valid in a university setting and we
subsequently developed a model for offering new degree programs presented as service
products.
The NESPO model, illustrated in Figure 1, is composed of three concentric circles service
product, service distribution and marketing support. The innermost circle is the service
product which contains the core service the educational provider(s) will offer. The middle
circle is the service distribution where the major concern is the way in which the service
is being distributed. The outer circle is marketing support. This paper does not provide
space to discuss the model in great detail, but a comprehensive explanation and
discussion of the derivation and use of NESPO can be found in Chan (2003, pp.98-137).
Educational Provider
• development time
• resources
Students
• benefit
• expectation and
learning style
Government & Society
• educational policy
• social acceptance
• social economy
Service product
• core service
• newness
• product quality
• product distinctiveness
• product adaptability
• facilitating services
• Service evidence
Service distribution
• distribution
strength/strategy
• effective
communications
• staff training and
skills
• follow-up service
Marketing support
• market knowledge
• local image
• advertising/
promotion
• financial terms
Service product
Service distribution
Marketing support
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
5
3 Research Methodology
Yin (1994, p.129) claimed that case studies have a more diverse set of possible audiences
than most other types of research. The analysis technique we employ with our cases in
this study is the variable-oriented approach suggested by Miles & Huberman (1994,
p.174) or, to put it another way, we have concentrated on the variables themselves and
their relationships, rather than focusing on the quantitative measures of each individual
case.
The theoretical issues of the project were related to the marketing theory of new service
product offering on which our model is based and, to test our theory, nineteen cases were
selected for this study between 2001 and 2003. Data were collected by means of
university web sites, program brochures, and semi-structured interviews (either in person
or via telephone). Interviewees included program developers, program coordinators and
administrative staff members who were responsible for the eBusiness program(s). We
selected four countries in the AP region, primarily because of their significant activity in
the eBusiness arena. Table 1 shows the geographical distribution of the selected cases.
Table 1: Case Study Locations And Numbers
Region Number of cases
Australia 10
New Zealand 2
Hong Kong 6
Singapore 1
Total 19
Questions asked of the interviewees in these nineteen case studies (universities) were
designed to provide an answer to the research question:
How have the universities surveyed made use of new service product
concepts in creating multidisciplinary, market-focused, niche programs –
particularly eBusiness programs?
4 Research Findings
In the following sections we discuss the findings of the nineteen universities studied,
analysed according to the NESPO new educational service product model. Space
limitations unfortunately prevent us from presenting all our findings from the case
studies, and we therefore present here only those findings relating to the core, service
product elements newness, product distinctiveness, product adaptability and facilitating
services which are located within the innermost circle of the model.
At the interviewees’ request, names of universities and interviewees are not disclosed –
we have instead used a letter + number code to represent each university, where the letter
identifies the country in which the university is located (e.g. A stands for universities in
Australia, N for New Zealand, H for Hong Kong and S for Singapore) and the number
indicates the order in which that university was interviewed.
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
6
4.1 Newness
Newness refers to both market and product newness. Table 2 shows the results of the
programs’ newness (i.e. whether the program was a completely new development, or an
adaptation of existing courses into a new program) and identifies issues relating to
whether the program developers were supported by their university’s top management.
Table 2: Interview Responses For The “Newness” Element
Row heading, universities in
A : Australia,
H : Hong Kong,
N : New Zealand,
S : Singapore.
Column heading
E1: Some existing courses adapted from other programs
E2: Program was developed internally or through external resources
E3: Development time of programs before market launch (in months)
E4: Obtain support from top management for development of the program(s)
E1 E2 E3 E4
A1 Only a limited number of
courses. Most were new.
Developed internally with some
external help.
12 to
18
Basically nothing.
A2
All courses new. Developed by a group of
internal staff members with
external resources
6 Yes, support from the faculty in
terms of funding to do market
research.
A3 Use some existing courses. Developed by a group of
internal staff at faculty level.
24 No support in terms of reduced
work load or financial incentives.
A4 Use some existing courses from
other programs.
Just by internal staff. 6 Yes, some in general.
A5
Use a few existing courses and
tailor them for the eBusiness
program.
Internal staff in the faculty
developed individual subject.
