Increasing competitiveness of higher education in Ukraine through value co-creation strategy

Abstract

The value co-creation concept has become a marketing answer to today's challenges, the economy is facing. The field of higher education (HE) is experiencing the same pressure of outer factors as any other service industry. As a result, service providers (colleges and universities), as well as customers (students, graduates and employers) are dissatisfied with the quality of services and the level of generated value. The aim of this paper is to discuss how universities can use value co-creation concept to improve the situation. We consider social media to become engagement platforms for enabling value cocreation. Therefore, this paper discusses their current usage and perspectives for Ukrainian HE in creating mutual value. Top-five Ukrainian universities in the Webometrics rating are analyzed in terms of their SM activities on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. The value itself is considered a multi-dimensional category and the co-creation directions are analyzed in terms of the theory of consumption values (TCV) and from the perspective of two customer groups-students and employers. Recommendations include practical tools on engaging students and employers to the VCC process, grouped by the type of the value obtained.

Theory of consumption values in consumer behaviour research: A review and future research agenda

“…Conversely, all types of values in the TCV were determined to understand the perceived value in HE in some recent studies. All TCV values for both students and employers were found to influence obtaining value co-creation via social media in a recent study (Voropai et al, 2019). They were also found to play key roles in students' satisfaction and internationalisation intentions in another study of hospitality students (Rivera et al, 2018).…”

“…Although few of the reviewed studies used qualitative research methods alone (Hallem & Barth, 2011;Hedman & Gimpel, 2010;Misilei & Liew, 2018;Pope, 2001;Rodrigo & Turnbull, 2019;Voropai et al, 2019;Wei, Lu, et al, 2017) or mixed research (Hedman et al, 2019;Mäntymäki & Salo, 2015;Stafford, 1994;Talwar et al, 2020), qualitative methodology can be useful for investigating new ideas and insights, developing new theory, and providing explanatory power to research (Croker, 2009). In addition, postmodernist approach is evaluated under the umbrella of this research type (Croker, 2009); hence, postmodern consumer behaviours require this research, which contributes to the understanding of complex behaviours where contrasts are in harmony.…”

“…TCV has been used in higher education (HE) research to investigate the role of value in consumption, demonstrating the applicability of this theory in this research field (Lai et al, 2012;Pope, 2001;Rivera et al, 2018;Stafford, 1994;Voropai et al, 2019). Initially, Stafford (1994) proposed value for students as customers based on the TCV in higher education.…”

Analysis of key university leadership factors based on their international rankings (QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education)

“…The choice of the most important criteria is necessary, first of all, for the universities themselves, as this indicates the ways to increase their positions inings and achieve leadership in the educational services market. Assessing the significance of the criteria, based on which international rankings are calculated, is important for ensuring leadership and competitiveness, promoting universities in the global market, as well as, in general, for shaping university development strategies in the global environment (Štimac & Šimić, 2012;Voropai et al, 2019). Practical areas of analysis of key university leadership factors based on international rankings are the study of the marketing environment of universities, a set of changes in opportunities and risks, as well as assessing the effectiveness of marketing tools in the university management systems (Petrunia et al, 2019).…”

Formation of ecological education of the population

“…The format of the standard presentation of environmental information is very outdated and not interesting for students. Although in European countries such information is presented very efficiently, since it is based on interactive, game and modeling exercises [29,30].…”