Business Process Management: Value Chain and SDG Analysis
This paper applies business process management concepts across three interconnected parts. Part 1 constructs a value chain analysis for a university's online teaching operations, identifying inbound logistics and technology management as the most strategically relevant activities and highlighting key internal linkages. Part 2 examines the ethical dimension of diversity and inclusion in online education, focusing on culturally and linguistically diverse students and the management responsibilities that follow. Part 3 compares Turkey and Mexico using the Global Competitiveness Report across three non-economic factors—ICT adoption, skills, and macroeconomic stability—ultimately selecting Turkey as the site for a new 4,500-worker integrated circuit factory, then aligning that decision with two UN Sustainable Development Goals targeting inequality reduction and decent work.
- Value Chain Analysis for University Online Teaching: Maps primary and support activities for online university education
- Strategic Activities and Internal Linkages: Identifies inbound logistics and technology as key strategic linkages
- Ethics of Diversity and Inclusion in Online Education: Examines ethical responsibilities around culturally diverse online learners
- Country Comparison: Turkey vs. Mexico: Compares ICT adoption, skills, and macroeconomic stability rankings
- SDG Goals and Workforce Discrimination in Turkey: Analyzes gender and age discrimination barriers in Turkish labor market
- Steps to Meet SDG Goals in the New Factory: Outlines concrete hiring and pay practices to address SDG targets
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What makes this paper effective
- Systematically applies Porter's value chain framework to a non-traditional context—university online teaching—demonstrating conceptual flexibility and real-world applicability.
- Connects ethical theory to concrete managerial actions, linking diversity inclusion to specific value chain activities rather than treating ethics as an abstract addendum.
- Uses the Global Competitiveness Report data comparatively, grounding country selection in quantifiable rankings before pivoting to qualitative SDG alignment.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates multi-framework integration: it moves from Porter's value chain in Part 1, to applied management ethics in Part 2, to a data-driven comparative country analysis anchored in SDG policy goals in Part 3. Each section builds on the same organizational context (the university, then a manufacturing expansion), showing how a single business entity can be analyzed through successive analytical lenses without losing coherence.
Structure breakdown
The paper is organized into three discrete parts, each addressing a distinct business management concept. Part 1 maps primary and support activities of the value chain and identifies two strategic linkages. Part 2 isolates one ethical concern from those activities and discusses management accountability. Part 3 applies a structured comparative analysis to select a factory location, then specifies SDG targets and practical hiring steps to address identified social deficiencies in the chosen country. The conclusion of Part 3 doubles as actionable policy recommendations, giving the paper a practical outcome orientation.
Value Chain Analysis for University Online Teaching
Firm Infrastructure: Support from administration, information technology, support systems for technology, trained faculty with knowledge of their courses for online education and familiarity with information technology devices, and assisting policies of the university for infusion of the entire system.
Human Resource Management: The human resource requirements for online teaching include expert teachers for the courses to be delivered to students online, personnel who can train teachers or—where necessary—students for taking online courses, and specialists who can train teachers and students in using devices and applications such as computers, laptops, or smartphones for attending classes online.
Technology Management: The technology necessary for conducting online classes includes the relevant applications, their download and login processes, and ensuring that students know how to access them. Teachers make use of apps such as Jamboard, e-Collage, and Moodle so that a shared writing board is available for the instructor, allowing students to see what is being explained in real time.
Service: Post-education services are used to attract more online students to the university.
Operations: Computer- and internet-based interactions between teaching staff and students constitute the core operational activity. Online courses and the scheduling of classes are included in this category.
Inbound Logistics: The hiring of teachers responsible for instructing students, which may also include university staff tasked with promoting policies related to online education (Anastasiu, 2019).
Outbound Logistics: The primary output of online teaching is the final graduates who enter the workforce in business marketplaces.
Marketing: Online teaching is itself a marketing strategy for the educational institution, through which teachers present their knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), students are motivated to pursue education, and the institute advances its stated goals.
