REALIZING THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF A TOP-TIER

UNIVERSITY IN TAIWAN

A Multi-criteria Evaluation and Alignment

Wei-Chien Chou and Sheng-Tun Li

Institute of Information Management, National Cheng Kung University

No.1, Ta-Hsueh Road, Tainan City 701, Taiwan, ROC

Keywords: Strategic Map, Balanced Scorecard (BSC), Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), Top-Tier University.

Abstract: The major objective of higher education is to meet the international and local demand for top talent, the core

driving force in enhancing its international competitiveness. Since Taiwan is facing increasingly fierce

international competition as it begins to open its education market, the government’s "Plan for Developing

World-class Universities and Top-tier Research Centers." is aimed at building world-class universities to

improve the overall quality of higher education. There is therefore a great need for a set of evaluation

criteria and an alignment model to realize the strategic plan of achieving the educational objectives. This

paper presents a framework to measure the extent to which the strategic objectives of a top-tier university in

Taiwan are aligned with the results obtained through the Balanced Scorecard (BSC). To achieve this, the

Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) techniques will be used to create a strategic map. With the cause-

and-effect relationship extracted from the strategy map, one can discover gaps that exist between the

strategic objectives and the present status. Our study conducted a case study on Taiwan’s higher education,

using National Cheng Kung University’s implementation of the top-tier university plan as an example.

1 INTRODUCTION

Higher education plays a key role in the

modernization of a country, as it allows for the

upgrading of national competitiveness and

prioritizes the cultivation of human talent to meet

the international and local demand. Many countries

have embarked upon a path of higher education

reform for excellent academic achievement, such as

the "Beacon Schools" program in the U.K., the

"Blue Ribbon School Program" and "Baldrige

National Quality Program" in the U.S., the “211

Project” and “985 Project” in China, and the “Brain

Korea 21 program (BK21)” in Korea. In recent years,

the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has faced rapid

social changes, including increased political freedom,

rapid economic growth, changes in the industrial

structure, and diversification of values (Ministry of

Education, Republic of China, 2011). Consequently,

it has developed a series of specific policies in an

effort to strengthen the structure and

competitiveness of higher education institutions,

among which the "Plan for Developing World-class

Universities and Top-tier Research Centers" is

aimed at improving the overall quality. Therefore,

there is a great need for a set of managerial and

strategic tools to determine appropriate courses of

action and to monitor performance for achieving the

educational objectives.

This study proposed a supportive framework

based on the BSC and used a structured manner to

realize the strategic plan. With the BSC concept as

the basis, two MCDA methods - Analytic Network

Process (ANP) and Decision Making Trial and

Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) - are used to

evaluate a series of BSC indicators, construct

strategy maps which are network structure, and

elucidate the cause-and-effect relationship and

weights between the BSC indicators. They are used

to determine key performance indicators (KPIs) and

specifically quantify the target value of KPIs as this

set of objectives. With the cause and effect

relationship extracted from the strategy map, one

can discover the gap that exists and perform a

diagnosis in terms of the strategic objectives and the

present status. Finally, our study conducted a case

study on Taiwan’s higher education using the

implementation of the top-tier university plan as an

Chou W. and Li S..

REALIZING THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY IN TAIWAN - A Multi-criteria Evaluation and Alignment.

DOI: 10.5220/0003448500310036

In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business (ICE-B-2011), pages 31-36

ISBN: 978-989-8425-70-6

 2011 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

example for realizing the strategic plan of a top-tier

university, which will help managers in education-

wide alignment of strategies.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

The BSC is a performance measurement system and

a strategic management system, as well as a

management and communication tool that allows the

decision-makers, employees, and other stakeholders

to communicate results and drive performance

(Kaplan and Norton, 1992; Niven, 2002). The BSC

involves interpreting organizational vision and goals

while taking into consideration both the financial

and non-financial aspects, which correspond to the

four dimensions of "finance", "customer", "internal

process", and "learning and growth".