24 Not really.
A6 All new courses. Internally. 18 No, no money or time released.
A7
Used most existing courses,
only a few new courses were
developed.
Internally. 7 Yes, the Dean supported the
committee approvals process
personally.
A8 Used some existing courses
from other faculties.
Internally. A group of staff at
school level.
6 No, nothing.
A9 Nearly all courses new. Mainly external. 6 Not much.
A10
Nearly all courses new. By external eLearning
company which use world
experts to develop the program.
6 N.A. Because the program
development was outsourced.
N1
The first semester using entirely
existing courses. In the second
semester, some new courses
added.
Developed by one to two
internal staff members.
10.
No.
N2 Used most existing courses. A team of five staff members. 1.5 No.
H1
Used existing courses initially,
but changing 20%-40% of
content per year per program.
Internally.
8 No.
H2
Depends on the instructors who
delivered the program.
A group of internal staff. 10 to
12
Yes and no. Yes in terms of
helping the approval of
curriculum process but neither
financial incentives nor time
release for staff involved in the
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
7
E1 E2 E3 E4
program.
H3
2 new courses in bachelors
degree and 4 new courses in
masters degree.
Both by internal and
outsourcing
12 Yes. reduced workload for those
staff members who were
developing the program.
H4 All new courses. Totally internal. 12 Yes. Lighter teaching loads and
extra pay to staff involved.
H5
Used existing courses as a basis
and tailored to be appropriate
for the internet environment.
By internal staff within two
faculties.
24 Yes, Pro Vice Chancellor as a
bridge within two facilities in
order to develop two consistent
streams.
Staff who developed program had
reduced teaching load to some
extent.
H6
Modified some existing courses
and developed a number of new
ones.
Internal staff member. 6 No, absolutely not.
S1 Modified exiting courses. Internal staff 5 Only time release from teaching.
In the majority of cases, new eBusiness programs were offered after less than a year of
development time. Case study results suggested that development time of a new program
was not, in fact, dependent on the level of newness of the program and the market, but
rather depended on the demand from the market. New programs could therefore be
brought to market within a comparatively short time span, as long as there was sufficient
demand.
Support from top management (at school, faculty or university level) could be helpful in
the development of new educational service products. The results of the case studies
indicated in Table 2, however, show that most program developers did not receive
support from top management to develop their new program (for example, Universities
A1, A3, A5, A6, A8, A9, N1, N2, H1 and H6). Those which did receive such support fell
into three major categories:
• Top management (Dean or Vice Chancellor) helped to speed up the approval
process of the new program (for example, Universities A7, H2 and H5)
• Top management offered some funding for market research (for example,
University A2)
• The third form of support was indirect and involved time and workload release
for those staff developing the programs (for example, Universities A2, A4, H3,
H4 and S1).
The interview responses made it clear that the newness of an educational service product
was not directly related either to the development time or to the presence of support from
top management, but was almost entirely related to market demand.
4.2 Product Distinctiveness
Product distinctiveness is the uniqueness of the product and the relative advantages a
product possesses over its competition. In earlier work (Chan & Swatman 2001), we
analysed the eBusiness and IS/IT programs offered by Australian and New Zealand
universities in 2000 and found a number of differences between these two types in terms
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
8
of packaging and positioning, despite the apparent similarity of many course and program
titles and descriptions — particularly where programs were being offered online.
Clearly, product distinctiveness is a major concern when offering a new program,
particularly in today’s competitive market environment. In order to examine this issue,
we therefore asked several questions during the interviews related to educational product
distinctiveness.
The first question was: “What characteristics do you use to distinguish the eBusiness
program from other programs?” The responses are briefly listed below.
Table 3: Interview Responses For The “Product Distinctiveness” Element
Row heading, universities in
A : Australia,
H : Hong Kong,
N : New Zealand,
S : Singapore.
E5 Characteristics for distinguishing eBusiness programs from other programs
A1 Focus on more web page development.
A2 It was a whole-of-faculty degree for a start and it was unique. It was focused on the new economy.
A3 The eBusiness program was a joint degree with other programs, hence one third was the same as other
program(s). However, there were two themes in eBusiness for students to choose from.
