Sustainability Issues in the Development of Higher Education Industry

This study aims to discuss sustainability issues in the development of the higher education industry. As a methodology, an adapted value chain model from current strategic management literature was proposed for developing countries that would reflect local specific context and background of higher education industry. Secondary data were collected from leading universities in finance, economics, and business in two developing countries to carry out a comprehensive comparative analysis based on the adapted value chain model for use in the higher education industry. Our analysis showed that the studied cases are quite different in most supporting and primary activities belonging to the so-called educational value chain, except for location and infrastructure. Based on the obtained research results, conclusions were made. Several recommendations for the value chain improvement were proposed towards a higher level of sustainable development and scientists to enhance these issues further. The scientific novelty of this work contributes to the existing literature by translating the understanding of sustainable development ideas in business into its understanding in the higher education industry and possibly its understanding in other industries in future studies.