Analyzing National Electronic Theses and Dissertations programs from business model perspective

Abstract

Purpose Implementing and maintaining Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) program at a national level encounters numerous difficulties in particular from technical, legal, business, and financial perspective. Business model (BM) is a tool to help to address business-driven challenges, such as business feasibility and viability, as one of the important aspects. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the BM practiced by different national Electronic Theses and Dissertations (NETDs) cases. Design/methodology/approach BM of seven NETDs programs have been studied through an online questionnaire; besides, programs’ websites were observed and related documents were examined. Business model canvas (BMC) was used to describe the business rationale behind the selected cases. Findings Most of the NETDs programs lack a documented BM. The main value of these programs is sharing ETDs which is offered to academics through online channels; skillful staff and proper hardware/software are their main resources to do so. Furthermore, their key activities are developing hardware/software and negotiating with ETDs owners as their key partners. All these activities required huge cost which is generally covered by public funding. Originality/value This study pioneers in applying BM concept into field of NETDs. Therefore, the major contribution of this study is to provide an analysis of NETDs programs’ BM through BMC. Furthermore, the paper provides recommendations on how ETDs could be implemented in a cost effective, sustainable, and viable way.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Programs: A Review of the Critical Success Factors

“…95 Some countries, such as Iran and India, have tools integrated for plagiarism checks in their national ETD programs. 96 This service is available in the Iranian program for the content providers and other institutions. Therefore, this service can be considered an incentive to attract more participants to the ETD program.…”

“…54 Many ETD programs are open access, and their budget depends on public funding provided by governmental bodies and semigovernmental institutions. 55 An effective management of financial aspects can be achieved by means of a well thought-out business model with a clear structure to both create and capture value 56 and to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit to foster initiative and risktaking that are needed for setting up an ETD program. 57…”

Are electronic theses and dissertations (still) grey literature in the digital age? A FAIR debate

“…Therefore, publishing ETDs may be controlled by an independent publisher, not necessarily by the academic institution itself. For example, some corporate companies (such as ProQuest) currently control ETD publishing for some institutions around the world through the PQDT database, and there are some other commercial vendors working at the national level; for example, in Italy and Spain, some companies collect and sell dissertations (Rasuli et al, 2015).…”

Is grey literature really grey or a hidden glory to showcase the sleeping beauty

“…ProQuest, one of the leading aggregators scores high in terms of providing access to the scholarly theses through its ProQuest dissertations and theses database. Even in Italy and Spain, some commercial vendors and companies at national level collect and sell dissertations (Rasuli et al , 2015 ). In Australia alone, 30,000 organisations produce grey literature and spend $234m per annum on projects that result in the production of the same (Lawrence et al , 2015, p. 237).…”