A4
To develop eBusiness systems rather than just studying eBusiness or eMarketing. Focus on technology
applications for the business and understand what technologies are appropriate and how to make them
work.
A5 All the subjects in the program were eBusiness-related, unlike universities [which] had included
business subjects.
A6 It took a strategic business managerial emphasis. Neither is it a re-packaged offering of courses that
have already been developed.
A7 It’s got these extra specialist eBusiness subjects.
A8 Two special units. Internet Forum which includes practical web development. The other is web
commerce development in which there is some practical development as an assignment.
A9
IS programs are broad generalisations and have an intra-organisational focus. They have a focus
within an organisation. eBusiness is an inter-organisational phenomenon and looks at trading between
or across organisations.
A10 Marketing is just one application of eBusiness. eBusiness can cover the whole range of things,
marketing is just one area.
N1 The eBusiness graduates will have a much more hands-on experience.
N2
Basically all the IS skills and knowledge need to be able to code HTML or XML. Students should
know all sorts of things not necessarily that they are programmers but at least they can tell a
programmer ‘build this for me’.
H1 This is a one-year program. Much more focused on IT than MBA.
H2 A comprehensive framework of how eBusiness technology would help the business environment and
their business partners.
H3
MBA was a general degree with components of accounting, management etc. eBusiness had heavy
load dedicated to eBusiness. About 50% of the program borrowed from MBA. These topics included
strategy, innovation and marketing.
H4 Talk about eBusiness by nature and talk about doing business between things such as B2B, B2C etc.
H5 MBA was a broad program while EC was more specific.
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
9
E5 Characteristics for distinguishing eBusiness programs from other programs
H6 Understand business models and design the systems that make [them] convenient to clients.
S1
With eBusiness, we need to understand how to conduct business in a cheaper way in a faster way and
in a more efficient way. These change the competencies. It requires a very interdisciplinary approach –
see industry reacting to the whole thing, what kind of value preposition you get out of the whole thing.
It is clear from these responses that the program developers were all aware of the need to
differentiate their offerings from IS or MBA programs (the latter was particularly
important in Hong Kong). Interviewees spoke of the way in which eBusiness programs
place more emphasis on developing and implementing strategies for eBusiness, assessing
financial performance of existing eBusiness and identifying eBusiness opportunities for
business – although the answers also make it clear that these developers had not thought
through the strategic distinctions as carefully as one might have expected.
In order to examine whether the name itself would have any effect on the
‘distinctiveness’ of the product, we also asked: “What are your personal opinions about
the terms “eCommerce”, “eBusiness”, “eMarketing” and “Internet / Online commerce?”
Respondents saw little difference between the terms eCommerce, eBusiness and
eMarketing (University N2 believed they were merely “sexy” terms). Most interviewees
agreed that eCommerce was a subset of eBusiness, focused on the processes relating to
electronic transactions, whereas eBusiness related to doing business electronically in
every possible way. The respondents believed, however, that the terms eCommerce and
eBusiness are more general and broader than either eMarketing or Internet Commerce.
In order to understand the product distinctiveness in greater depth, we then asked a third
question: “Is any part of the program particularly important?”
In University A10, the interviewee believed an eBusiness bachelors program should not
stand alone:
‘eBusiness can take on a number of different emphases or foci and we
took on a management application focus. And we were very strong on
suggesting that the undergraduate students take on a double major, we
did not market it as a single major in its own right.’
In University N1, the respondent felt that the eBusiness program should focus on
technical issues:
‘I had a very strong desire to see an industry work experience component
and I put that in, actually against the opposition of a number of other
people, also because I come from an engineering or technical
background, and I forced the inclusion of some computer science courses
in that because I saw that a partial technical foundation was very
important for the degree, and again I had to work fairly hard to get that
idea through.’
In University H4, the response was that eBusiness programs should continue to add fresh
materials to existing offerings:
‘The parts of the program that I think are particularly important are, first
it all it’s fresh material, in that this area changes so rapidly, you have to
have continuing streams of fresh material, the second thing is that it has
have strong components of collaborative learning to make it successful.’
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
10
Each program had (some) unique characteristics and could be distinguished from other
offerings, indicating that the creators of each program were at least aware of the need to
provide alternative offerings.