Because the BSC is designed to overcome the

limitations of systems that are focused primarily on

financial achievements, applications of the BSC

have been successfully implemented by public and

private non-profit organizations, such as in the

healthcare industry (Oliveira, 2001; Berler et. al.,

2005) and in government and public sector

organizations (Griffiths, 2003). The BSC has also

been used in the educational field in the past, such as

in the development of KPIs for education

(Karathanos and Karathanos, 2005; Umashankar and

Dutta, 2007), in discussions on the appropriateness

of its use as a management tool for measuring

education performance (Storey, 2002; Hamid et. al.,

2008; Yu et. al., 2009), and as an application in the

strategic management of the school to improve the

quality of education (Chen et. al., 2006; Lawrence

and Sharma, 2002; Asan and Tanyas, 2007). Many

education institutions, including the Institute of

Education, University of Southern California, Ohio

State University, University of California, Akron

University in Ohio, Edinburgh University in the UK,

and several others have adopted the BSC to measure

the effectiveness of academic programs. Literature

shows that the BSC is worth exploring and trying in

measuring performance in the field of education, but

so far most research has focused on financial results

assessment as the goal, or discussed how to develop

indicators for measuring educational performance.

2.2 Strategy Map

The strategy map proposed by Kaplan & Norton is

also called the cause-and-effect linkage of strategy

map. It describes the interaction of organizational

strategies and promotes the performance drivers in

strategy results, in order to achieve the desired

strategic goal. In terms of the role played by strategy

maps and the BSC in the field of education, they

essentially form the bridge between strategic

objectives and action plans (Chen et. al., 2006;

Umashankar and Dutta, 2007; Asan and Tanyas,

2007). Regarding the methods used in constructing

the strategy map, Solano et al. argued that a strategy

map can create value by linking tangible and

intangible assets. One can meet the financial

indicators using a strategy map built with dynamic

simulation techniques and based on the BSC and

observing the organization's system quality and the

financial situation during a five-year period (Solano

et. al., 2003). Tseng argued that past studies on the

independence of the BSC indicators do not

accurately reflect the impact they have on each

other; he therefore proposed to integrate the Fuzzy

ANP and DEMATEL methods in order to explore

the managerial implications and deal with the

interaction and dependencies within the perspectives

and guidelines, and to construct a visualized cause-

and-effect linkage using more valuable information

(Tseng, 2010).

This study considers the fact that the dynamic

simulation method of Solano et al. is unable to

ascertain the extent of influence and the weight

between various indicators, that Tseng did not

explain the concept of strategy map and KPIs, and

that other existing research of the strategy maps

focused on hierarchical structures that were based

upon financial top-level results. Therefore, using the

MCDA method can assist individuals or groups in

decision-making and generate a network structure in

strategy map rather than financial top-level results.

The DEMATEL and ANP methods can determine

the network structure among KPIs, which can in turn

work out the cause-and-effect linkage and degree of

relevance between the indicators and derive the

relative weights of each performance indicator

through the analysis of network procedures and the

assessment scales.

3 THE METHOD OF CREATING

A STRATEGY MAP PROCESS

A completed BSC not only needs to include

measurable indicators of performance evaluation,

but it also must construct cause-and-effect linkages

of four major perspectives to form a strategy map.

This study transformed the strategy map into a top-

ICE-B 2011 - International Conference on e-Business

to-bottom hierarchical structure, which involves the

relationships between mission, vision, and the four

major perspective of the BSC and the second-tier

relationships are those between finance, customer,

internal process, learning and growth. ANP can

represent a non-linear structure that deals with

sources and transforms into a hierarchy with the goal

at upper level and alternatives at lower level. The

DEMATEL not only can convert the relationships

between cause and effect into a structural model, but

it also can be used as a way to handle the inner

dependences within a set of criteria. Hence, we

combined the ANP and DEMATEL methods to

create a strategic map. The steps are as follows:

Step 1. Questionnaire design and fill in: The

questionnaire was developed based on performance

dimensions selected from the BSC, and each

decision maker was asked to fill in a

positive/negative sign and numbers for each

question that compared two indicators.