Procurement: Inputs the university may need to purchase to facilitate online teaching include modern teaching practices, research and development for improved online delivery, information systems and the expertise to use them, and coordination between relevant departments.
Strategic Activities and Internal Linkages
Inbound logistics and technology management are the two strategically relevant activities in the entire value chain process. They are considered important because they ensure that the required resources for the best online teaching services are in place. These guaranteed practices automatically generate the marketing credibility that the university projects through its operations and service provision, even within a globalized community. The primary and secondary support strategies for these two activities are essential for preparing future students to meet the challenges of globalization, so that the free flow of information—particularly in education—does not limit student opportunities. Students acquire core competencies by disseminating information and using information technology to gain differentiation in the higher education field.
The two internal linkages that are most strategic in the online teaching value chain are: the delivery methods of online tutorials within the operations section, and the hiring of skilled teachers who know how to use numerous online tools to facilitate student understanding. These are considered strategic because only in the presence of qualified teachers can a free and uninterrupted flow of information be sustained. It is a vital competency of the teaching staff that their familiarity with information technology devices, tools, and applications is at an expert level, so that education becomes a valued product for its final consumers—the students. Furthermore, the delivery method of online tutorials must meet international standards so that students are better prepared to compete in changing environments and demonstrate professionalism and adaptability in any workplace. The uninterrupted delivery of course content is the most effective way for both teachers and students to meet their respective goals.
Ethics of Diversity and Inclusion in Online Education
One activity in the university's online value chain that raises an ethical concern is the recognition and respect of the individual identities of both teachers and students during internet-based instruction. Diversity and inclusion has remained a subject of debate across virtually every area of education and business, as globalization has made it simultaneously a challenge and an opportunity when managed appropriately.
In education, diversity can be beneficial when the hired teachers come from diverse cultural backgrounds, as they tend to be more familiar with how to interact effectively with culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students in an online setting. This extends to minute details when ethics are involved—for example, greeting students in ways that do not offend other ethnically diverse learners. An ethical online pedagogy should therefore be a prioritized concern for the teaching staff, one that facilitates interactions grounded in responsibility, imminence, and rationality to interpret genuinely ethical behaviors (Aldosemani, 2020). Students should be given the academic freedom to express their thoughts in their preferred language, which may be tied to their own cultural experiences, and this freedom should be extended equally to all, so that a culture of fostering diversity becomes a defining feature of the university—an outcome that would directly support its marketing activities within the value chain.
The management ethics associated with this activity center on eliminating ethical barriers so that the same educational quality is provided to all ethnically and linguistically diverse students on the university's online platform. To meet this objective, management must ensure that equal advantages are given to all students and that cross-cultural participation is enabled by designing courses that offer cultural inclusiveness (Kumi-Yeboah, 2018). Instructors must learn to maximize learning opportunities for all students without discrimination, so that hierarchies or the inheritance of power by particular student groups are not allowed to manifest in the online learning process. Management is therefore accountable for training teachers to free themselves of irrationality and to remain fully ethically responsible in their instructional approach. Universal access to education—without racial, linguistic, or religious discrimination—is the right of every student, and upholding it magnifies participation rates, increases student engagement, improves academic performance, and creates a positive institutional image for collective achievement.
References
Aldosemani, T. I. (2020). Towards ethically responsive online education: Variables and strategies from educators' perspective. Journal of Education and Learning, 9(1), 79–86.
Anastasiu, L. (2019, December 12–14). The importance of applying the value chain analysis in the higher education system [Paper presentation]. International Conference on Applied Research in Business, Management and Economics, Barcelona, Spain.
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Palaz, S. (2002). Discrimination against women in Turkey: A review of the theoretical and empirical literature. Available at Dergipark. https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/article-file/556769
Schwab, K. (2019). The global competitiveness report 2019. World Economic Forum. https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2019.pdf
Sustainable Development Report. (n.d.). Turkey.
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