4.3 Product Adaptability
Product adaptability is the degree to which the specifications of a product can be updated
to meet the changing needs of customers. Table 4 below shows the responses relating to
product adaptability.
Table 4: Interview Responses For The “Product Adaptability” And “Facilitating
Services” Elements
Row heading, universities in
A : Australia,
H : Hong Kong,
N : New Zealand,
S : Singapore.
Column heading
E6: Universities offer different levels of programs
E7: Facilities and services provided to students
E6 E7
A1 Bachelors and masters Same as other programs.
A2 Masters but multiple exits to
certificate and diploma
Special e-portal for this program which was maintained by
technical staff who were employed specifically for this task.
A3
Bachelor and masters The university provides support along the lines of IT
infrastructure. A web development officer and an
administrator were looking after the program.
A4 Bachelors and masters Same as other programs.
A5 Grad. cert., grad. diploma,
bachelors, masters and doctoral
Same as other programs.
A6
Grad. cert., grad. diploma,
bachelors, masters
Treated like other students in other programs.
A7 Bachelors The usual things, laboratories and computers access to the
Internet, libraries and online database.
A8
Executive certificate, diploma,
bachelors and masters
Facilities provided to the EC students are the same as
students in Management Information Systems programs.
A9 Grad. cert., grad diploma, bachelors
and masters
Same as other programs.
A10 Grad. cert., grad. diploma, bachelors
and masters
Same as other programs.
N1 Grad diploma and bachelors Lots of laboratory facilities.
N2 Grad diploma and bachelors 24 hours access labs and software such as visual basic and
HTML programming software.
H1 Masters Same as the other program.
H2 Masters Special laboratories and a special server for the program. A
Program manager was looking after the administrative
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
11
E6 E7
aspects of the program.
H3 Bachelors and masters A special server for the programs for hands-on experience
and on-line projects for students.
H4
Masters Laboratory facilities which had enough computers to cope
with every student in the program.
Separate server for the program.
H5
Masters Forum for eBusiness students in two faculties to hold
discussion.
Establish more phone line so that students could easily got
access University’s server through dial-up.
H6 Higher diploma, bachelors and
masters
Same as the other programs.
S1 Masters 2 special eBusiness laboratories for students.
Column heading E6 in Table 6 shows that six of the ten Australian universities
interviewed offered the full range of eBusiness programs (from graduate certificate to
masters degrees, plus a bachelors degree). The two New Zealand universities we
interviewed had bachelors degrees and graduate diplomas in eBusiness. By contrast,
universities in Hong Kong and Singapore were more focused on eBusiness programs at
the masters level.
Some of the Australian universities provided multiple exit points from their masters
program – students could choose to graduate with a Graduate Certificate after completing
four courses; with a Graduate Diploma after completing eight courses; and with a Masters
degree after completing all 12-16 courses (these options were usually mutually
exclusive). The flexibility offered by this approach is very attractive to part-time students,
whose work life often makes it difficult or even impossible to complete a masters degree
– as well as helping the offering university to differentiate itself in the market-place.
Thus:
the provision of multiple exit points from a masters degree program provides
flexibility to students and hence can increase the product adaptability of the
educational service product.
It was noticeable, however, that this was really the only identifying structural factor in
these programs – students were otherwise treated just like all other fee-paying graduate
students.
4.4 Facilitating Services
There are two types of services for students:
• Facilitating services are mandatory and, if they are not present, the service
product collapses. In tertiary institutions, services such as student enrolment,
student records management, library facilities, examinations and the provision
and marking of assignments are facilitating services.
• By contrast, supporting services enhance the competitive power of a university’s
service products (although facilitating services in some circumstances could
become supporting services in others). The facilitating services depend totally on
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
12
the core service. For example, a well-equipped gymnasium is a facilitating
service for students who study sports-related programs, but is only a supporting
service for students taking an eBusiness program.
One of the initial general observations to emerge from the case studies (Table 4, column
E7) was that most universities were sharing facilitating services with other programs
within their institution. There was only one truly exceptional case, University H2, which
had its own systems (facilitating services) for student administration, enrolment and
payment for the program. University A2 also developed an e-portal which was to be used
for their eBusiness students alone. The portal – maintained by a specific, full-time,
technical staff member – provided information on eBusiness student alumni, offered, in
addition to the usual course-related material, an e-Biz discussion group, and provided
news and details of program structure and staff involved in the eBusiness program.
