Determination and Evaluation of Future Opportunities and Challenges for Higher Education Institutions Management to Create Sustainable Competitive Advantages (Case Study: Shahrood University of Technology)

Gaining and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage in higher education institutions is a long-term process and involves several stages. The purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate the opportunities and challenges of achieving sustainable competitive advantage, which is one of the first steps in achieving sustainable competitive advantage and one of its important pillars. In this research, the opportunities and challenges facing Shahrood University of Technology have been studied as a case study.

In order to identify opportunistic or challenging factors, future research tools based on the opinions of experts active in the field of higher education have been used. Integrated analysis of influential variables in the future has been done with the method of structural analysis, which is one of the efficient and modern methods of futures research. Initially, opportunities and challenges were identified through interviews with experts. From the collected information, 23 opportunities and 30 challenges were selected based on the relevance of the research topic and then provided to the experts for ranking. After ranking the variables, the interrelationships of 14 variables were investigated using structural analysis. The results of the feedback received on the interaction analysis were analyzed by MicMac software.

The research findings indicate that categories such as the quality of evaluation of professors 'performance, lack of attention to teachers' educational efficiency and excessive focus on publishing articles are among the most important challenges in the field of human resource management in Shahrood University of Technology. Also, categories such as good geographical position in relation to the two major population centers of the country (Tehran and Mashhad) and the university industrial brand and having relative power in mining and earth sciences and some engineering disciplines, have been identified as the most effective opportunities of Shahrood University of Technology.