An intellectual capital framework for community college and business partnerships

Community college and business partnerships are neither a new nor rare phenomenon. Customized training operations exist in well over 90 percent of the community colleges in the United States. Nevertheless, very little is understood about how these partnerships function and generate both vitality and wealth for community colleges. The following dissertation explores the literature and studies four different community colleges in an effort to create an intellectual capital framework and theory of business partnerships for community colleges. Intellectual capital describes efforts by organizations to align the human, structural and customer capital within their institutions to generate wealth and vitality for the college. In the case of community colleges, it is the effective alignment of the capacity of faculty, both adjunct and regular, and the needs of potential business partners through the development and implementation of various informal initiatives that leads to more form partnerships that in turn results in new resources and capacity for the college. The study develops an intellectual capital theory of community college and business partnerships through the analysis of four community colleges that are involved in partnerships with business. The study's methodology uses a systems dynamics approach of model construction where each study subject helps clarify and shape the development of the final model. From this analysis the study generates a series of broad themes that lay the foundation for the final theory. The study concludes by running a series of simulations using a computer simulation software program called ithink©. The end result is a dynamic theory of community college and business partnerships that demonstrates the interrelationships of several key variables that are seen as critical to partnerships. The intellectual capital theory and use of system dynamics provides an interesting innovation for how community colleges can begin to evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of their efforts to partner with the business community.