Value Creation in Preschool Educational Supply Chain

Abstract

The study aims to understand how value is added by higher education institutions (suppliers), and preschools (service providers) in the preschool educational supply chain. Based on the qualitative methodology, 14 group interviews with preschool pre-service teachers and 9 individual interviews with the Head of Academic Programs from the upstream supply chain were performed. In addition, 23 group interviews with preschool teachers and 8 group interviews preschool operators from the downstream supply chain were conducted to verify the data obtained. The results showed active collaboration, frequent dialogues, close discussion and information sharing between the members of preschool education supply chain for the value creation of preschool teachers. The study implies that a structured and long-term relationship should be established between all the members of preschool educational supply chain so that children, the end-user of this system, will gain the best value possible. For future research, a quantitative methodology could be employed to generalize the findings to a larger population. An extended study to investigate the creation of non-education values in the preschool educational supply chain is strongly encouraged.