New Generation of the University's Strategy Formulation Processes to Achieve a Competitive Advantage in Egypt

Abstract

Globalization, knowledge revolution and networking are the driving forces of the Knowledge-based economy. In knowledge-based economy, capturing and leveraging the value of Intellectual Property (IP) is generally held to be the path to sustainable wealth creation and societal benefits. Economic prosperity depends heavily on exploiting innovation capacity, improving competitiveness, and enhancing productivity. University is the main source for developing future creative entrepreneurs and it engages with other sectors in research and knowledge transfer. Commercialization of the university's innovation is essential for creating added value for the university, the surrounding region and the whole society. The role of university has been enlarged to include not only teaching and researching but also regional development under the name of entrepreneurial university. In current dynamic era, universities are facing many challenges such as: internationalization and massive competition. Meanwhile, most of applied strategies in the university have failed in the talking-doing gap. A top-down approach that starts with vision/mission statements is an obvious meaning of statements substitute actions. A new generation of strategic formulation processes that mitigates the gap should be identified. This research provides a new formulation process that is called (ABDSD). It is based on action not a description of action. The qualitative methodology has been used meanly a combination of tools such as: (1) Documentation and (2) Case-studies. Two universities have been chosen as an example of how to analyze and to benchmark their activities. Then, eight universities have chosen for applying and validating this methodology. The feedback from the eight universities was highly positive. This dynamic approach mitigates the implementation problems and allows the university to change its strategy successfully to gain a competitive advantage. The research consists of a literature review, strategy formulation processes, drawing a profile for each university's competitive advantages, and finally it provides recommendations that enhance the strategy of the university.