Roy Zúñiga

Managing Strategies for Higher Education Institutions in the UK: An Overview

This article deals with strategic management issues in the higher education sector in the UK. The core idea is presented here with the argument that the principle and practice of strategic management are not only the concerns of senior management, but also an essential requirement at all levels of management of higher education. It shows that higher education institutions exist in a complex and changing environment with an increasing need for fast and effective strategic responses to external pressures. Having identified these issues, this article considers a form of strategic issues such as strategic management in higher education, three different levels of strategy and also discusses Porter’s five forces in the context of UK higher education sector. Though these issues are considered from a theoretical standpoint, they are linked to the competitive positioning and strategic management concepts being used in higher education.

Human Resource Management in Social Enterprises: Insights from the Rural Base of the Pyramid

Serving rural communities in developing countries has proven to be challenging due in part to the lack of infrastructure, of public services and of skilled human resources that characterize these regions, also known as the base of the pyramid (BoP). Organizations delivering products and services to this segment of the market often require trained personnel. Unfortunately, the education levels of individuals living in these communities is extremely low and, in most cases, limited to the ability to read and write. We study how social entrepreneurs manage their human resources to serve effectively rural communities in developing countries. Our focus is on selection and recruiting, training and compensation practices. We analyze and compare these practices by two social enterprises that have effectively served rural BoP communities for more than 10 years. Our comparative analysis suggests a systematic human resource approach that relies on local community leaders, whose development include training and compensation methods that respond to the context limitations.

ECOM Coffee Group: The Hybrid Plant Decision

A team of students, with faculty supervision, analyze the agribusiness chain of a major global coffee exporter and make recommendations regarding the strategy for introducing hybrid plants for the renovation of coffee growers plantations. Based on the student analysis, a case study is developed and subsequently discussed among the faculty, the student research team, and the case protagonists, opening new informing pathways and overcoming grower resistance to the change Material published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission.

Decision Processes in Introducing Hybrid Agricultural Plants: ECOM Coffee Group Case Study

Introduction In early 2010 executives of an international coffee exporting firm approached the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance in a decision to continue investing in the research and production of hybrid plants. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to analyze the agribusiness chain and make recommendations. Based on the student analysis, a case study (shown in the Appendix) was developed for classroom discussion. The case was subsequently discussed among the faculty, the student research team, and the case protagonists. This paper is organized as follows. The first section describes the research design, which was developed by the students in response to the situation faced by the case protagonists. The second section presents the results of the research, based upon an analysis of the data in the appended case study. The third section is a discussion of the informing outcomes. Section four offers conclusions. The Research Design Given the low productivity of coffee growers in Mexico and Central America and the importance of this region to ECOM as a major coffee exporter in the region, company executives decided in 2003 to invest in a coffee renovation project using hybrid plants. The focus of the project, based in a research station in Nicaragua, was to achieve higher yields, greater economic benefits for producers, improved harmony with the environment, enhanced characteristics in the cup (tastes and aroma of brewed coffee), plants with a higher resistance to pests, and longer harvest periods through the use of hybrid plants. In undertaking this project, ECOM executives were searching for a strategy that would generate profits for the company while increasing monetary incentives for participating producers. To this end, they approached members of the agribusiness faculty of a well-known Central American business school for assistance. The faculty assigned a five-person team of students to gather data, conduct an analysis of the alternatives, and prepare recommendations. This research was conducted under faculty supervision. Based on their analysis of the data, two alternatives were identified. The first alternative, an increase in the current price of the hybrid coffee plants, resulted in an unfavorable outcome for producers, since the price at which the project would become profitable would leave producers with a negligible increase in profit margins; therefore, producers would have no incentive to opt for the renewal with hybrid coffee plants. As a second alternative, the student research team proposed that ECOM retain a percentage of the increase in production that the producers would obtain by renewing with hybrid plants. This alternative showed positive results for producers. The percentage retained, at which the project would become profitable, would leave the producers with a twenty percent increase in profit above that obtained by renewing with conventional plants. As a third alternative, ECOM could implement a mixed strategy that included increasing prices and defining a rate of retention. An analysis of the impact on profits for different participants in the agribusiness chain of the project revealed that by selling its hybrid plants in the final phase of plant development rather than at intermediate phases, investments in fixed assets for the members of the agribusiness chain would be diminished. These members did not have to invest in nursery facilities, but ECOM did, making it more difficult for the ECOM Project to become profitable. Thus an analysis of a strategy to recover ECOMs investment was performed. Finding that ECOM could ask a higher percentage of retention of the increases in production, the result was that the producers would have 18.6 percentage points more than if they renewed with conventional plants. Producers would now have an incentive to buy the product. To gather the information needed for this project, the student research group visited the laboratory in Nicaragua and the farm in charge of the production and distribution of the hybrid coffee plants. …