Step 2. Generate the direct relation matrix by

integrating views of decision makers: Deriving

direct relationship matrix A after integrated nn

by adding up the direction of influence and extent of

the n criterion within each decision maker's

questionnaire matrix, and

a in the matrix

represents the extent of influence of criterion i on

criterion j.

Step 3. Normalize the direct relation matrix and

attain the total relation matrix: On the base of the

direct relation matrix A, the normalized direct-

relation matrix X can be obtained by using formula

(1)-(2). The total relation matrix T can be acquired

by using formula (3), in which I is denoted as the

identity matrix:

AX ×= k

(1)

nji

1,2,...,, ,

max

∑

≤≤

(2)

()

-1

- XIXT =

(3)

Step 4. Determine ANP paired comparison

module: Design the ANP questionnaire according to

the network architecture established in the previous

steps, and compare the decision makers to the

groups using paired comparison. The ANP

assessment used 1-9 scale proposed by Saaty as an

indication of level of importance, and a consistency

test was done in order to establish weight

architecture for indicators.

Step 5. Construct and solve the supermatrix:

Each assessment scale within the matrix represents

the impact that elements within a group have on

elements in other groups (external dependencies), or

the influence on elements within their own groups

(internal dependencies).

After forming the supermatrix, the weighted

supermatrix is generated by transforming and

unifying all column sums to unity. This step is used

to ensure that the sum of the probabilities of all

states equals 1. Then, we use the weighted super

matrix to generate a limiting supermatrix by using

formula (4) to calculate overall weights.

Wlim

∞→

(W : weighted matrix)

(4)

Step 6. Combine the interrelations between

criteria of DEMATEL and the weights of ANP: The

weighted supermatrix (the adjusted unweighted

supermatrix) from Step4 and Step5 can be raised to

limiting powers to calculate the overall priorities.

However, before forming the unweighted

supermatrix, the treatment of inner dependences

needs to employ the DEMATEL. The treatment of

inner dependences can theoretically use the ANP,

but DEMATEL might be a better option as it can

produce more valuable information for making

decisions. Tamura et al. proposed a composite

importance of DEMATEL to compensate for the

above-mentioned problems (Tamura et. al., 2002).

We defined the weight of performance criteria is

[

]

wwwWeight ,...,

The nth element of the column vector obtained

by multiplying the direct/indirect matrix T, denotes

the importance of factors resolved by resolving

factor n. Then, taking into account the importance of

factor n itself the composite importance of each

element could be evaluated as formula (5).

WeightWeightz ×

(5)

Step 7. Produce a causal diagram: After ANP is

applied to obtain the weights of each potential

alternative, the cause-and-effect relationships of the

perspectives and criteria involved should be

analyzed and evaluated to identify their direct,

indirect and total influences among the groups.

Following the procedure of the DEMATEL method,

we determine the intensity of the influence between

each perspective and criterion through the use of

scale and pairwise comparisons.

Once the relationships between those factors

have been measured by the decision makers, the

initial direct-relation and the normalized direct-

relation matrix can be produced. Using the values of

REALIZING THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY IN TAIWAN - A Multi-criteria Evaluation and

Alignment

(D-R) and (D+R) where R is the sum of columns and

D is the sum of rows in matrix Z’, the level of

influence on the others and the level of relationship

with the others are defined, as shown in formulas

(6)-(8) (Wu and Lee, 2007).

