- Title
- A study of partner selection in the internationalization of higher education programmes
- Creator
- Wong, Tina
- Resource Type
- thesis
- Date
- 2017
- Description
- Professional Doctorate - Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
- Description
- Facing rapid changes in global environment, internationalization has become an important issue in higher education around the world. Internationalization of higher education is defined as the multiple activities, programs and services that include international studies, international educational exchange and technical cooperation. One of the common approaches of achieving internationalization is offering joint programmes with an overseas university. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the factors influencing local higher education institutions in selecting overseas partners to offer academic programmes in Hong Kong. Based on an extensive review of literature, a preliminary conceptual framework affecting partner selection is developed. Resource-based theory serves as the foundation of the preliminary framework. Under the framework, it is hypothesized that the likelihood of partner selection is influenced by partner attractiveness. And partner attractiveness is affected by an overseas university’s technical capabilities, managerial capabilities and intangible resources respectively. This preliminary framework only presents a general and rough picture of partner selection in higher education institutions. Therefore, the qualitative method of multiple case studies is conducted to enrich the content of the framework. Four case studies from two local higher education institutions are selected. Data is collected by having interviews with the representatives of these two institutions and examining secondary data. The methods of within-case analysis and cross-case analysis are used for data analysis. With the inclusion of the qualitative findings, the enriched conceptual framework presents specific partner characteristics affecting partner attractiveness and selection in this sector. With the aim of testing the enriched framework, a subsequent quantitative stage was used. Under the enriched model, six hypotheses showing the linkages between various characteristics of an overseas university and partner attractiveness are proposed. A questionnaire-based survey was conducted and 81 responses were received from the higher education institutions in Hong Kong. Among the identified overseas university’s characteristics, the empirical results show that flexibility in partnership arrangement and reputation of the education system of the country where the overseas university is located have positive linkage with partner attractiveness and selection. These findings provide useful insights to Hong Kong higher education leaders in formulating guidelines relating to partner selection process. First, they should select overseas universities which are flexible in the partnership arrangement. Second, these institutions should not choose partners only based on the universities’ reputation. Instead, these institutions should focus on universities which are located in countries with reputable education system. It is recommended that future researchers can examine international partnership across different sectors and process approach should be adopted to provide rich insights about the temporal influence of different partner characteristics.
- Subject
- higher education; programmes; internationalization
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1355527
- Identifier
- uon:31477
- Rights
- Copyright 2017 Tina Wong
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
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| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT01 | Thesis | 2 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download | ||
| View Details Download | ATTACHMENT02 | Abstract | 421 KB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |