Abstract
This chapter explores education as a business. It considers the various functional factors of education within a knowledge economy and the importance, in order to maintain competitive advantage, of knowledge management. It also considers more specifically technological innovation within this sector and the implications to marketing. Within the management of knowledge, the chapter analyses the higher education institutions producing knowledge, the staff who deliver this knowledge, and the students who purchase and engage in this knowledge. The chapter therefore also explores student enrolment, retention and outcomes, staff development, and product innovation.
TopIntroduction
Education has changed (Gerhardt, 2015). Some of the factors responsible for these changes are “the internationalisation, expansion, and massification of HE [Higher Education], and concomitant heterogeneity of students’ profiles at all levels of study” (Santos et al, 2016, p.58). One result is that HE has now become demand-driven (O’Donnell, 2018), and increased collaboration with business may result in better graduate outcomes i.e. employability. This chapter will consider the functional areas of education as a business and the digital trends that accompany changes within the sector.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Knowledge Management: Is how strategic choices and planning are made to gather, store, protect and disseminate knowledge as a product.
Job Competition Theory: Is about where in the labour queue people are and why.
Human Capital Theory: Is how the status of the employability of a person is determined within the labour markets (supply and quality).
Signalling Theory: Is about signs such as qualifications which help potential employees minimise risk in employment.
Knowledge Economy: Is the sector of the economy which derives profits from the production and sharing of knowledge such as what is found among universities.
Private HEIs: Are universities that do not receive government funding.