In terms of supporting services, most of the universities involved in the interviews treated
such services in essentially the same way as all other programs, but with enhancement of
the computer laboratory facilities. These facilities included: allocated computer servers
for eBusiness students to develop and host their web pages; special software packages for
web page construction; and 24-hour access to the computer laboratory.
University H5 provided a different type of supporting service to its eBusiness students. In
partnership with several bookshops, the University organised a small-scale book
exhibition on the university campus at the beginning of each semester, specifically for
eBusiness-related books. Students could therefore buy their textbooks directly from the
university campus, saving travelling and searching time. University H2 included
textbooks in the eBusiness program package and students did not need to buy the
textbooks themselves.
Despite these special cases, the overall case study results suggested that:
most eBusiness program developers did not emphasise nor even give any thought to
providing facilitating services or supporting services to increase the competitive
advantage of their respective eBusiness programs.
5 Conclusions And Research Contribution
Having discussed the issues relating to the core of the NESPO model in some detail, we
return to the over-arching research question:
How have the universities surveyed made use of new service product
concepts in creating multidisciplinary, market-focused, niche programs –
particularly eBusiness programs?
It has been our contention that niche-market multidisciplinary academic programs are, in
fact, service products; and that appropriate marketing techniques should be employed
during their development and operation if the offering institution is to take full advantage
of their comparatively limited market acceptability. This view is based primarily on the
new service product literature discussed earlier in this paper – and extended by means of
the development of the NESPO model which shows that this theory can be applied to
educational service products in a very similar way to consumer products.
Our case study data made it clear that take-up of the programs studied was rapid and, in
the short-run, the programs were very successful in building student numbers. The
majority of the program developers were either not aware of, or placed comparatively
little emphasis on, the “elements” of the NESPO model requiring attention when
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
13
developing their new service products. Rather, they focused almost exclusively on the
guidelines laid down by their own university for developing all new academic programs,
putting considerable effort into the structure of the program and into successfully pushing
the applications through the various academic approval committees at their institution.
Once approval had been granted, they generally rushed their product to market as quickly
as possible, without an orchestrated marketing or promotion campaign.
The value-adding role of top management to the launch of the new program was seen by
most as that of speeding up the approval process and, in certain circumstances, approving
funds for market research. Reduction of staff workload or the allocation of a budget for
new programs was, in the majority of cases, not carefully considered by top management,
with the result that not all institutions had sufficient staff to teach the individual courses,
or sufficient funds to support the additional expenses incurred by the launch of the
program.
This approach led to many eBusiness programs (service products) ‘flooding’ the market
during the four-year period of the study, but product distinctiveness and quality were
difficult to ascertain with any degree of certainty.
The simplest and most succinct answer to the research question, therefore, is that a small
number of the surveyed universities understood that they were competing in a very tough
environment – and therefore put sufficient time and effort (and resources) into the
preliminary work needed to ensure the success of their product. Those universities, for
example, which engaged in preliminary market research, ensured that they had adequate
financial and human capital resources, developed a unique program (rather than simply
cobbling together a set of existing courses from other programs), and took advice from a
combination of industry advisers, other universities’ experiences and their own students
were well on the way to developing a successful educational service product.
Unfortunately, none of the universities surveyed actually completed all of these initiatives
(many, indeed, undertook few or none at all).
This paper has focused on a particular group of degrees offered in a specific part of the
world during a very special time. We believe, however, that the major contribution of
both the paper, and the broader research project on which it is based, is to arouse program
developers’ awareness of the need to take a market-oriented perspective when designing
and implementing the comparatively short-lived degree programs which are increasingly
making up the bulk of today’s fee-based coursework masters degrees (and, to a lesser
extent, bachelors degrees). The teams or individuals building such programs need to take
a wider view of the goal(s) of their new service products – including the reason why any
particular program is developed – before adopting some (or all) of the elements contained
in the NESPO model.
References
Adams, R.M. (2002): “Trends in American and German Higher Education,” American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, US.