[

]

njit

1,2,...,, , ==

(6)

[]

ttD

⎥

⎦

⎤

⎢

⎣

⎡

∑

(7)

[]

ttR

⎥

⎦

⎤

⎢

⎣

⎡

∑

(8)

Criteria having positive values of (D-R) have

higher influence on one another and are assumed to

have higher priority; these called dispatchers; Those

having negative values of (D-R) and receive more

influence from another are assumed to have a lower

priority and are called receivers (Seyed-Hosseini,

2006). Meanwhile, it should be emphasized that

factors with high (D+R) values that play a central

role, and factors with high (D-R) values that mainly

dispatch influence to other factors. Thus factors with

low (D-R) values mainly receive influence from the

other factors.

4 CASE STUDY

4.1 Case Background

To apply the proposed model of Academic

Performance Measurement (APM), this study

conducted a case study of National Cheng Kung

University (NCKU)’s implementation of the top-tier

university program to describe the working of the

proposed research model and show how it helps a

top-tier university realize its strategic plans and fulfil

its objectives. The BSC of APM model integrated

decisive indicators or critical success factors, and

these reinforced each other through cause-and-effect

linkage between measurement, vision, and goals.

Our study invited the decision-makers of

NCKU to set, through open discussion, the mission

of the school's top-tier university program as

“‘Comprehensive enhancement with featured

development,’ with the aim to become one of the

world’s top 100 universities.

”Based on this vision

and the criteria set by the Ministry of Education for

the top-tier university assessment, five strategic

objectives were outlined, while decisive indicators

were designed for top-tier universities and

transformed into specific practices, including:

: Advancement on three major fronts: research,

teaching, and industry-academia collaboration.

(Finance, Customer, Internal process, Learning &

growth)

: Training future social leaders and global citizens.

(Finance, Customer, Internal process, Learning &

growth)

: Reforming undergraduate education with

emphasis on humanity, creativity, international

vision, social concerns and students with leadership.

(Customer, Internal process, Learning & growth)

: Recruitment of senior talents. (Finance, Internal

process, Learning & growth)

: Developing world-class research centers.

(Finance, Customer, Internal process, Learning &

growth)

Later, the action plans were deployed in

performance-driving indicators of the BSC’s four

perspectives (Table 1), and complex problems were

systematically presented in the form of a hierarchy,

where the upper level contains strategic objectives,

the second level contains the indicator dimensions of

financial, customers, internal processes, and learning

and growth, and the third level contains the sub-

dimension indicator items.

4.2 Evaluating the Strategy Plan

The decision-makers were asked to provide their

views on a series of paired comparisons, after which

the assessment of the decision-makers in ANP was

integrated using geometric mean, while the

assessment in DEMATEL was integrated using

arithmetic mean. The direct relationship matrix then

integrated the impact direction and impact extent of

the organization's DEMATEL, and cause-and-effect

mapping and rank calculations on direct and indirect

relationship matrix were conducted. A two-

dimensional graphic with (D+R) as the horizontal

axis and (D-R) as the vertical axis was then

produced by cause-and-effect mapping using the

rank results calculated. The purpose of using a

graphical expression is to simplify a complex cause-

and-effect relationship into a simple visual structure

so that one can clearly see the intensity of impact

between these indicators. Decision-makers can

determine whether the indicator characteristics

should be classified as “cause” or “result” based on

the location of target features, as well as how much

the KPIs affect and are affected by them.

By the very nature of education, the financial

measurements are not forward-looking and are

exclusionary to nonfinancial measures. This study

proposed a strategy map with a network structure,

ICE-B 2011 - International Conference on e-Business

and the cause-and-effect mapping generated through

DEMATEL was used to form the ANP structural

diagram, which produced clusters based on the

BSC’s four perspectives. After a paired comparison

between the indicators' internal relationships and the

ANP cause-and-effect linkage of the mutually

affecting clusters and elements, the weights

calculated in ANY will become the weights of the

follow-up KPIs.

Table 1: The indicators of the BSC’s four perspectives.

