Factors Determining the Sustainability of Inter-organizational Collaboration Between International Higher Education Institutions in Digital Transformation Era

The objective of inter-organization collaboration between two international higher education institutions is to integrate the capabilities, skills, and resources of each institution and focus on how they can work together in a symbiotic relationship. This study tries to answer how collaborative programs are formed and implemented by the two institutions and what factors determine the sustainability of their collaboration. Through a qualitative progressive research method, the study explains how field-involved observations, in-depth interviews, and study of supporting documents were carried out to identify factors determining the sustainability of the collaboration. Analysis and interpretation of primary and secondary data showed that the two institutions collaborated through various programs, such as the student exchange program, the international cultural and tourism program, and the international community service program. Those collaborative programs have given many benefits and rewards in terms of increasing the students’ self-qualities as well as their international experiences and insights. Maintaining and improving the scope of collaboration will provide more opportunities for the two institutions to create other interesting programs, thus achieving more benefits. There are several factors contributed to the establishment and sustainability of their inter-organizational collaboration, such as the Government Policy for Higher Education in each country, the demands in the ASEAN Economic Community era, the similarities in vision and missions, and the support given by each university leader. Additionally, the collaboration is maintained by other supporting factors, namely: harmonization of social relationships, personnel’s organization skills, personnel’s individual competence, familiarity among personnel, inter-cultural respects, solidity of relationship, and system sustainability. This study also proposed a mini-theory on factors determining the sustainability of collaboration between the two international higher education institutions. The determining factors in this study were identified only through one collaborative program. Future studies may not only examine the relationships between these factors, but also raise other collaborative programs and identify the factors that determine their sustainability. Each collaborative program has its own objectives and outcomes, therefore factors determining its sustainability may also vary.