Altbach, P.G. (1997): Let the buyer pay: international trends in funding for Higher
Education, International Higher Education, Fall, No. 9, pp.16-17.
DETYA (1998): The characteristics and performance of Higher Education institutions,
Australian Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs
Nov. [Online], Available:
Elsie S. K. Chan, Paula M.C. Swatman
14
http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/highered/otherpub/characteristics.pdf [2003, May
15].
Chan, E.S.K. (2003): New educational service products: EC/EB education in the Asia-
Pacific region, unpublished PhD Thesis, School of Information Systems, Deakin
University.
Chan, E.S.K., Swatman, P.M.C. (2001): eBusiness and Information Systems: academic
programs in Australia and New Zealand in the e-age, “Proceedings of the 14th
International Electronic Commerce Conference”, Bled, Slovenia, June 25-26, pp.
117-142.
Gabbott, M., Hogg, G. (1996): The glory of stories: using critical incidents to understand
service evaluation in the primary healthcare context, Journal of Marketing
Management, July, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 493-503.
Göbbels-Dreyling, B. (2003): University financing alternatives: the German examples,
Higher Education in Europe, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 165-170.
Grönroos, C. (1990): “Service Management and Marketing: Managing the Moment of
Truth in Service Competition,” Lexington Books, Canada.
Grönroos, C., Heinonen, F., Isoniemi, K., Lindholm, M. (2000): The NetOffer model: a
case example from the virtual marketspace, Management Decision, Vol. 38,
No.4, pp. 243-252.
Hüfner, K. (2003): Governance and funding of Higher Education, Higher Education in
Europe, Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.145-164.
Jarvis, P. (2001): “Universities and Corporate Universities,” Kogan Page, London.
Johne, A., Storey, C. (1998): New service development: a review of the literature and
annotated bibliography, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 32, No. 3/4,
pp.184-251.
Kotler, P., Fox, K.F.A. (1995): “Strategic Marketing for Educational Institutions,”
Prentice-Hall, New Jersey, pp. 277-282.
Marginson, S., Considine, M. (2000): “The Enterprise University, Power, Governance
and Reinvention in Australia,” Cambridge University Press, UK.
Maslen, G. (2003): Higher fees to hit education exports, Campus Review, May 20.
Maslen, G. (2003a): Marching on the way to user-pay, Campus Review, May 20.
Miles, M.B., Huberman, A.M. (1994): “Qualitative Data Analysis,” Sage, London.
NCIHE (1997): Higher education in the learning society, Report of the UK National
Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education [Online] Available:
http://www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/ncihe/ [2003, Dec 2].
Shostack, G.L. (1982): How to design a service, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 16,
No. 1, pp. 49-63.
Shumar, W. (1997): “College for Sale,” Flamer, London.
South China Morning Post (2003): University chiefs unite to oppose budget cuts,
Classified Post, 12 Nov. [Online], Available:
http://www.classifiedpost.com/jsarticle.php?lcid=HK.EN&arttype=CNEWS&arts
ection=CED&artid=3000007488 [2003, Nov 15].
Storey, C., Easingwood, C.J. (1998): The augmented service offering: a conceptualization
and study of its impacts on new services success, Journal of Product Innovation
Management, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 335-351.
Developing Effective Multidisciplinary, Niche-Market Education: A Study Of eBusiness Programs...
15
The Age (2003): Budget Express, 14 May, Budget2003, p.7.
The Government of Hong Kong Special Administration Special Region (2003): The
2003-2004 Budget Head 190 — University Grants Committee, [Online],
Available: http://www.budget.gov.hk/2003/eng/head190.pdf [2003, May 15].
Universities UK (2001): Speaking out for our universities [Online], Available:
http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/bookshop/downloads/manifesto.pdf [2004, Jan
28]
Wenweipo (2003): Education budget increase 1.4%, 6 Mar, [Online], Available:
http://www.wenweipo.com/news.phtml?news_id=HK0303060082&cat=053S
[2003, May 15].
Williams, B. (2000): Australian universities 1939-1999: how different now? Higher
Education Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 2, April, pp. 147-165.
Yin R.K. (1994): “Case Study Research, Design and Methods,” Sage, California.