Indicator items

: Finance

: The amount of industry-academia collaboration or

technology transfer. (F

, F

)

: The amount of corporate sponsorship. (F

, F

)

: The number of patents or technology licensing. (F

, F

)

: The number of signed international cooperation projects

with project funding. (F

, F

)

: Customer

: The number of collaborated with national research

institutes. (F

, F

)

: The number Of foreign student recruitment. (F

)

: The number of subsidized students for international

exchange and visiting. (F

, F

)

: The number of students for the dual degree of

transnational study. (F

, F

)

: The number of students for cross-institutional course

enrollments. (F

, F

)

: The number of established cross-institutional course

programs. (F

, F

)

: Early Admission plan for senior high school students. (F

)

:Internal process

: The number of major international conferences organized.

, F

)

: The number of recruiting inter/nationally-acclaimed

scholars. (F

, F

)

: The teacher-student ratio. (F

, F

)

: The number of holding the international communication.

, F

)

:Learning and growth

: The growth rate of the international journals. (F

, F

)

: The growth rate of the international journal citations. (F

, F

)

: The number of editors for the international

journals/magazines. (F

, F

)

: The number of inter/national rewards for the important

prizes. (F

, F

)

: The number of rewarded excellent teachers. (F

, F

)

: The number of professional literatures and journals. (F

, F

)

: The number of promoting all sorts of courses to be

conducted in English. (F

, F

)

: Approving the upper-intermediate GEPT. (F

, F

)

4.3 Data Analysis

In analyzing the top-tier university program using a

strategy map, the cause-and-effect diagram (Figure

1) formed by integrating ANP and DEMATEL with

the organization's strategy map was divided into four

quadrants according to center (D+R) and reason (D-

R) and plotted on the axis. The one with high center

and reason values was the financial dimension,

indicating the core projects that affect other

conditions, while the one with high center value and

low reason value was the customer dimension,

indicating the core projects affected by other

conditions. In analyzing the reason behind the

failure to meet the target in the "internal processes"

dimension, the perspective of the internal processes

dimension was influenced by the financial

perspective and influenced the customer and

learning and growth perspectives, in which "the

number of major international conferences

organized" was the core project in internal processes

perspective, and "the number of signed international

cooperation projects with project funding" was the

core project in the financial perspective. Based on

these findings, a review and alignment was done and

improvement measures were put forward.

Figure 1: The strategy map of BSC perspectives.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Performance management is a key issue in the

academic domain. The strategy of the top-tier

university is a mean of focusing performance

management and aligning towards the strategy plan

of an objective. This study tabled a framework based

on the BSC for strategy planning of a top-tier

university in Taiwan by using a multi-criteria

evaluation and alignment. It was then applied in the

performance management of educational

institutions, taking into consideration the following:

REALIZING THE STRATEGIC PLAN OF A TOP-TIER UNIVERSITY IN TAIWAN - A Multi-criteria Evaluation and

Alignment

 Determine the appropriate action plans through

strategic objectives, deploy them in the BSC’s

four perspectives, and apply to the development

of top-tier university indicators;

 With the use of the MCDA techniques - ANP

and DEMATEL, evaluate a series of BSC

indicators to construct the cause-and-effect

linkage of strategy map, obtain the relevant

strengths and weights between BSC indicators

and form objective functions;

 Review the strategic gap between

implementation and organizational objectives

through target value of KPIs, in order to carry

out strategy alignment and possibly improve the

quality of education and international

competitiveness.

Strategic objectives are implemented to adapt to

environmental changes, one must continually review

the cause-and-effect linkage between strategy and

performance during the policy enforcement process.

As for the strategic gap, it represents the difference

between what the organization should do and what it

can do. Sometimes this means that the capacity is

greater than the demand, and sometimes it can mean

the opposite, indicating danger in organizational

operation. The greater the gap, the greater the danger

(Zack, 1999). Similar to business strategy, an

academic institution must align its strategy by

examining the achievement rate of its KPIs or target

values over time, changes in the environment, and

the status of implementation of each unit, in order to

achieve its strategic objectives.

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